VFX Online
VFX Interview: Montu Jariwala, Technical Director / Tracking TD, Method Studios (2013-2018)
March 13, 2019 – Montu Jariwala is a Technical Director / Tracking TD. He worked at various VFX companies such as Method Studios, Digital Domain, Rhythm and Hues, Giant Killer Robots and Escape Entertainment in his career of 14 years. Most recently, He worked at Method Studios from 2013-2018, where he was lead developer of python tools for Integration/Tracking/Layout Department and also as Tracking TD on award-winning feature films, such as Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Ant man. Black Panther won BAFTA Award for Best VFX and it grossed over 1.34 billion worldwide. Avengers: Infinity War was nominated Oscar Award for Best VFX and it received 38 wins and 49 nominations and it grossed over $2 billion worldwide. He was the Lead Tracking Artist at Digital Domain on award-winning feature films, such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Golden Compass (2007), both of which won the Oscar for Best VFX. He was also part of the crew for Iron Man 3 (2013) and Real Steel (2011) which received Oscar nominations for Best VFX.
Today, he talks to us today about his work experience of VFX Industry.
// From Montu Jariwala, Technical Director / Tracking TD, Method Studios (2013-2018)
Please describe what you do.
My name in Montu Jariwala. I am Technical Director / Tracking TD. Most recently, I worked at Method Studios from 2013 – 2018 as lead python developer for Integration/Tracking/Layout Department. I directly worked with Tracking Supervisor and CG Supervisor for show and department specific tools. My typical workflow was to do research, design, and develop a prototype of the tool and perform extensive testing to ensure all the features and functionality. Also making sure that it follows pipeline standards. Upon successful test, I merge the development to main repository and release rez package to the facility globally (LA, New York, Vancouver, Sydney) to be used on various productions. I also worked with global tracking council team for camera department pipeline unification across all facilities. I was responsible for the optimisation of the department workflow and ensure the department is technically well supported. I also provided documentation and training to the artists for new tools.
What sparked your interest in visual effects? How would you describe your technical direction?
When I was in college, I really enjoyed watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Matrix. I remember I watched it several times on VHS. I thinks that’s what sparked my interest in visual effects initially.
Having previous production experience in tracking and knowledge of python programming is a rare combination of skills. So I played a lead/key role for the department as technical director as I was the only person with both skills.
What are some of the projects you have worked on / clients or studios you’ve worked with?
Method Studios – Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ant man, San Andreas, Hercules, Divergent.
Digital Domain – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Golden Compass, Iron Man3, Real Steel, Maleficent, The Help, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Jack the Giant Slayer, Into the Storm, G.I.Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, Transformers, Ender’s Game, The Watch, Speed Racer
Rhythm and Hues – Charlotte’s Web, Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties, Night At the Museum.
Giant Killer Robots – Fantastic Four
Escape Entertainment – Catwoman and Constantine
What kind of projects would you like to work on in the near future?
I would like to work more on sci-fi and futuristic projects. I feel it involves lot more technical challenges and forces you to create something brand new.
What are some of the projects you have worked on Oscar winning projects? How was the experience with that?
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Golden Compass are 2 projects that won Oscar Awards for Best Visual Effect. My experience on these projects was very challenging and of course rewarding in the end.
Curious Case of Benjamin Button
At Digital Domain, our standard tracking workflow was to use single camera parallax to solve 3D just like any other FX house. It was not possible to calculate precise Z depth for spine position due to lack of parallax. In order for head track to follow the body accurately this was necessary. So we had to come up with idea of completely new tracking workflow which involved multiple cameras. We calibrated multiple witness cameras in our proprietary tracking software, aligned them to the survey, so that we could generate accurate 3d position for the spine as well as head. This process was fairly time consuming and complicated due to multiple witness cameras but results were very accurate. The whole experience of solving camera and head tracks was very unique in methodology and it was big learning experience. We used similar workflow for Tron: Legacy in Stereo 3D.
Digital Domain was awarded to add animated magical FX for CG Golden Compass on various shots. I remember, we were very small team of 3 Tracking TDs working for integration and tracking tasks. I was responsible for most of the camera tracks, object tracks, integration and HDR. Digital Domain has one of the best Tracking Software. I really enjoyed working on this project.
What made you choose visual effects, what was the primary inspiration, and how long did it take before you finally ‘made it’ to the big league?
I think it was combination of both. My passion for Architectural 3d modelling and movies like Terminator 2: The Judgement day, The Matrix. While working on my Architecture freelance projects in 1999, I started learning DOS based 3D Studio R4 on my Pentium 100 with 8GB RAM. I created lot of architectural 3D models at that time. With every project I was learning more and I was enjoying the process that I never stopped.
I did my Masters in Computer Graphics from Academy of Arts University, San Francisco in 2000-2003. During my OPT, I got my first job at Escape Entertainment in Alameda, where I worked on my first big visual effects project, Catwoman and Constantine in 2004. So I would say it took about 5 years.
Whose work (both past and present) do you really admire and why?
I really admire David Fincher’s work. His work is very innovative and meticulous. What I really like about his work is that the storyline is so strong and gripping that you do not notice VFX at any moment. That’s the beauty of his work. He is great storyteller.
What’s the most important tool you think is the best for vfx / animation?
There are countless softwares/tools these days for doing specific job but in general for VFX, I would say Maya for 3D, Houdini for FX and Nuke for 2D are the best tools.
Who are your favorite artists, traditional or digital, and can you explain why?
George Hull. I like his style which is very unique. I find it is a blend of artistic creativity and futuristic industrial designs. His works always inspires me to be creative. His most recent art for Blade Runner 2049 LAPD vehicle concept is very impressive. I also love all his concept art on Jupiter Ascending.
How was the experience to working in VFX Technical Director?
It was challenging but I enjoyed taking up those challenges as it opened up new possibilities and improved my way of approaching technical issues and I learn to look at problems from a bigger picture. Being an tracking artist It really helped me to understand the specific tool/feature request from another tracking artist better as I could relate to the terminology quickly.
What was your Best VFX projects worked for? What was the Technical Challenges in this project?
Sky Diving Sequence tracking was challenging as entire sequence was shot under free fall at high altitude. We had to track camera and object separately with no survey. Due to such high altitude we ended up tracking moving clouds to the grid as a ground plane. Another technical challenge was to track torso for the characters using generic mesh under free fall with absolutely no static features to track due to wind.
I also worked with environments team for layout on entire sky diving sequence. I developed nuke python tools to calculate camera free fall speed and setup a display for speed and altitude on every frame to give VFX Supervisor clear idea of the entire timeline.
In Environments, I generated CG crowds for stadium on all the fight sequence. We created brand new Nuke based tool for crowds system and I was entirely responsible for this task. I clearly remember that I had re-render each shot multiple time due to technical issues. It was challenging as it was being done for the first time. So whatever technical issues I encountered, I had to troubleshoot myself to find a solution. I believe it was over 150 shots.
What do you like to do away from the computer?
hiking, running, play ping pong, cooking and of course learning new things.
Can you tell us a little about your process on the Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther?
I was very happy to work on these projects. Since I was the only technical director with python skills in tracking department, I was responsible to provide technical support for tools to Integration/Tracking and Layout Departments. I was also responsible for show specific requests directly from CG supervisors.
I developed packaging and slate generation tools to automate packaging process for outsource vendors and the challenging part was to write a code which could package file as per our pipeline naming conventions without using any of the pipeline API.
Can you tell us a little about your process on Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?
I provided technical support for tools to Integration/Tracking and Layout Department on these shows as well. I help integration team with specific tool requests. I developed PYQT based UI for reading exif metadata. I also create a command line utility to rename, resize, re-orient reference photos using imageMagick. I also developed Multipass generator UI (PyQt4)
Which direction would you like to take your career in the near future?
Grow and expand my skills as Technical Director and as Tracking TD. Be part of technically challenging projects
What projects, personal or commercial, are you currently excited to be working on?
Exploring python opencv, dlib library specifically pose estimation using Perspective-n-Point
Any advice or tip for the young struggling artist?
Follow your passion. Even if it is hard, you will figure it out. More importantly you will enjoy the process. Key is to keep trying and give your best.
We would like to thank Montu Jariwala for the great interview, and if you like to know more about him, Feel free to reach her out Vimeo, , IMDB.
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