Selected Work
Commercial
Passports
Commercial
Air NZ Safety Video
Commercial
Long Term Plans
Commercial
This is Kiwi
Commercial
Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
Commercial
The Horse’s Mouth
Film
In Production
Overview
China's first big-budget disaster film, directed by Simon West and set on a volcanic island resort where a volcanologist and her father must rescue tourists when the volcano erupts catastrophically. Jason Isaacs stars as a risk-taking resort entrepreneur — a portrayal influenced by Elon Musk. The scale of VFX was immense: 900+ shots of landscapes consumed by lava, buildings collapsing under volcanic bombardment, pyroclastic flows, and massive tidal waves. Director West approached the volcano as a monster, adding animal noises to its sound design, while the production focused on the rescue aspect of the genre rather than pure apocalyptic spectacle.
Houdini
Maya
RenderMan
NukeProcess & Approach
Evacuation & Helicopter Sequences
The climactic evacuation sequences required seamless integration of CG environments with live-action helicopter plates. Volcanic debris, ash clouds, and heat distortion were layered into every frame to sell the urgency of the rescue. The helicopter itself needed CG rotor wash interacting with falling ash and embers — a complex particle simulation challenge.
Pyrotechnic Augmentation
Practical explosions were captured on location and then heavily augmented with CG fire, debris, and shockwave simulations. The challenge was matching the chaotic energy of real pyrotechnics while scaling the destruction to volcanic proportions. Every fireball needed to feel physically plausible — driven by real combustion dynamics, not stock elements.
Environmental Destruction
Entire resort structures were digitally destroyed — buildings crumbling under bombardment from volcanic projectiles, the ground splitting open to reveal lava beneath. Our rigid body and fluid simulations had to work in concert, with lava flows interacting with collapsing architecture in real-time. The destruction was art-directed shot by shot to serve the narrative tension.
Atmospheric & Weather Effects
Volcanic ash fall, toxic gas clouds, and torrential rain driven by the eruption's weather system all required bespoke simulation work. Every exterior shot needed layered atmospheric depth — from dense ash obscuring the mid-ground to fine particulate catching the light in close-ups. The goal was to make the environment feel relentlessly hostile without overwhelming the performances.
On-Location Supervision
Director Simon West worked closely with our VFX supervision team from pre-production through the shoot, planning every effects-heavy sequence in advance. On set, we captured HDRIs, witness cameras, and LIDAR scans of key locations to ensure seamless digital integration with the practical environments.
Production & Dailies Review
With over 900 VFX shots, the production demanded a rigorous dailies pipeline. Our team was embedded on set reviewing every take alongside the director and cinematographer, flagging potential integration issues in real-time and ensuring every plate was captured with the data needed for post.
Practical Smoke & Atmosphere
Practical smoke effects were choreographed on location to provide a foundation for our digital atmospheric work. By combining real smoke elements with CG particle simulations, we achieved a level of organic complexity that pure digital approaches struggle to match — the interaction between practical haze and real light gave every frame a tangible, lived-in quality.
Selected Frames
