Snow on an Epic Scale

The epic conclusion of season 3 has Bob Lee immersed in a massive yet believable CGI snowscape. The original plates had been scheduled for Mammoth Lakes CA, but unfortunately the snow had all but disappeared by the time of shooting, so we constructed multiple realistic snow environments using point cloud data from PF Track's 3D track and added additional features such as 3D scanned rocks and trees. Rendering was done via V Ray inside of 3DS MAX. Every frame of Bob Lee had to be rotoscoped, so that we could insert convincing shadows and footprints into the snow.

Transforming California into a World Environment!

Season 3 brought many changes that took the story to very different places as Bob Lee attempts to topple the secret organisation "Atlas. We needed to transform Los Angeles into very diverse locations, so we created complex CGI environments which additionally needed every character, prop and foreground element to be rotoscoped. The CIA's training camp in the Vietnam Jungle was composed of thousands of CGI wind blown plants and trees, with accurate Asian sky / cloud replacements. In addition, lens prisms and other artifacts were added to make the scenes feel uncomfortably hot and humid. The workload on Shooter varied massively and only a fraction can be shown here.

To replicate Virginia, we needed to "green-up" all the locations filmed in of Santa Clarita. The famous Blue Ridge Mountains were added together with many layers of foliage footage, hundreds of 3D generated trees and blowing grass. Several scenes required a full 100% CGI "Do-Over". Many of these shots required complex 3D tracking and rotoscoping.

Adding the Blood!

For the finale's massive assault on Bob Lee Swagger's Ranch, we brought together 3 seasons worth of Shooter's battle experience of guns and blood to play. We approached the shots as putting the viewer right there in between the action and in harms way with blood hitting camera lens, adding vibration and heat from rockets and guns blazing. For Julie's death scene, no practical blood was used, so we created every drop of blood pumping out her neck and through Bob Lee's hands.

We shot a strip of runway at Bob Hope Airport using a Condor crane and then 3D tracked and composited the Air Force One model. Because the plane fills most of frame, 8K textures were created to show subtle signs of wear and tear. Additional shadow and reflection passes were then added to the plane and vehicles that drive underneath as well as significant plate tracking and object removal.

Special attention was taken for every monitor screen featuring drone surveillance, tracking, mapping or databases used by the Army and FBI as
they had to look completely realistic, not fantastic and serve the narrative.  This philosophy was applied to the many smartphones, text messages,
tablets, laptops, news broadcasts and websites that we designed, animated, tracked and composited.

For Lon Scott's prosthetic leg, the plate of the actor wearing a green sock was combined with of a motion-matched actor who wore a real prosthetic as he walks and played sports.  Additionally, complex plate and clothes replacement was performed as well as adding shadows and reflections.

Complex set extensions such as forests, buildings and mountains were created to dramatically change or augment locations. The Forest below had to be reconstructed using newly shot elements such as grass and bushes and then combined with 3D rendered trees and even buzzing insects! Every drone shot required entire villages to be tracked and have rooftops added as well as building, desert extensions, roads etc.,

Integrating lens pops and artifacts bring a a more gritty level of realism and intensity to the many firefights that uses every weapon from pistols to rocket launchers and combined with masses of blood, body damage, impacts and debris. Since the show focus is on a sniper, it was necessary to build very complex, realistic and varied scopes by compositing multiple layers of optics, interactive light refraction and lens dirt that builds up over time!

Violent digital pyrotechnics and destruction FX were used to realistically bring explosions into public areas as well as ripping into buildings, forests and suburban areas while throwing debris and smoke everywhere and having to work across multiple camera angles.