Join the “Ray Tracing FTW” Easter egg hunt

Going FTW

Wondering about the title? The film is a sequel to “V-Ray IRL,” (in real life) the 2012 short film that showed how Chaos’ rendering tech related to the real world. Because the new short uses Chaos Vantage and Project Arena, as well as V-Ray, the “Ray Tracing FTW” (for the win) title reflects the company’s use of ray tracing technology in real-time scenarios.

Out of the blue

Wondering why Chris makes so many jokes about “blue,” “Pandora,” and “I see you?” That’s because the man he’s talking to is played by Ben Procter, the incredible production designer behind Avatar: The Way of Water and its upcoming sequels.

Ben even had to take a meeting with the well-known Avatar director during the production of “Ray Tracing FTW,” so Dave Bryant had to stand in for the close-up of Chris grabbing Ben’s shirt.

Filming at Phil’s

Some of the shoot took place at Phil’s Animal Rental Ranch in Piru, California — home of the Chik-fil-A Cows. Phil himself has assembled a collection of Western-style props, costumes, vehicles, and Erick also made use of various odds and ends for insert shots: the bell was hastily hung up with some nuts and bolts, while an old bicycle bell served as the alarm the bank teller hits.

Setting the scene

Elements of the set were assembled by construction coordinator Tom Early and carpenter Brett Early, expressly to be used in front of the LED wall at Orbital Studios in LA. Erick designed the bank counter to sit in front of the LED wall, giving director Dan and director of photography Richard Crudo the ability to perfectly light the shots. Meanwhile, the train carriage was designed to be modular, so it could be pulled apart for certain shots and repurposed as the luggage car.

The green guy does not make sense

… and that’s the point. VFX artists are sometimes given footage featuring green characters, and it’s assumed they can be replaced with anything at all — but it doesn’t work like that. To up the hilarity, costume designer Yuan Yuan Liang added useless motion tracking balls (including one dangling from a thread), plus a green scarf and holster.

Played by John Wick 3 VFX supervisor Rob Nederhorst, this character is dramatically dispatched, only to return later with a bullet hole in his head plus grass stuck to his face. And, if you look extra closely, his wish to become a robot comes true in the finale.

Don’t stop Blevins

The Boss Hogg-inspired bag guy is played by James Blevins — who also handled the virtual production via his company, Mesh. Literally the only person in front of the screen with any acting talent, James went full method. “He was so excited to play this role,” says Dan. “It was almost like a weird Daniel Lewis experience; he was in this mode all day on set.”

James’ ludicrous sideburns were the idea of Meredith, the short’s makeup artist. They were so big they ended up with their own line on the call sheet.

Cover stars

Eagle-eyed viewers will spot that Erick referenced classic Hollywood blockbusters on the Midjourney-generated VFX Gazette magazine covers: that’s ET serving as cinematographer on Spielberg’s domestic sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, plus Avatar — if it was a musical directed by Julie Taymor. Plus, legendary filmmaker and pioneering 2001 VFX artist Doug Trumbull gets a shout-out, and Jurassic Park legend Denis Muren is mentioned later on.

Making tracks

As a VFX artist, Dan’s bread and butter has been adding CG bullet holes, wounds, and blood to characters in movies such as Zodiac and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When he’s shot in the movie, he adds a tracking marker so the VFX team knows where to add a bullet hole later.

Shaken, not stirred

At the bar on the train, Chris asks for three giant martinis — a reference to the trio’s celluloid-obsessed podcast. But it’s also a reference to the original Westworld movie, in which a character is chastised for ordering a martini instead of a whisky, the cowboy go-to. Fun fact: Westworld was also the very first movie to use CGI.

Tickets, please

Recognize the train conductor? That’s none other than Vladimir “Vlado” Koylazov, Chaos’ co-founder, head of innovation, and the co-inventor of V-Ray. But he’s not the only ray tracing pioneer on board — Arnold creator Marcos Fajardo flew in from Spain to play one of the passengers.

Ghosts of the past

Regular CG Garage podcast listeners will know that Chris has a burning hatred of shadow maps from the many hours he spent manually rendering them for Ghost Rider’s flaming skull, alongside fellow artist Erick Schiele and VFX supervisor Kevin Mack. In fact, Chris’ PTSD from Ghost Rider drove him to push for V-Ray rendering in movies such as Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. Hence the rather pointed reference to Ghost Rider.

Scott Ross as Dakota Joe

The VFX industry wouldn’t be the same without Scott Ross, who brought digital technology to ILM before co-founding Digital Domain alongside James Cameron and Stan Winston. He was the perfect witness to the old ways of movie-making crashing and burning, with his “I told you so” serving as the perfect way to set up the final act.