While no one’s making the argument that 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 is better than the original, there is an argument to be made about its phenomenal visual effects. Now we’re getting some insight into why they were so spectacular, right from the source.
Last week, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Sébastien Deguy and his team a technical achievement award for the Adobe Substance 3D Designer software, which was used with great effect in the latter Blade Runner. It turns out that DeGuy has a “PhD in applied math and random processes” and was trying to find a way to “accurately” represent things like cloud and textures on objects, per Variety.
DeGuy decided that he wanted to “actually apply what I’ve been working on during my PhD to the world of effects and animation, which I’m very passionate about.” So, he decided to create a company “and build tools around that very idea of this like, the complex amount of simulation programs I wrote during my PhD.”
He explained how that worked when it came to Blade Runner 2049.
“The goal is to get to the point where it’s hyperrealistic and this is also where Substance Designer shines because you can create very quickly large amounts of pictures that look exactly the way you envisioned them in the first place.”
That’s interesting because he also worked on Frozen 2, and said he went for something the opposite and more stylized. As for where they’re going to take the software in the future, DeGuy said they “want to make the most complete tool for defining textures and shapes and materials and shaders. That’s something that some people have been asking us to do. It’s a very specialized and narrow area and very technical. There are always new things to add so I don’t see the end of it evolving.”
Deguy said he wanted to be a director but got “rejected,” so he’s come full circle by helping “artists materialize their visions, and come up with something new that couldn’t be done before.”
It’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
Published: Feb 27, 2023 06:45 pm