If you haven’t seen Snow White & The Huntsman (2012 fantasy film), then you should. Aside from the usual Snow White with the seven dwarfs and the Prince, the Snow White in this film takes the role of the Queen, and along with the Huntsman and her people, they take down the Witch that killed the King and usurped the throne. But what I am focusing on today isn’t how Snow White assumes her role, but the simply fantastic and stunning CG the film studio, Roth Films has produced for this feature film.
In one of the scenes, The witch summons the Mirror Man, as you might know; “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”. In this sense, the mirror actually takes the form of a human in a “gold cloth” and communicates with the Witch.
The scene where Mirror Man is formed in front of the Witch.
Image shows the forming of the Mirror Man as it is being summoned. The artists wanted it to feel like melted metal instead of liquid, so to simulate it they did real life simulation of how a liquid would react and form a human shape, and they produce the effects in 3D software. As the shots in the scene where the Mirror Man talks to the Witch is up close the the camera, a lot of details must be considered in. The things to consider are how the Mirror Man is formed, its color, its material and the reflection it gives off from its surrounding. The artists rebuild the set in the scene and used them as lighting for the character, along with real footage of the Witch projected in 2D and composited into the Mirror Man so it reflects off the image of the witch.
The final result, is a liquid metal simulation of a mirror melting, forming a man that can interact with the real life characters in the shot with stunning details and realism.
