Elysium – Impress Your Friends with Exclusive Visual Effects Insights

Every year close to 10,000 people converge on Las Vegas to participate in Autodesk University and thousands more join in online. This year, Autodesk launched the CAVE Conference, to bring together artists, designers and storytellers to explore and celebrate the fundamental spirit that transverses these creative domains and disciplines.

This Wednesday, December 4^th as part of Autodesk University and CAVE, Academy-Award nominated Visual Effects Supervisor, Peter Muyzers participated in a number of events in connection with Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium. The film, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, received widespread critical acclaim; Richard Roepert of the Chicago Sun Times called it “one of the most entertaining action films of the year.”

Early in the day, Peter Muyzers of Vancouver visual effects studio Image Engine and Autodesk’s own Maurice Patel and Shawn Hendriks participated in a Google Hangout which included a lively Q&A with over 65 viewers participating. Muyzers provided a fascinating take on the making of the film and the extreme level of detail involved in the visual effects design – from the grand to the miniscule. “How do you go about designing a world that doesn’t exist? Yet Neill [Blomkamp] is a director who believes in rooting everything in reality. We’re making a sci-fi movie, so this may sound strange, but if he couldn’t make sense of it in the real world, in today’s world or in the conceivable near future, then it wasn't right for him.” Watch the video of the Google Hangout:

Later, Autodesk University and CAVE attendees had the opportunity to attend an exciting and exclusive behind-the-scenes talk about the visual effects. During the class, VFX Supervisor Muyzers gave an in-depth presentation to a standing-room only crowd about the many of the unique challenges involved in creating the dystopian future – from designing and building an epic man-made space station to creating the photo-realistic droids and spacecraft. He even explained the level of design detail down to the logos on the side of the CG helicopters. “Designing the ‘Elysium’ torus ring was the biggest challenge, but we were inspired by the legendary Syd Mead, one of world’s greatest concept artists.” Syd Mead also presented earlier in the week as part of the CAVE Conference.

In addition to insights into the technology and artistry, attendees in Vegas were treated to a sneak peek of the Elysium Blu-ray, Digital and DVD bonus materials, which will be available on December 17^th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.