Bad Boys for Life VFX Interview with Keith Sellers, VFX Supervisor – Soho VFX

Bad Boys for Life VFX Interview with Keith Sellers, VFX Supervisor – Soho VFX

February 1, 2020 – Excellent interview with Soho VFX, VFX Studio for feature films and television, based in Toronto, Canada. , VFX Supervisor, Soho VFX talks to VFX Online about working on Bad Boys for Life.

Bad Boys for Life is an upcoming American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith and Doug Belgrad and starring Smith and Martin Lawrence. The sequel to Bad Boys (1995) and Bad Boys II (2003) and the third installment in the Bad Boys trilogy, the film follows detectives Lowrey and Burnett reuniting once again when a Romanian mob boss exacts revenge on the duo just as they are about to officially retire.

is a visual effects supervisor at Soho VFX. He has worked there for 16 years on such projects as Dark Phoenix, Logan, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ben-Hur, Poltergiest, John Wick 3, The Boys, and many others.

// From Keith Sellers, VFX Supervisor, Soho VFX

Let us know about the core team of Soho VFX who worked on Bad Boys for Life?

The core team here at Soho VFX has been together for quite a while. I’ve been at Soho VFX for 16 years now, and most of our supervisors and leads have been a part of the team for many years as well. We’ve worked together on other projects like Dark Phoenix, John Wick 3, Logan, It 2, and many others. Our team leads are Animation Supervisor Nadav Ehrlich, Compositing Supervisor Dan Power, and Dynamics Supervisor James Albiez.

How was this collaboration with the directors Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah? What were their expectations and approach for the visual effects?

Adil and Bilall were great to work with. The main expectation was to make things look real of course, but also it had to look cool and fit into the Miami theme. The colour and flash of Miami should show through in the shots. We also had to make sure that the look and feel fit in with the previous Bad Boys movies. Flashy and full of action.

How did you balance director’s vision when creating VFX for this show?

We spent a lot of time on look and integration of our cg elements to make sure that everything felt natural and fit in well. Which meant we had to make things look cool and stylish, but not go so far that it didn’t look real anymore. Because if it didn’t feel real it just didn’t work.

Can you tell us more about your collaboration with their Overall VFX supervisor? How did you organize the work with Overall VFX supervisor?

The overall VFX supervisor was Allan Magled. He worked closely here in the studio with us at Soho VFX, and spent the rest of the time in LA working directly with production and the directors. Allan is also the owner of Soho VFX as well as a supervisor, so we have worked together for many years.

Can you tell us more about the previz and postviz work?

On the more complex all cg shots like the helicopter crash sequence we started by blocking in cameras and the grey-shaded helicopter to get overall timing and camera look in the right ballpark. Then based on how everything cut together in the edit we adjusted timing and cameras until things worked.

Can you tell us more about his helicopter fight sequences and Explosions?

The exterior hotel / helicopter crash was the most complex sequence we had on the movie. It involved a full cg hotel exterior and interior, background city, and the helicopter itself. The helicopter gets shot and crashes through the glass dome of the hotel roof then falls 5 stories to land on the ground and explode. We modelled and textured a high detail version of the hotel and did the breaking glass dome, interior damage, rotors hitting pillars, all of that damage in Houdini as dynamic simulations. The explosion was also a Houdini fluid simulation, done fully in cg.

Can you tell us detail about climax fight sequences?

After the helicopter crash the fire starts to spread and the rest of the hotel catches fire. Which meant adding a lot of cg fire and smoke everywhere throughout the hotel. This is in addition to extending the real set with cg, adding rain, gunfire, falling debris from the previous damage, and the burning helicopter wreckage at the bottom. We ramped up the amount of fire throughout the sequence so by the end it is an inferno that they have to escape. Shots looking down at the inferno near the end are full cg, both fire and the hotel itself.

How did you maintain the quality of the work that you produced for Bad Boys for Life?

In our pipeline we have multiple people check shots throughout the process so that things aren’t missed and the quality stays consistent. Our 3d and 2d supervisors check things, myself, as well as Allan the overall supervisor.

What was the most challenging shot or sequence that you did and why?

The helicopter crash was quite challenging because of the sheer complexity of what was happening and all the layers of simulation needed. We would start with animating the helicopter normally, then do the first layer of simulations like the breaking glass and damage from the helicopter body to the hotel. After that we run the simulation for the rotor damaging things, then the rain has to be added as well as the mist from the rotor, rain running off the helicopter. Then we have to run smoke and dust simulations after that.

What type of softwares did you use for Bad Boys for Life?

We use Maya for most of our 3d work like modelling and rigging/animation. Texturing is done in Mari. Houdini is used for all of our dynamics. Rendering is done with a renderer called 3delight. And our compositing is done in Nuke.

What are the sequences made by Soho VFX?

We did most of the work in the movie, but the two biggest sequences for us were the motorcycle chase / fight on the bridge, and the big climax fight in the hidalgo hotel at the end.

How long did you work on the show, what was the overall shot count, and what was the size of the team?

Our shot count was about 300, the team is 100 people, and we worked on it for 10 months.

What’s your favourite memory of working on this show?

I’m really happy with the end result of all of our work. But my favourite shots were probably the ones looking down on the big inferno near the end. There was a lot going on and it really had that sense of heat and danger.

Many thanks to the Soho VFX Team for sharing with us their experiences.

For more info, visit at Soho VFX Website.