We created huge crowds of Orange fans using both filmed footage and CG (3D) characters. For a technical breakdown on how we created a full 3D stadium filled with CG soccer fans, check the Case Study tab.
Other uses of VFX included placing an actor shot in a regular swimming pool into an aquarium in a zoo, a Dutch hotel that needed to be in the centre of Cape Town, TV inserts and many other VFX manipulations to create a 'sea of orange' on the Museumplein in the centre of Amsterdam. Check our VFX breakdown below!
In addition to the shots with 20,000 Orange fans on Amsterdam's 'Museumplein', we also had the task of realizing a scene that takes place in a sold out football stadium. Both the stadium itself and the people to fill the stands had to be created entirely with CG and VFX; after all, it was the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa, where 200,000 people had to be featured.
The technique we used for the shots at the Museumplein, isolating the extras from the green screen and then multiply them, would not work well for these shots because of the more complex shape of the stadium stands. Would we have chosen a green screen solution, we would have had to photograph a large number of angles and a large number of different lighting situations, to make it work. Since it was already necessary to completely build the stadium in 3D (after all, it could not be filmed on location in Johannesburg, South Africa) we decided to create the audience this way too.
With ultimately quite limited assets (five different animations applied to ten different 3D characters) we could nevertheless convincingly create the illusion that there was a huge, cheering and flag-waving crowd in the stadium, that could be rendered from every angle.
Although 250 extras on a set is quite a lot, there is an immense difference with the number of Orange fans needed for one of the key scenes in the film Gek van Oranje on the Museumplein: more than 20,000. The film, which is set against the background of the 2010 World Cup, shows a frenzied crowd at several times who blend in the orange madness during the matches and the celebrations surrounding them.
Our task is to use VFX to ensure the digital duplication of countless Orange fans on, among other things, the Museumplein in Amsterdam. The approach will consist of two different techniques: we will shoot the extras, who are present on the shooting day anyway, in groups in front of a green screen and, in addition, create fully digital extras.
Because the scene with the extras on the Museumplein was shot from several angles, the groups we shot for greenscreen were also captured from different angles (straight from the front, from the side, from behind, etc.) and with different 'emotions'. (cheering, disappointed, etc.). The fans are multiplied, mixed and positioned in order to create a convincing, orange crowd and, of course, in terms of reaction, consistent with the storyline.
As the whole country is preparing for the World Cup soccer in 2010, all characters are confronted with the Dutch ‘Orange Fever’, which seems to either bring them closer together or drift them apart.
