Monster House, Xavier Perez Grobet

Xavier Plaza · November 20, 2006

hi

the other day i saw a moster house and at the end of the movie, i saw in the credits the name of xavier perez grobet, i was in shock because this was the first time to me i recognize a hot cinematographer in a 3D movie. I supousse this is a new market or speciality for all the cinematographers... my question is anybody know how is the process in a project like this, because i'm sure the cinematographer doesn't know the 3D program how is the colaboration between the 3D people and the cinematographer

Best

Xavier Plaza

Director of Photography

Micah Fernandez · November 20, 2006

I'm just taking a stab here, but I would suppose that a DOP in an animated feature is responsible for the same things he would be on a live set: decide the dramatic requirement of the scene and have the lights placed where he wants them. Though instead of telling his gaffer, he would be telling an animator in charge of the lighting effects.

Will Earl · November 20, 2006

The DoP in a CG animated film has exactly the same responsiblities has a live-action DoP.

Although animators don't (there are exceptions) light shots, that task falls to the Lighting TDs (Technicial Directors) under the supervision of the Director of Photography.

This interview with Sharon Calahan (DP at Pixar) describes the process pretty well...

http://www.pixar.com/artistscorner/sharon/interview.html

In the VFX industry the VFX Supervisor handles the DoP duties for intergrating CG elements with live-action plates.

The process of lighting at shot is very similar to lighting in the real world, except you start off completely in the dark - no natural light, so you start off with placing a keylight (which in the case of exteriors includes placing a sun). Then you'll go through and start adding lights to add shape and depth to a shot.

CG lighting also allows you to use negative lighting, so you can use a light to take away light.