Bryant Hardwick

Sharecare Reality Labs

Avengers: Endgame - Shader TD

After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once more in order to undo Thanos' actions and restore order to the universe.

https://www.marvel.com/movies/avengers-endgame

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/

Production Focus and Challenges

I would say one of the major challenges was working on the final sequence and having to see everything about to go down! As a fan, it sort of sucked some pizazz out of the experience.

That said, the speed of production was challenging. With the rapid timeline and the “relative” smaller lookdev team meant being intelligent about how the environment work was split.

Avengers: Endgame Trailer #2 (2019)

Second trailer featuring some of our environment work.

More to come!

Avenger's Compound

This was the compound that was to be destroyed.

We took work completed from another vendor to receate for a few destruction shots. Otherwise the bulk of the work was done on the actual decimated compound.

Destructed Dressings

Another challenge was managing lots of destructed debris strewn all over the place. This meant finding clever ways to share materials over a large number of assets so that when they all sat together they made visual sense and had continuity.

The Porsche Building

This building of all the ones we lookdev’d required the most fidelity. With an extension to match plus tons of destructed debris this kept us busy.

Help from other departments

With the pace of production this sequence leaned on the other departments like matte paint and comp to help usher it to the finish line. This image is here really as a huge thumbs up to them for all the work they put into the final sequence.

Thanos Armor

For Weta, I got to establish the state of the armor that other artist shared to manage and direct his progressively damaged armor. This was a nice change for me being an Env guy.

Crater Environment

A portion of the extended crater environment. This also includes material builds for all the destroyed buildings.

Porsche Building

Another shot of the damaged Porsche Building and all of the destruction that went with it.

The Charge

This was mostly meant to to be plate with the crater extension and buildings.

Mortal Engines - Shader TD

Mortal Engines is the first of four novels in Philip Reeve's quartet of the same name. The book focuses on a futuristic, steampunk version of London, now a giant machine striving to survive on a world running out of resources. The book has won a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Award.

http://www.mortalengines.com/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571234/

Production Focus and Challenges

An issue with this show was translating scale properly as the vehicle cities were massive. Another thing was managing very large shader graphs to describe all of the different materials, their weathered states, their industrial manufacturing specifics, and so on.

Mortal Engines Official Trailer [HD]

Official Trailer for Mortal Engines showcasing more of our work.

The Chase

This shot was featuring some environment shading work. Matching to concept provided, this piece needed to look less fresh and as if it had been siting there for a while with vegetation on the ground and overgrowth.

Scale is always as issue with these sets because the cliff drop off mid screen is around 80 meters.

Metal debris

Because resources are precious, everything is recycled. I worked on a subset of recycled “bits” from other towns.

Scuttlebutt

A first look at another cool moving town, a centipede looking vehicle. I was responsible for the massive chunks of earth that provide camoflauge.

Pirate Town I

This is one of the vehicle cities that required a lot of close up, hero painted work.

MORTAL ENGINES Trailer (2018)

The first trailer for the movie. Lots to speak to here in terms of asset production but let’s just say lots of TLC being put into London.

The Chase

This is all currently still in production.

Rampage - Shader TD

When three different animals become infected with a dangerous pathogen, a primatologist and a geneticist team up to stop them from destroying Chicago.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2231461/

http://www.rampagethemovie.com/

Production Focus and Challenges

This show required lots of destruction, dust and shading replications of actual onset photography.

There were a few different Federal Plaza looks we needed to match to be convincing the debris and destruction came from these historical buildings. In the end we were able to utilize much of the onset reference but also drone footage of the buildings at different altitudes.

Dust was a challenge because we needed to match some onset reference but also work in other references, such as 9/11 aftermath footage. Finding an intelligent way to manage these looks on the shading side was part of my job.

RAMPAGE - OFFICIAL TRAILER 1 [HD]

Lizzy

While I didn’t work on the creatures of Rampage, this is the only decent image I can find of a still of a piece of the movie/

I was responsible for much of the final sequence environment destruction.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Lead Shader TD

Young hero Thomas embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as "The Flare".

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (also known simply as The Death Cure) is a 2018 American dystopian science fiction action film directed by Wes Ball and written by T.S. Nowlin, based on the novel The Death Cure written by James Dashner. It is the sequel to the 2015 film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and the third and final installment in the Maze Runner film series.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/

https://www.mazerunnerdeathcure.com/

Production Focus and Challenges

The Death Cure was rather quick paced, asking for a mega city recreation from a slum city to a fancy pants city, desert-like environments and lots of decrepit buildings.

I built the shading “setup” that manage the lookdev for the slums. The was daunting because we had millions of shacks and other styled buildings to shade but didn’t have man-power to do them all uniquely in an old fashioned way. In the end, we developed a hybrid shading workflow that allowed certain aspects of shading to be selected through probabilities as well as user selection (for further specific art direction).

Other environment shading builds we put together were rather standard and typical workflows.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

The City

This was a cool series of shots to work on as it required us to build a giant slum city.

My contributions were mainly shading and texturing. Because of the scale of the slum city it required some new pipeline development to work with various procedural shading techniques to pull of the scale of the shots.

The Slums

A good look at the procedural shading and matte paint.

The Wall

These particular sections of the environment were littered with debris from old buildings and various dressings like old cars and shipping containers.

Many of these debris props I worked on.

Justice League - Lead Shader TD

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/

https://www.warnerbros.com/justice-league

Production Focus and Challenges

Weta has a couple sequences to work on here. One was the History Lesson sequence and some things related to the Genesis Chamber. We had lots of reference of Irish and Scottish scenery with selects to match to. My main contribution was helping to manage all the wides and integration of grass into the plates.

Otherwise tending to the Containment Facility and interiors of the Scout Ship/Genesis Camber kept me fairly busy.

The last asset that was quite challenging was shading the Motherships. Their design was meant to be 2km in diameter. The concept also required details that would be impossible to see at those distances but still needed to be present. The ship needed to appear “deep” like having an open core, when the model itself was a closed shape. It was challenging to implement emission based solution to appear like it was coming from an interior when it actually was not.

JUSTICE LEAGUE

Themascyra

One of the challenges of this show was shading large fields of grass and other vegetation in close-ups and wides.

Mothership

The Motherships were an interesting environment of their own. These vehicles were massive with a diameter of nearly 2 kilometers. While their presence was brief in the film, lots of features were added that weren’t visible, like glowing pipes funneling lava from the core of the ship, charcoal-like wood striations and ashed edging of some parts of the ship.

Containment Facility

This environment was fairly standard reproducing common material such as asphalt, concretes, painted metals and glass with corresponding wet-down treatments.

Avatar: Ride of Passage

Board your own mountain banshee and embark on a thrilling expedition, where interstellar explorers like you get an up-close look at this moon’s incredible landscape.

Bonding with a banshee is a crucial step in the life of a Na’vi hunter on Pandora—and flying on the back of one of these powerful creatures is an important rite of passage.

Now, as a visitor to Pandora, you finally have the chance to test yourself like a Na’vi!

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/animal-kingdom/avatar-flight-of-passage/

Production Focus and Challenges

Oh boy, the challenges were numerous.

So the renders we output were nearly 10k, per eye at a ridiculous frame-rate. Look-developing at full resolution felt impossible and should you have been the unlucky one (like me) in the beginning not realizing how the sampling would effect simple things as displacement, meant you got to look-dev the same thing twice!

I took on the responsibility of developing the primary terrain and rock materials. A huge challenge was finding ways to use 8k textures while utilizing 16k for more important things like finer displacements and such.

Flight of Passage Full Ride

The experience … from what I hear.

Cliff Faces

I built the rock shaders and developed a Mari graph that would allow for us to rapidly prototype and service maps to the shaders and production added more and more geometry to these massive environments.

It’s really difficult to find any meaningful imagery on the web but there were some moments where the stone arches were covering over half the 180 degree screen which meant lots of detail needed to be packed within those materials.

At the end of the day I protoyped the dirt, various rock, various sands, mud materials covering the landscape, all with their respective weathered states and such.

Independence Day: Resurgence - Environment Artist

Two decades after the first Independence Day invasion, Earth is faced with a new extra-Solar threat. But will mankind's new space defenses be enough?

Twenty years after the devastating alien invasion, the United Nations has set up the Earth Space Defense (ESD), a global defense and research program that reverse-engineers alien technology and serves as Earth's early warning system against extraterrestrial threats. Civilization has been restored and relative peace among nations exists following the human race's victory over the aliens' attacks.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1628841/

https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/independence-day-resurgence

Independence Day: Resurgence | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

Area 52

I had a limited roll in this film as an Environment Artist. I was responsible for helping texture and shade the gigantic concrete hangar. I am uncredited on this film.

The BFG - Shader TD

Ten-year-old Sophie is in for the adventure of a lifetime when she meets the Big Friendly Giant. Naturally scared at first, the young girl soon realizes that the 24-foot behemoth is actually quite gentle and charming. As their friendship grows, Sophie's presence attracts the unwanted attention of Bloodbottler, Fleshlumpeater and other giants. After traveling to London, Sophie and the BFG must convince Queen Elizabeth to help them get rid of all the bad giants once and for all.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3691740/

Production Focus and Challenges

As an Environment Artist at the time I was responsible for a couple things, the interior Dream Cavern and the Chasm between his house and Dream Cavern.

One of our Leads went around a few hotpots in New Zealand taking excellent reference we could call upon to create the cavern rock and features. Otherwise, it was making sure trees, cavern walls and other wooden elements had shaded moss, wetness/dampness, things like that.

A secondary aspect I was responsible for was proceduraly shading as much shelving wall mounts, literally anything wooden in the cavern with a procedural shader to get as much free as possible. This was achieved by using probabilities to select different wood materials and apply different aging effects/dust/dirt. It also was able to auto mask and texture/shade bark and sliced rings of trees that would act as wall mounted shelving.

Disney's The BFG

The Chasm

I was primarily responsible for Dream Cavern and procedural asset texture/shading.

This Chasm was meant to be a dark wet space with lots of moss anf algae growth.

Dream Cavern

Extending from the Chasm involved lots of UV and world-space texturing techniques to bring it all together. Reference was taken from various spots in New Zealand to match realistic stone and rock weathering and formation patterns.

Procedural Shading

One of the tasks I had was to find a way to take one shading solution and apply it to assets of like-types. In this case, all of the wooden floor and wall shelving shelving were shaded with the same shader, using probabilities to decide which wood types to assign and shade.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Environment Artist

The general public is concerned over having Superman on their planet and letting the "Dark Knight" - Batman - pursue the streets of Gotham. While this is happening, a power-phobic Batman tries to attack Superman.,Meanwhile Superman tries to settle on a decision, and Lex Luthor, the criminal mastermind and millionaire, tries to use his own advantages to fight the "Man of Steel".

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/

http://batmanvsuperman.dccomics.com/

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Genesis Chamber

Responsible for the texture and shadering of the interior chamber and hallways.

Buildings

Of the few buildings that were needing to be hero, I texture and shaded those.

Heroes Park

This was a massive build that was broken up and shaded on an as needed basis. Matte Painting did a phenomenal job integrating the BG solutions into the rendered hero bits.

Lex Tower

This was also a huge build, which much of was not seen on screen. More Procedural texturing through Mari here.

Containment Facility 1.0

This was probably the most intensive build I did on the show. There as lots to shade and texture. The wet mud portions with tire tracks and grave portions where the most difficult to match to onset reference.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials - Environment Artist

The second chapter of the epic "Maze Runner" saga. Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD's vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4046784/

https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/maze-runner-the-scorch-trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Destruction and a Derelict World

The production focus was centered round the best and most accurate way to create a broken city. We used a lot of procedural methods of generating broken concrete features and wearing down man-made concretes and metals.

The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies - Environment Artist

After the Dragon leaves the Lonely Mountain, the people of Lake-town see a threat coming. Orcs, dwarves, elves and people prepare for war. Bilbo sees Thorin going mad and tries to help. Meanwhile, Gandalf is rescued from the Necromancer's prison and his rescuers realize who the Necromancer is.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2310332/

http://middle-earth.thehobbit.com/

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Ravenhill Environment

I was responsible for set matching Ravenhill. Aside from this environment piece was work peppered through he other environment of Dale and Erebor.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Environment Artist

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/

https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | Official Final Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

California Street

The whole Environment team was on the various buildings of San Francisco’s California Street. Was responsible for texturing and shading.

Human Colony Exterior

I had exclusive access to the exterior of the building, texturing and shading procedural brick setups, graffiti, and weathering.

Dressings of Koba Towe

I was tasked with texturing and shading general construction equipment, scaffolding, etc.

Scaffolding pieces

Even this scaffolding piece!

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - Texture Artist

fter successfully crossing over (and under) the Misty Mountains, Thorin and Company must seek aid from a powerful stranger before taking on the dangers of Mirkwood Forest--without their Wizard. If they reach the human settlement of Lake-town it will be time for the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to fulfill his contract with the dwarves. The party must complete the journey to Lonely Mountain and burglar Baggins must seek out the Secret Door that will give them access to the hoard of the dragon Smaug. And, where has Gandalf got off to? And what is his secret business to the south?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170358/

http://middle-earth.thehobbit.com/

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Mirkwood

Mirkwood was filled with these colorful decaying trees. These trees were combinations of hero paint and procedural shading. All of them had custom hand painted bark flow and coloration.

Ironman 3 - Texture Artist

Marvel's "Iron Man 3" pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300854/

https://marvel.com/movies/movie/176/iron_man_3

Iron Man 3

Suits

I had a limited time on this show but had an opportunity to help paint features on many of the various suits. I was uncredited.

The Wolverine - Texture Artist

In modern day Japan, Wolverine is out of his depth in an unknown world as he faces his ultimate nemesis in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own near-immortality, emerging more powerful than we have ever seen him before

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430132/

http://www.thewolverinemovie.com/

The Wolverine Official Trailer

Train Scene

This show required a number of different train field/track assets to be created. I was responsible for texturing and shading all of the various gantry/sign/traffic features. Billboards and advertisements were done by others.

The Wolverine

Man of Steel - Texture Artist

A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/

https://www.warnerbros.com/man-steel

Man of Steel

Rondor Beasts

On the plains of Krypton are animals called Rondor Beasts. The concept was akin to a Rhino, a cow, and an “ancient” from the Dark Crystal :)

I was responsible for textures and shaders and all of the color variants.

Otherwise, I worked on a couple Kryptonian suits for the immediate cronies of Zod’s henchmen. I couldn’t find a decent render of the suits sadly.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Texture Artist

Bilbo Baggins is swept into a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever ... Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities ... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903624/

http://middle-earth.thehobbit.com/

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Sticks

First ever asset at Weta. a handful of sticks. Texture and shaders.

The Goblin Cavern

Lots of props were needed here in the Goblin Cavern where I textured and shaded things from goblin wardrobes, props, goblin weapons, all sorts of things.

Torture Devices

Another noteworthy asset was one of the torture devices being carried in. Textures and shaders.

Auckland Museum

Auckland War Memorial Museum is one of New Zealand's first Museums. The Museum tells the story of New Zealand, its place in the Pacific and its people. The Museum is a war memorial for the province of Auckland and holds one of New Zealand's top three heritage libraries.

It has pre-eminent Māori and Pacific collections, significant natural history resources and major social and military history collections, as well as decorative arts and pictorial collections.

http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/am_humanhistory-object-595682

SketchFab link: https://skfb.ly/6trFY

Reference and Geo Preparation

This was for the client to relate the reference, scanm and final geo to something they would want in their real-time project.

Final Scupt

The final scuplt and reprojected details that would be left in the model.

Final Real-Time Render

A frame of the flask when complete.

Auckland Museum - Flask Studio Lighting

password is “flask”

Auckland Museum - Flask Outisde Lighting

password is “flask”

Illustrations and Realtime

This section is full of personal projects I have completed that are not entirely film production related.

Comfrey: A Love Story

This was my first big infographic for a PledgeMe campaign meant to show that the plant comfrey can help feed people, be fodder for animals, provide medicinal applications, and be a keystone element in agriculture.

Vector Sketching

Some of the characters I doodled for this infographic.

Corrugated Metal & Wooden Sheets Pack

This was an Unreal test for creating “smart” materials inside of Unreal Engine using the Substance bridge. The idea was to have live geometry inside the game engine that you could customize, then bake down to create custom textures.