VFX worked with John Woo on the visual effects for the upcoming ‘Red Cliff’ feature, the most expensive Chinese-language picture ever made. In particular, they pioneered some interesting technology to create a massive naval fleet.

“With shots that called for a fleet of 2,500 of the same 26-meter boats, giving each of the boats a unique ‘hand-crafted’ feel was both a creative and technical challenge,” explained Jason Crosby, VFX Supervisor, Frantic Films VFX. “We really wanted to avoid the repetitive look that comes from using the same CG model. To do this, we broke the boats down into components that were randomly assembled using a rule-based particle system called Thinking Particles, which also propagated and animated the fleet.”