Visual effects and actress Kristin Chenoweth take the audience on a whirlwind tour throughout the Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s newest and most technologically innovative ship to date. Brewster Parsons’ work showcased all-CG lounges, concert halls, recreational spaces and groundbreaking new features on the exterior of the ship, a full year and half before construction is completed on the real-life analogue.

Combining celebrity talent with photo-real visual effects,Our work allowed Royal Caribbean to promote its latest cruise ship 16 months before its real-life completion. Starting with architectural schematics and design renderings, We built over a dozen unique CG environments. This included construction of a vast ocean and the exterior of the nearly 5,000 passenger capacity cruise liner that features a surfing simulator, a sky diving simulator and digital doubles that populate the sprawling deck.

Live action actors were photographed on green screen stages at Fox and Universal Studios using the Lightcraft Prevision system. This system provided real-time tracking and compositing of talent and props within a CG-environment. This allowed the directors to see camera composition in real-time, giving them the freedom to move a technocrane and steadicam throughout the set and find the most visually arresting shots.

Digital encoders on the cameras provided the basic tracking and layout of the environment, which was refined in post-production using Syntheyes and Maya software. HDRI photography and digital survey of on-set lighting provided the basis for lighting of the CG environment, which was rendered using a combination of V-Ray, Mental Ray and Renderman rendering software. Final compositing was completed with a combination of Flame and Flare platforms.