Exclusive Q&A: Doug Drexler

CG Supervisor

Doug Drexler is a designer, sculptor, illustrator and an Academy Award-winning makeup artist who has collaborated with such talents as Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, Meryl Streep and Warren Beatty.

He began his career in the entertainment industry working for makeup legend Dick Smith on such films as "The Hunger" and "Starman." He has also contributed to "Three Men and a Little Lady," "The Cotton Club," "FX" and "Dick Tracy." Television projects include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica and Caprica.

Doug was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions on the impressive computer generated effects in Virtuality.

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John: Can you explain your specific role in this project?

Doug: My official title is CG supervisor. That encompasses managing the 3D workflow with an eye toward art direction. Gary Hutzel, the shows visual effects supervisor, and I have known each other a lot of years now... he respects me, and trusts my sense of aesthetics, mood, and story. He counts on me to anticipate his tastes. He counts on my experience as someone who has been through the mill on a variety of levels, to be even tempered and keep my eye on the ball... while not losing that oh-so-important childlike excitability. The job also relies on good people skills, and a personable attitude. You need to be part artist, part psychiatrist, and part coach. Gary and I have a hands-off management style. After many years working with geniuses, we've learned that you can't herd cats, and we work with some of the coolest cats in the business. So you have to trust your people enough to be able to wind them up and let them go. Truthfully you end up getting a lot more in return. Gary and I were just discussing that, and I remember him saying that, "...in truth, we are all entertainers, and this is ensemble theater at its best. I will take credit for planting the seeds that have allowed us to do the impossible things that we do, but real magic is summoned up from the forces of nature, not the wizard's cane."


John: Can you talk a little bit about your team and how your workflow operates from conception to completion?

Doug: The team is responsible for everything you see visual effects-wise... all the ship exteriors... conceptually, and how it's photographed... mood and style. We're responsible for all the virtual environments... and remember... everything you see while the crew is VR'ing is computer generated. None of it is a set... the boy's bedroom, the doctor's office, the civil war skirmish, Bodokan, the fight in the underground, the beach house... all virtual.

Our work begins with Gary on stage shooting all the live action greenscreen elements. It takes a clear vision... knowing where it all goes, and how it all fits together. But most important, and seriously tricky, is doing that while understanding the director's needs and vision. Gary has a lot of practical experience at that. It's pivotol. And oh yes, a lot of credit also goes to Michael Gibson, our VFX producer and his right hand man, coordinator Greg Behrens, who are Gary's troops in Vancouver.

Once we have the live action greenscreen, we can move ahead with designing the virtual elements... their mood and look. The computer gives us a lot of freedom in that we can experiment to our heart's content without the contraints of budget and building physical sets. For instance, it was after some experimenting that we stumbled across the idea of the Budokan underground fight scene taking place on the wall of a stairwell. I'm sure that never occurred to the audience while viewing it, but subconsciously the Escheresque rift engenders a sense of vertigo.
Gary wanted a wide variety of "feels" to the VR environments, and we ran the gamut, from stylized hyper real looks, to fanciful, to drop dead real world. I'm betting that most people don't know that all the doctor's office stuff and the boy's bedroom were scenes were shot against a green curtain. Real world environments are always the most tricky, because everyone knows what they look like. Technically most difficult in that respect were the Civil War natural environments in the show's opening. The clouds, atmosphere, and flora & fauna were wonderfully challenging in that Gary wanted the environment alive and breathing. No tree or leaf is standing still, nor any cloud... everything is going somewhere. CG artist Michael Davidson worked closely with Gary and myself developing the look and feel of the verdant, wooded battlefield. That includes artist Jim May's camera's journey through the thicket, flying over a dead man's canteen, a trail of ants, period newspaper, disturbing a cricket, and then rolling right up to our heroes spying on the enemy.

Space stuff has been our bread and butter for years now, so putting a new spin on it is a particular challenge. I think there is no doubt that Gary's ultimate vision for the look of space travel on this show is a standout. In addition, and in a big way, one of the coolest things in "Virtuality" is the spaceship Phaeton. It’s one of the closest things to futuristic NASA we’ve seen on television. The design of the Phaeton was hammered out by Gary and illustrator Richard Livingston. Richard, you may recall, did a lot of work for us on Galactica, and he is smooth as silk to work with. What a gentleman. The CG model was built by Daniel Osaki at Atmosphere, a Vancouver VFX house that we often partner with. He did an outstanding job at bringing the ship to life, and he too has a reputation for being mister easy going. The Phaeton is now one of my favorite science fiction spaceships, and I'm something of a connoisseur.
Once all the various elements are designed and rendered out, they need to be sweetened and melded with the live action. Gary worked closely with the comp artists, where it's all pulled together... and seriously, that's where it comes to life. Let me say that the remarkable thing about Gary is that he can do it all. I've seen him on stage operating the camera, and running motion control. He can work in Lightwave, set up CG shots, and even roll up his sleeves and comp. So when I say Gary works closely with the compers, he knows what he is talking about... he speaks their language. By the way, we had an extraordinary comp team, headed up by Derek Ledbetter, Heather Mcauliffe, and Ryan Schroer. These guys made difficult, impossible shots sing like Placido Domingo on steroids. I would be seriously remiss if I did not mention David Takemura, our superman of a coordinator, who managed the comping work flow... but David is so much more than that. He really keeps an overall eye on the office, and works very closely with VFX producer Mike Gibson, greasing the treads of our tanks with his living guts. How's that for picturesque?

We have a very unique working environment. We are not a visual effects house in the normal sense. Usually, effects houses are outside facilities where the production itself tends to lose a certain amount of control. The end result is that the production is controlled by the effects house's profit margin. Gary has set up a new paradigm. In his model, visual effects is part of the production, just like the art department. We're there to do anything needed to get the job done. So when you work with Gary, there is no meter running, and we go above and beyond what the production expects and could "realistically" afford.

As far as the way we work together creatively, once again, Gary has set up an environment that's more like a band of brothers (and sisters). It's a club house where everyone is a creative equal. In most facilities, you are given a shot list and you have little input. It's the complete opposite here. Everyone is a filmmaker first, and a VFX artist second. We create scenarios and tailor sequences, we sit with Gary in editorial and cut our shots into the show, and if they don't work, we hammer out new shots that do work, and all on the same day... not weeks, while management figures out your new bill.


John: It appears Virtuality leans to the more realistic side than is often featured in films/TV. Is the technology we'll see based on hard science?

Doug: The technology on the show is much closer to what we are very capable of today. There are no magical warp drives that require fantastic leaps in technolgy. Nuclear pulse propulsion is a real concept that was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It would have used nuclear bombs as propellant. At the back of the spacecraft would have been a large, flat “pusher plate,” mounted on a series of beefy shock absorbers. There’d be a small hole in the middle of the pusher plate, through which a series of small nuclear bombs would be ejected. Each bomb would explode, pushing the ship forward.


John: There's one particularly interesting scene where VR is used to control propulsion of the ship via release of a nuclear pellet. Can you describe why VR was used as opposed to a more straight-forward mechanical device or computer console?

Doug: A certain amount of liberty is taken to make things more interesting. On the other hand, it's important to give people things to do on a ten year trip, and I suppose that it will make more compelling reality TV back on Earth too.


John: Do you personally have a favorite CG scene in Virtuality?

Doug: Because I am a total gear-headed geek, I love the entire slingshot sequence coupled with the initiation of the pulse drive, but I gotta say that I am wowed by the natural environments, and marvel at the drop dead real CG sets.


John: It seems like FOX let Virtuality drift in limbo for an overly long period and then suddenly fast tracked the pilot for an early summer broadcast. I read that you had to do additional work on it before airing. Were these changes that FOX requested or simply tasks left unfinished?

Doug: It was kind of amazing. One minute it was dead... not a chance in hell... the next minute it was a hurtling freight train with a time slot. The work we had to saddle up and finish pronto was not additional work or changes. On the first go 'round, many sequences had been cut before they were completed. They were all were put back when the greenlight was re-lit. It was a juggernaut, but so are we.


John: Do you have any knowledge or opinion on why FOX might be rushing Virtuality to air now?

Doug: I'm sure it all has to do with balancing the books.


John: The ship looked amazing but a great deal of shots were from a hull cam or close ups on specific areas. Did you map out each point of view and render each shot as required by a specific scene?

Doug: Gary knew where all of the cameras were on the ship. Apropos angles were rendered for specific scenes based on the feeling that he wanted to achieve.

Ron and Gary decided early on that there would be no "Eye of God" shots of the ship. We did debate some ways of getting an overall shot of the Phaeton that would be acceptable, and that would have occurred during the pusher-shield deployment and fairings jettison. Ever see those cameras on the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters, and how you can see the shuttle pull away when they blow free? We wanted to mount a camera on the Phaeton's jettisoned fairings. That would have done it.


John: Beyond Virtuality, where might viewers see your work next?

Doug: Gary has major badassery planned for "Caprica", and we are all excited about that. We happen to love Ron Moore, and are always happy about working with him. If Gary presents him with a great concept or cool idea, Ron recognizes it. It's less about ego, and more about what will make for a great show. How strange is that?


... and that's the end of our Q&A! Much thanks to Doug Drexler for taking time out of his exceptionally busy schedule. I recommend everyone visit his blog for lots of great geek eye candy and interesting tales - http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/