Ford v Ferrari VFX Breakdowns by Rising Sun Pictures

VFX Online February 29, 2020, 12:35 pm 1.3k Views

Ford v Ferrari VFX Breakdowns by Rising Sun Pictures

Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) helped to recreate one of the most thrilling events in the history of auto racing for Ford v Ferrari, the new film from 20th Century Fox and director James Mangold. The studio produced 223 visual effects shots for the film, the majority for an 8-minute sequence depicting the first “24 Hours of Daytona” race in 1966. Artists created a historically-accurate, digital replica of the famous speedway and filled it with cheering fans.

One of the most celebrated films of the year, Ford vFerrari is inspired by the true story of visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and fearless British-born driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) who together battled corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

Working under the direction of Mangold, production VFX supervisor Olivier Dumont and VFX producer Kathy Siegel, RSP was tasked with creating grandstand and crowd elements for an extended sequence set in Daytona International Speedway. Artists removed backgrounds from production footage (shot at Auto Club Speedway in California) and replaced them with digital replicas of Daytona’s grandstand and its environment as it appeared during the day-long event in 1966. They also populated the stands with tens of thousands of digital spectators and applied other enhancements to help replicate the look and intensity of the actual race.

“James Mangold was insistent on remaining true to historical facts in terms of the look of the racetrack and how events unfolded on that day,” notes RSP VFX Supervisor Malte Sarnes. “Our challenge was to build an accurate model on a huge scale and fill it with people who look believable and carry out specific actions in response to things happening in the race.”

The racetrack sequence was not only expansive and technically daunting, it also came with a tight deadline. “We have a history of successful collaborations with 20th Century Fox and are renowned for delivering creative integrated sequences on time,” notes RSP Executive Producer Gill Howe. “Ford v Ferrari was no exception. As a trusted creative partner, as always, we delivered work of the highest level in terms of creative complexity and consistency, within their designated tight timeframe.”

Artists studied archival film of the “24 Hours of Daytona” race as well as historical photographs and architectural drawings to produce a model of the massive speedway, which opened in 1959. Details including the press box, stairwells, signage and flags, down to the color of the seats, were created to mimic the genuine artifacts of the race venue on that day. “This movie will be seen by a lot of die-hard racing fans,” notes Compositing Supervisor Matt Greig. “If anything was inaccurate, they would certainly notice.”

The team also created 3D replicas of cars that took part in the race and used them to supplement race vehicles in the production footage. Again relying on historical photography, artists produced digital models that conformed to their real-world counterparts, down to the decals that adorned their exteriors, and composited them into scenes in line with their positions in the actual race.