Chris Sanders - 2020
The Call of the Wild
VFX company : MPC (Montreal)
Role : Digital matte painter / 3DDMP / TD Capture
The Call of the Wild was one of the most rewarding projects of my career, not only because of the scale of the environments involved, but also because I had the opportunity to contribute to the visual development process from its earliest stages through to the final Digital Matte Paintings.
During the winter of 2019, I travelled with MPC to the Yukon and Alaska to capture photographic references for the Digital Matte Painting and Environment teams. Over several days, we documented vast mountain ranges, frozen rivers, forests, atmospheric conditions and snow-covered landscapes that would later become the visual foundation of many sequences throughout the film.
Back at the studio, these photographic references were combined with terrain elevation data, 3D geometry and extensive concept development work. I created a series of photobashed environment concepts to help establish the mood, geography and visual direction of key sequences.
These artworks became an important bridge between production design, lighting, environment and matte painting departments, helping define which elements would remain projection-based matte paintings and which would evolve into fully realized 3D environments.
Throughout the production, I contributed to numerous large-scale landscape shots, creating Digital Matte Paintings inspired directly by the reference photography captured during our Yukon and Alaska expedition. Working on environments that I had personally documented in the field brought a unique level of authenticity and connection to the final imagery.
One of my favorite sequences from The Call of the Wild. This shot combines large-scale environment work. This work was part of a broader effort to bring the vast Yukon wilderness to life on screen. Having contributed to both the visual development and final matte painting work made seeing the sequence come together especially rewarding.
One of the technical highlights of my work on The Call of the Wild was the development of a procedural 2.5D Northern Lights setup designed to faithfully recreate the unique movement and visual characteristics of real auroras.
Using Nuke's native procedural maps, simple rigged geometry from maya, and a flexible Nuke-based workflow, I built a reusable Setup that could be adapted across multiple shots and sequences while maintaining visual consistency.
This setup became the foundation for the film's most colorful and atmospheric environments, allowing the Northern Lights sequences to retain both realism and continuity across a wide range of camera angles and lighting conditions.
For a Digital Matte Painter, The Call of the Wild was an ideal playground for paintover work, particularly when it came to snow. Throughout the project, I contributed to both fully CG shots and live-action plates combined with CG elements, adding layers of snow detail, variation, and natural imperfections to enrich the final imagery.
Beyond enhancing realism, these paintovers played an important role in the integration process. By carefully blending practical snow captured on set with CG environments and characters, I helped bring all elements into the same visual world, creating a more cohesive and believable final result.
Looking back, it was incredibly satisfying to contribute to every stage of the process, from gathering photographic references in extreme winter conditions to developing concepts, planning environments and delivering the final Digital Matte Paintings seen on screen.
