a52 kicks off the year with Shocktop: The End of the World.

What could be more fun than blowing up things?  Doing it with Matt Asselton and 72 + Sunny in Buenos Aires.  At least that’s what VFX Supervisor Andy McKenna said after returning from the three day shoot in BA.

Matt was intent on focusing on the performance given the dry comedic spokesperson for the campaign.  So having Andy on set with him was a tremendous asset.  Combining multiple live action plates, FX elements, matte paintings and CG aliens quickly grew to an inordinate amount of work.  

Production designers laid the ground work in BA with incredibly detailed art direction for the foreground elements.  But making BA feel like Armageddon was no easy task.  

Once everyone returned to LA, the heavy lifting began.  3D matte paintings were designed for use in multiple scenes.  In particular, the devastated apartment that seconds as a base jumping platform uses a matte painting that consisted of about 70 layers giving the scene outside depth and complexity.  On top of that, the alien that poses for the hosts’ cameraphone was an original a52 design created entirely in CG.  Alien spacecraft, meteors and explosions rounded out the contributions from the CG department.

“Working with Matt is always a pleasure,” McKenna commented.  “But he definitely had the right idea in BA.  If you ever get the opportunity to go there in the summer to blow up some stuff, make sure you get a couple of bikini girls in there for good measure.  Makes the shoot day go a lot faster.”