"Pacific Rim" - Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Pacific Rim starts with a bang — a two-minute sequence covering 15 years of the war against the Kaiju. The prologue co-Directed by Mathew Cullen was entirely created by Guillermo del Toro's own company Mirada.
As compositing supervisor, Andrew led a team of 18 artists bringing together extensive amounts of live action footage, CG animation, graphic design and 2D animation to bring to life 80 unique sequences to tell the story of the prologue.
"The prologue montage covers a lot of ground in a short window so we had a lot of information and visuals to pack in. Our work also had to look believable and match the quality of ILM’s work. To achieve this, we didn’t take any shortcuts and built a ton of detailed assets from scratch, from Kaiju to Jaegars and more, with all the animation, lighting and compositing done in house." -Zach Tucker
See an "Exclusive Look Behind the Scenes" of Pacific Rim‘s Prologue Sequence
The film chronicles the attacks on civilization by hideous, gargantuan, otherworldly monsters, called Kaiju, and humankind's desperate response – in the form of gigantic robots, called Jaegers, that were created to battle the Kaiju. The Jaegers are dual-piloted machines – two pilots housed side-by-side inside the robots' cockpits, working symbiotically to maximize the efficacy of the Jaegers in battle...and the odds of humanity's survival.
From the very first stages, del Toro worked closely with artists from his studio to bring the picture to the big screen. For the initial presentation to Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers, Mirada created key conceptual art, 3D turntable renderings of a trio of prototype Jaegers, and a high-end two-and-a-half minute teaser animatic illustrating the monumental size and colossal scope of a Jaeger in action.
Read more from Animation World Network's, Jennifer Wolfe and the Art of VFX