Q&A with Adam Bradley, Rotoscope Head of Department, Wētā FX

Adam Bradley is the Rotoscope Head of Department at Wētā FX. He and his team worked on all three of Wētā FX’s Oscar-nominated films for Best Visual Effects this year — Alien: Romulus, Better Man, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Find out why the roto artists at Wētā FX rely on Silhouette's advanced rotoscoping, which tools they used on each film, and how the department is incorporating Silhouette's new AI masking into their pipeline. 

What does your role as Head of Rotoscope Department entail?

I oversee the Rotoscope Department, working closely with our crew, the Compositing Department, and Production to ensure requirements are met for all shows. I help drive the technical requirements of the department, which can be anything from developing new tools to establishing new workflows and systems. I'm also involved with recruiting new talent, and occasionally I get to work on shots too!

How does it feel to have three films you worked on recognized in the same year?

Alien: Romulus was pretty special as the original film Alien was one of the first scary movies I ever watched, so it brought back a lot of memories. I remember studying it to figure out how they did everything, knowing some was real and some was not was also terrifying because I couldn't tell! To have Alien: Romulus nominated felt amazing; I thought the film did a great job of honouring the original, and it was fun to work on too.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was also special as I've worked on the previous three Ape films. It's rewarding to see how far we've come since the first film; there’s amazing interaction between CG characters, CG water, difficult proxy removals, and galloping horse roto to keep the team on their toes.

Better Man was a challenging project. The majority of the film was shot on-set without bluescreen, meaning we had plenty of roto work coming our way. The viral ‘Rock DJ’ sequence on its own was the result of weeks of work completed by a large team of artists.

What was the overall project timeline/scale of each film? Did they overlap?

They can overlap at times, which can be challenging with our small roto crew. We had 30 or so roto artists working on Better Man and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, with a smaller crew on Alien: Romulus. Our team works simultaneously, preparing plates for animation at the beginning of a show, while completing final roto for the end stages of the comp, meaning we are always busy!

You rely on Boris FX Silhouette and Mocha Pro in your workflow. Why is it essential for your roto artists to have access to these tools?

Silhouette is the most powerful tool I've encountered for VFX Roto and Paint. It's the industry standard, but most importantly, the Silhouette developers have listened to the artists! The industry is moving so fast that it's crucial our software keeps up. I've been fortunate to have a great relationship with the developers from the early days; they have always heard my ideas, good and bad. The attention they've paid to the artists has paid off with a brilliant piece of software.

How long has Silhouette been part of your workflow?

I've been using Silhouette for more than 20 years. I first started at Wētā FX in 2004 and was shoulder tapped to test a new software for rotoscoping. Combined with the seamless and prompt interaction with the technical team, a strong relationship was born, and Silhouette was adopted as our #1 tool for roto tasks.

Can you give a few examples of how artists used Silhouette on these projects?

We dealt with complex character roto on Alien: Romulus, as we were enhancing existing practical effects. The roto work had to be seamless, requiring a delicate touch. The open spline is a great tool for dialling in hair detail; having seamless hair roto is a huge help to finesse the details in the final comp.

On Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, we had live-action characters interacting with CG characters during the Human Hunt sequence. These plates also required multiple proxy removals, so not only did we require full action character roto, it all needed to be split up to integrate the CG apes. The way Silhouette deals with motion blur was crucial here to help with both the paint work and the final comp.
 
A large amount of roto was required for the Better Man 'Rock DJ' sequence. Dozens of live-action characters needed roto to integrate a CG Robbie, CG traffic, additional CG characters, and effects across multiple plates had to be stitched together. Silhouette's node-based workflow made it easy to separate characters. In combination with an easy-to-use layering system, any adjustments were a breeze. 

What was the biggest roto challenge on each film?

Both Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Better Man called for a large amount of roto in a short time frame. This required efficient and constant collaboration with the compositing team. It's always difficult to balance ambitious technical challenges with tight turnaround, but also very rewarding when we pull it off. 

The challenge on Alien: Romulus was to have minimal impact on the plate. We were enhancing practical effects, so our work had to be very precise.

Silhouette now includes 7 AI-driven tools. How have these new tools helped speed up your overall workflows?

The new Mask ML node, combined with Matte Assist ML, has become core to some of our workflows. Mask ML makes light work of post-vis shots that need to be done quick. Combine these nodes with the new Optical Flow and Motion Blur, and we have a very powerful toolset at our fingertips.

What’s your top pro tip for artists new to Silhouette?

The top tip I always emphasise to our new recruits is that ‘tracking is your friend’. Silhouette has some great tracking tools, and when combined with Mocha Pro workflow, you can track and stabilise everything to optimise your workflow. Understanding tracking will help you understand interpolation; once you have these two figured out, Silhouette can help with the rest.

My next pro tip would be to check out Mask ML. It's becoming a huge assistant, not only for bash roto, but as an aid to keying and paint tasks.

Wētā FX is one of the world's most celebrated visual effects studios. What’s your best advice to artists hoping to one day work at Wētā FX?

Don't give up! I've hired tons of artists over the years, and many were not hired the first time around. If you love what you're doing, study, find like-minded people, and create your own personal projects. It could take you in any direction, and if it doesn't work out the first time round, you're doing what you love, so you win anyway.