Pixomondo Integrates VFX and Sound for Explosive ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Finale

Sound designers play a big part in adding their magic to the work of VFX artists to make their visual effects really convincing and stunning. In director Jon Chu’s feature film smash hit, Crazy Rich Asians, VFX supervisor Nhat Phong Tran, and his team from leading design company Pixomondo, had a chance to return the favor and help the sound team with a blueprint that would guarantee a real world feel in the mix.

According to Tran, “When we discussed the fireworks we were going to make for the last shot of the movie, director Jon Chu and I talked about what the time delay would be for the fireworks bang to reach the camera. If the sound of the bang is placed at the same moment we see the firework explode – considering how far away they are – the audience would immediately sense that something is not right.”

The VFX fireworks were simulated with geospatially correct distance to camera and set. Having got that geospatial data precise, Tran’s team could derive secondary data for the soundwaves. They simulated an omni-directional progression of sound taking speed, air pressure and humidity into consideration and visualized that as spheres expanding. So, in essence, every time the soundwave was predicted to reach the camera, they had a red dot appearing in the quicktime to indicate when the bang should be heard.

Check out these videos highlighting the work of Tran and Pixomondo’s team.

Source：Pixomondo