Our partner, Face Off Stunt & Rigging, has recently finished a 5 day shooting of the German film “When Santa Fell to Earth” (Als der Weihnachtsmann vom Himmel fiel). 

All the shots were filmed with with the Visual act 3D flying system and came out in front of the green screen as accurately as anybody could possibly wish for. Face off did more than 20 flights during this shoot. 

The Visual act 3D flying system. Photo by Face Off Stunt & Rigging.

Actors ready for the green screen. Photo by Face Off Stunt & Rigging.

 
See below for the step–by-step work process for the filming: 

Goal:  Have real actors as 25cm tall flying angels acting with Santa Claus in a movie.

Step 1:  The film was shot with a digital Red MX Camera on the original film set with real the “Santa” actor but without the angels.

Step 2: The VFX Company “Scanline” tracked the 3D path that the angels should fly from the footage. Example: fly from bookshelf towards Santa and back.

Step 3: Everything was scaled 7:1.  Example: the real angel actor was 175cm, divided by 7 he became a 25 cm tall angel.
Step 4: The flight paths were then exported from “Autodesk 3ds Max” by “Scanline”.

Step 5: The film crew moved into MMC Green Screen Studio Cologne Germany.

Step 6: Face Off imported the flight paths from ”Autodesk 3ds Max” into the Visual act Stage control system.

Step 7: Cameras were setup as on the film set (7:1 distance)

Step 8: Real actors were rigged to the Visual act 3D system and flown from “virtual bookshelf towards virtual Santa Claus and back”

Result: Perfect work flow. Perfect match!