Blue rash (66 shots)

In the movie, the first symptom of a character's contamination is the blue rash that starts spreading on their skin. Actors wore practical makeup in most cases, except for the shots in which we had to show the rash expanding or receding: numeric makeup was then the only option. In order to create this effect, BUF developed an algorithm inspired by the way plants grow. That way, the veins would appear through a texture whose progression follows a realistic pattern. The next step was to virtually reproduce each actor's face and hands, using either 3D scans or pictures. The resulting 3D model was then rotoscoped in each shot to apply our numeric makeup over it. At that point, the main challenge was to determine the rash intensity -which had to be both legible and believable at all times. For the recovery shots, our process was the exact opposite: the actors were filmed wearing makeup, which we therefore had to erase.

Statesman's underground base (34 shots)

The main virtual set BUF was entrusted with was the Statesman's base, a colossal underground hangar that we see from a corridor perched 60 meters above the ground.
A practical version of the hallway had been built, which was a 20 meters long module surrounded by green screens. Based on this live action set, BUF extended the corridor in 3D. From this hallway, we can thus observe the vast hangar in which all the Statesman' weapons and vehicles are stored. Seeing as it is supposed to measure about 800 square meters, we had to fill it with lots of elements: buildings, helicopters, cars, large mineral columns, gigantic doors, elevators, etc. Choosing to build a CG asset rather than a matte painting proved to be a lot of work, as it required modeling and texturing, but it enabled us to completely control the lighting and to readjust the hallway's height as we saw fit. More importantly, it guaranteed our set's coherency all throughout the scene, be it in terms of measures, scale or light.

Synapse effect (12 shots)

This is by far our most creative piece of work. In this sequence, Harry overcomes his amnesia and finds his way back to his past self. Matthew Vaughn wanted the butterflies drawings that cover Colin Firth's cell to be the trigger of an hallucination, which suddenly brings back his lost memories. Our first step was to put together a sort of visual effects bank, with various proposals for a “butterflies- induced” transition. Next, we tried to incorporate them into the edited scene, always offering a few alternatives for each shot. Once the effect design had been determined, we began modeling and texturing about fifteen butterflies
-half of which were photo-realistic, while the others were three-dimensional drawings. We then proceeded to animate and integrate them in the shots.

Poppy's TV broadcast (17 shots)

Here, Poppy explains how the blue rash works using four guinea-pigs at different stages of contamination, each locked inside an individual transparent cell. At first they are hidden behind opaque glass, which progressively turns transparent as the demonstration moves forward. The boxes were actually shot with transparent glass, that BUF was in charge of making opaque all while adding the TV broadcast graphics. Over time, this sequence changed quite a bit to follow editorial variations, and the disease evolution was revised. For example, one of the patients was originally simply shaking before it was decided that she should be dancing around in a trance instead. Another sick person was supposed to die on live television, slowly freezing after a few convulsions. Matthew Vaughn however decided that his death had to be more spectacular, in order to dramatize what was at stake and make the need for an antidote even more urgent. We were thus asked to make his eyes burst, before a massive brain hemorrhage finishes him off -a last minute request that reminded us of our work on Kingsman 1, with the explosive death of Sweden's prime minister.