Twenty years ago today, TWISTER was released. I’m going to share a bit about my involvement in the film. pic.twitter.com/6RBphItaLT
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Work on TWISTER started in 1995, just two years after JURASSIC PARK came out. Computer VFX was still in its infancy. I was 23.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I had just finished animating and rendering helicopters for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. The first one.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
VFX producer Kim Bromley and supervisor Stefen Fangmeier brought me in to help with a unique sequence of shots. Shots with no tornadoes.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Physics simulations were still bleeding edge back then. The tornadoes were created with Dynamation, which would later become part of Maya.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
ILM could just barely make those tornadoes. A lot still needed to be done by hand. Sims could not handle anything more than a particle.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
So in a shot like this, the bits of barn are particles, with no collisions. The silo roof was animated by hand. pic.twitter.com/Smig6XX8jv
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
TWISTER was a big-brain simulation show, a playground for new technology. But that wasn’t my passion. I loved animation and lighting.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
And someone was going to have to animate that house.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I was given six months to do four shots. SH01, 02, 03 and 04. The “Spinning House” sequence. pic.twitter.com/lo7wJbqdpU
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
The first shot alone took four months. I animated the house by hand, and every board and prop that flies off it. pic.twitter.com/tD29jQouOP
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Stefen agreed to approve the animation in stages. There were some aspects of the shot that would be very difficult to go back and tweak.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Animation was done in SoftImage. Rendering was in Renderman. Lighting was with ILM’s internal lighting/shading tool. Just like JURASSIC.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Director Jan de Bont, whom I idolized because he shot DIE HARD, would come up to ILM every two weeks or so. He signed my copy of the script!
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I mention that again for context: VFX was really hard back then, and a big deal for a production. And this movie was breaking new ground.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Which I found very intimidating as a film school grad with no computer science background. Just sitting there every day animating my house.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I started by roughing in the path. I deformed the house with a lattice on impact. Stefen and Jan approved that animation. That took weeks.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Then the real work began. I started adding levels of detail. Boards breaking. The door falling off its hinge. All animated by hand.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Every day I’d add a board or prop or two or three, rig it, animate it, check it, and run a new take. pic.twitter.com/Pd1gYPRY78
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
If a piece of the house need to turn on or off, I’d have to go into the rendering program to script its visibility. Lots of typing.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I wish I could give proper credit to the artists who modeled and textured the house. Can’t remember who it was! https://t.co/IV5oyGCDcT
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I’d make requests of the modelers for props. “Could you make me a clawfoot bathtub?” Couple of days later it was there for me to add in.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Jan loved these kinds of Easter eggs. Notice the “For Sale” sign that flies though at the head of the shot!
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
At some point I had to figure out the lighting. Realistic objects in daylight were a big challenge back then. Lighting tools were primitive.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
We lit shots with spotlights, period. No sky domes or global illumination. You could have soft shadows, but just barely. No contact shadows.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Without soft shadows and global illumination, CG wants to look bad. Real bad. https://t.co/1V1PDum9NL pic.twitter.com/QRWtc4nUAq
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
My solution was to build a dome of shadow-casting lights around the house. Dozens of lights. It looked great, but took forever to render.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I remember Stefen Fangmeier being very supportive of my crazy hacky techniques. I think he loved my ignorant, brute-force tricks.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
In dailies I remember Stefen’s main note was always “Looks good, keep going!” And I’d go back and add ten more boards.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I animated the curtains in the windows by keyframing the actual geometry. I had no idea what I was doing. Things broke a lot.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
SH02 followed pretty organically from SH01. But SH03, the impact, presented some challenges. pic.twitter.com/ov8uHz3Jf7
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
With the model filling the frame, my lighting rig became expensive. About 12 hours per frame. pic.twitter.com/i4KhcwKl34
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
The solution? Well, the shot was only 12 frames long, so every night they’d give me 12 processors to run it on.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I animated the glass breaking. By hand. And the flower box breaking apart. pic.twitter.com/oIjx4Bm4yK
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I think I held some kind of ignominious record for most time spent on the fewest frames with SH03.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
There’s a lot of “me me me” in this thread, but VFX was a big time team effort then, just like now. I had lots of help and support.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
As a young VFX artist working at his dream job, I was thrilled to be a part of TWISTER. It was also a really fun show. Beers every Friday.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
…and then, for a while, work every Saturday. And some Sundays. I paid off my student loans early with the overtime pay.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
We bonded over the work, and the film. Weird in-jokes, like how often Bill Paxton would grope Helen Hunt on camera. pic.twitter.com/zg7ahqyGDK
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
We all thought TWISTER was the beginning of a crazy trend of blockbuster movies where CG was the star, which felt kinda gross.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Now I look back and see that TWISTER has more heart and soul than just about any big movie released in the last decade.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Like DIE HARD, TWISTER is the story of a fractured marriage being saved because extraordinary events make two people realize what matters.❤️
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Its also one of the last films where VFX have a certain special feel to them, as @Awakeland3D pointed out to me. A larger-than-life quality.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I think this has to be in part because the VFX plates were shot VistaVision, just like in JURASSIC, FORREST GUMP, BACK TO THE FUTURE, etc.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
VistaVision is a huge neg, double the size of 35mm film. The trend of shooting action scenes on IMAX? TWISTER was way ahead of that.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
But people weren’t doing it to be cool. They were working with limitations. VFX was given a wide berth on set. Its own giant cameras.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Everything’s better now, everything’s easier. But as a result, we’re all sloppier. I’m so honored to have been a part of that era of VFX.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I was telling @Awakeland3D that the particle rendering used for the tornadoes is about as advanced as @RedGiantNews Particular today.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
This turned into a bit of a dare. I made this using @RedGiantNews Particular in a couple of hours. pic.twitter.com/Rd8IpQGiGL
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Render time: About 4 seconds per frame. pic.twitter.com/GmBqAwkL1z
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
The clever method that @trapcode_lab uses to create self-shadowing in Particular is very similar to ILM's technique. pic.twitter.com/BabQR8U31B
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
A bunch of the ILM crew went to see TWISTER on opening night in SF, 20 years ago today. We all crammed in to the front rows of the theater.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
The spinning house shots came up and the theater was electric. My heart was pounding. The audience burst into applause.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
I learned so much about filmmaking, life, work, leadership, artistry, technology, and friendship on that show. It was an amazing experience.
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016
Thanks for sharing my recollections of TWISTER! I’ll put all this on @prolost later today. 😃
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) May 10, 2016