Dan Platt | Character Modeler

In 2012, my Digital Domain colleagues and I were listed as winners of the coveted Cannes Titanium Lion Award; we were awarded  GOLD at the London International Awards and in 2013, took home a Grand Clio Award all for Virtual Tupac. It’s a humbling experience to stand in the shadow of industry giants.

This was a tough show; no scans, no time, no place to hide. Facing a rapid development schedule against an immovable, hard deadline, I took on the daunting task of hand modeling the likeness of Tupac Shakur and his FACS based facial shapes. I relied heavily on screen grabs from interviews, videos, fan pics as well as personal guided input by Tupac’s friends; Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Here’s a small teaser of the final work.

Tupac Shakur for Coachella

Senior Facial Lead
Modeled in Mudbox and Maya

I was the Character Model Lead on X-Men: First Class. Below is a sample of my photoreal, CG character modeling work on the Kevin Bacon character, Sebastian Shaw. The head splitting effect is called the “kinetic echo”.

Sebastion Shaw

Character Model Lead
Modeled in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Hand modeled Kevin Bacon sculpt for X-Men: First Class.

Mudbox
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Clu CG Model

On Tron: Legacy, I was the Facial Model Lead responsible for “youthenizing” Jeff Bridges as “Clu”, Bruce Boxleitner as “Tron”; creating their hand modeled 350+ FACS based blendshapes and for creating the high res digital double heads of Quorra & Flynn.

Below are shots of the “youthenized” Jeff Bridges as “Clu”, showing a large range of his all digital, emotive abilities.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
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Clu CG Model

Below are four views of the hand modeled, Clu CG Model (neutral) used to create the 350+ FACS based blend shapes.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Clu wireframe

Here’s a small sampling of Clu’s 350+ FACS based blend shapes as “wireframes” in action. Matthias Wittman, Tom St. Amand and Patrick Perez were the top shelf animators that brought Clu to life.

Tron

Having Bruce Boxleitner reprise his younger role as “Tron” was pretty exciting. Just like Clu, I “youthenized” him using Mudbox, taking the then 60 year old actor and making him look as he was in his early 30’s.

Unfortunately, he was rendered with a heavy filter to suggest “a flashback”, obscuring much of his likeness. Sigh.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads

Flynn

There was discussion that we may need a digital model of present age Jeff Bridges for when he re-intergrates with Clu during the bridge sequence. Below is the CG model prepared for that shot. Ultimately, it wasn’t used.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
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Quorra

For the scene where Quorra leaps off of the bridge while swinging from a light whip, we needed a digital double of Olivia Wilde to complete the dangerous shot. Quorra’s face would be visible for 2 – 3 frames at most, so I couldn’t spend more than a week on this model.

Created in Maya & Mudbox
100% Quads