Digital people, CG water, miniatures, morphing: ‘Titanic’ had it all

VFX supervisor Rob Legato looks back on 25 years since the film was released. And yes we talk about Propeller Guy!

This week on the befores & afters podcast, we’re going back to Titanic. The James Cameron and VFX Oscar-winning film is getting a 25th anniversary re-release, remastered in 4K 3D.

To commemorate the quarter century anniversary, I had a really fun conversation with the film’s production VFX supervisor Rob Legato.

We talk about a whole range of things, including building and shooting the miniatures, crafting digital water, motion capture passengers, the morphing transitions in the film, and Propeller Guy!

This work was led by Digital Domain, with several other vendors also coming in to help make the film. We also dive into some of the tougher shots in the film and harder moments during post. And Rob discusses one of his recent explorations into re-creating Titanic previs with real time game engine Unreal.

Listen to the podcast below, and also check out a collection of official behind the scenes VFX featurettes.

This episode is sponsored by SideFX, the makers of Houdini. Houdini Foundations for Houdini 19.5 is now available as a print-on-demand book through the Lulu Ebook company. This 224 page book contains 9 chapters designed to help artists take their first steps into Houdini. You can order the book here.

Official VFX featurettes

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