The Killer is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker.It is based on the French graphic novel series The Killer written by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon. The film stars Michael Fassbender alongside Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O’Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton in supporting roles. Fassbender plays an assassin who embarks on an international vendetta after a hit goes wrong.
We were approached by Eric Barba, Peter Mavromates & David Fincher with some extremely complex tasks, digital humans and extreme gore. We started with photoreal digi double shots of The Killer (Michael Fassbender) riding a scooter. The quality of the work had to seamlessly cut back to back between live action shots. Limited onset data was available, HDRIs had to be replicated rather than provided. We began with the Killer asset, adding fine detail, facial and body rigs. We added cloth simulations. We then used photogrammetry to assist with rendering, streetlight placement and used it for calculating the correct travel speed for cascading light interaction. The final comps and renders were all finessed at 6k to match the native camera specs. The final result was high res meticulously crafted nearly full CG shots cut into the live action sequence with the ultimate goal of nobody noticing. The gore shots were equally complex, fully CG digi doubles being shot in the head with a massive headwound, neck snapping, and a nail gun puncture. The work requires fx simulations, cloth simulations, traditional animation and a variety of technical compositing problems to solve.
VFX Supervisor Jake Maymudes
