The Mill’s VFX team set out to give ‘The Heist’ a detailed, finished look, starting with the background in the opening shot where 3D artists skillfully applied matte painting to clean up and enhance the environment. When it came to the action within the scene itself, the primary challenge on the 2D side was to ensure continuity throughout 70+ shots to work with in a week’s time.
The Mill’s Adam Lambert, Lead 2D Artist, led the team in making sure the humor of the narrative wasn’t disrupted by continuity issues when it came to the props. The actors’ interactions with the pantyhose and ski masks varied greatly, sometimes changing between takes, which required significant cleanup and reconstruction in post.
Adam comments, “We used CG tracking to conduct facial manipulation on the robbers when they check their phones in the middle of the stick-up. After multiple revisions we stitched the images together to create a smooth continuum throughout each frame. This was a great spot to be a part of as it called for an immense amount of simple yet detailed 2D augmentation.”