Motion Control helps The Golden Compass to the Best Visual Effects Academy Award this year

Motion Control helps The Golden Compass to the Best Visual Effects Academy Award this year

It was good news for The Golden Compass at the Academy Awards when they beat off stiff competition from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Transformers to take Hollywood’s highest accolade in best visual effects.
Framestore CFC, who were honoured in Hollywood last week, provided key digital VFX from Motion Control Cameras. One of the main effects was Iorek, the huge Polar Bear and his evil arch-enemy Ragnar, and their icy environment.
Ian Menzies, of Motion Control Cameras, operated Mark Roberts Motion Controls flair software to control both the mechanical bear and the Cyclops moco system. The life-size bear mechanics allowed the cast to ride and go through the motion of riding a walking or running bear so that it would closely match the CG bear, that was added in post production.
Ben Morris, one of the VFX Supervisors and recipient of the award said, “When Chris Weitz and Mike Fink (Director and VFX Supervisor) said that they had regarded Iorek as a true co-star and expected an accordingly strong performance we knew we’d got our work cut out for us. That we achieved this – and to Oscar level – is the greatest thrill imaginable. We’re all completely knocked out.”