For
Wizards of Waverly Place: The Quest for the Stone of Dreams, I was lead lighter for the chasm crossing sequence. Ethan Summers sculpted a magnificent canyon in Zbrush, with hanging vines and vegetation, which I added to, textured and dressed up with more paintFX vegetation and cards for trees. The young heroes in the film create a bridge to cross by raising stones from the river bed at the bottom of the chasm. My Maya setups had up to 26 million polys, but I used many tricks to keep render times around 20 minutes a frame, with Final Gather at 1080p. I feel the 3D looked better than the 2D photographic elements that were comped into the shot. The entire sequence is a CGset, with only the actors shot on green screen. This was done at
Engine Room.