RECREATING THE IMPERIAL CITY

n the sixth century Chang’an was one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world. “Weta Digital designed the Imperial City based on Chang’an, Xiangyang Tangcheng Film and Television Base] designs for the main palace building,” states VFX supervisor Sean Faden. “But because main unit never shot there, anytime we see our actors in the Imperial City it is a digital recreation around them.” The entire Chinese studio backlot set was LiDAR scanned. “That was the largest LiDAR scan Weta Digital has ever done. 250 square metres,” notes Weta Digital VFX supervisor Anders Langlands. “The LiDAR and texture photogrammetry were used to build a construction kit of modular building pieces that we could then utilise to create a huge variety of buildings. The R&D team did a lot of work on upgrading our instancing system and that became important for how we approached the city build.”