Interview with Woochul Kim

I still remember how excited I was when I first watched the movie ‘True Lies.’ While thinking about a subject for my portfolio, I decided to work with the Harrier fighter jet, which has a slightly old and rugged appearance rather than the sleek design of modern fighter jets. I was particularly interested in its unique vertical takeoff system, which differs from the conventional takeoff method.

To create a realistic and detailed look of the fighter jet before takeoff, I focused primarily on mapping, rendering, and lighting. The overall production process was carried out in the following order: modeling, mapping, rigging, filming, animation, lighting, rendering, and compositing. The project took approximately seven months to complete.

For the fighter jet design, I combined the existing Harrier design with features of the F-35, including the engine section tilting downward during takeoff and the upper part of the aircraft opening like a hatch. I paid particular attention to modeling the areas that would be visible in the final video. Detailed components such as the missiles, engines, wheels, and other mechanical parts were modeled with extra care to make the aircraft look as realistic and detailed as possible.

After creating the UVs using UVLayout, I worked on the textures in Photoshop. To reproduce the uneven oil stains, dirt, and other surface details of the aircraft as realistically as possible, I used several photographs of real fighter jets as references. I started with a base layer and gradually built up additional layers of dirt, stains, and other surface details on top.

For the background before takeoff, I needed a large, spacious location that would suit the scale of the fighter jet. After searching for a suitable location, I chose a cargo container terminal in Uiwang, Gyeonggi-do. When filming the background, I found that shooting handheld rather than using a tripod created a more realistic and dynamic feeling, so I filmed the footage using a hand grip and incorporated it into the final video.

For the flying sequence in the latter part of the video, I searched for and edited promotional footage from a container company in order to maintain a visual connection with the container terminal setting. I used motion paths to control the flight paths of the fighter jet and missiles, creating low-altitude flight movements that avoided the surrounding terrain and structures.

For the fighter pilot, I used a source image and added simple animation because having no movement at all felt unnatural.

For the smoke generated during takeoff and the particle effects from the missiles, I used the Cloud option in nParticle. The actual smoke produced by a Harrier during takeoff is much darker, but when I applied it to the video, it looked more like smoke coming from a malfunctioning aircraft. Therefore, I chose to create lighter-colored smoke that better suited the overall scene.

Since the background footage was filmed around sunset, I conducted numerous lighting tests to recreate the atmosphere and lighting conditions of the original footage. In addition to the key light and fill light, I wanted to reproduce the subtle influence of the sky and ground lighting reflected onto the fighter jet. To achieve this, I rendered separate passes and applied them during compositing.

During compositing, I found that rendering the various passes as a master layer in Maya did not produce the desired result. I therefore used roto nodes to correct areas that stood out or looked unnatural. I also added heat haze and lens flare effects to make the footage feel more realistic.

Finally, I worked on the sound in Vegas. I used ‘Ready Steady Go,’ a track known for its strong sense of speed and previously featured in the movie ‘The Bourne Identity’ and a series of SAAB automobile commercials, as the background music. I also added the sound of an actual fighter jet taking off, along with radio communications between the pilot and the control tower, to enhance the realism and sense of immersion.