Chapter 175 (1/2)

The Presidio, San Francisco

Perched on the northernmost tip of the San Francisco peninsula, and nestled amongst historic buildings in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, sat the headquarters of International Light and Magic and Lucas Arts. Inside this nine hundred thousand square foot nexus of special effects innovation, many of the most blockbusting films of the past decade had come to life. Were the five hundred CGI and motion capture artists to look out the window, they would have seen blankets of fog gliding under the Golden Gate Bridge and out over the water of San Francisco Bay.

Inside the campus, the hundreds of CGI and motion capture artists were hard at work. Making use of the custom built supercomputer nicknamed Death Star, the men and women plied their trade. Each of the Death Star's three thousand AMD built processors busily crunched complex computer models and mathematical algorithms. Few people outside of the industry understood how complex the mathematics behind realistic rendering of human skin or hair truly was. It was this problem among several others that occupied the many tens of millions of computations per second of the custom built supercomputer.

Normally, the process of creation for ILM took many months to complete. Several times, entirely new disciplines of computer modeling had been needed to bring about the desired effect. In this instance, no such effort was required. Accustomed to answering to the tyrannical demands of the movie studios that had contracted their talents, the visual effects magicians found themselves comfortably surprised with the demands of the US government. In a city renowned for its liberal political leanings, it was surprising that many of these computer whiz kids had not opted to walk away from this project. Seeing as this tasking had come directly from Mr. Lucas via the President, many thought it was something they simply couldn't pass up.

Fueled by an endless supply of coffee and take out food, the ILM crew knew their task was not yet complete. Looking over the digital rendering, minute flaws were noticeable to the trained eye. The hair looked a tad pixilated here; the skin reflected a bit too much light there. These problems would all be corrected in the next twenty four hours. Easing the burden of their task was the fact that the stock animation for Voldemort still resided in a secure database on the third floor of the campus.

On the top floor of the main campus building was a room different than the others. Sound isolated so no outside interruptions could intrude, this room was also equipped with the latest iteration of the Digital Theater system. Reels of film had faded into the past long ago. Now, films were uploaded to the projector via CD-ROM. The Letterman Digital Arts Pavilion, as it was called was also hardwired directly into the campus local area network, for ease in transfer of as yet unfinished footage.

Seated in a plush brown leather chair in the center of the theater was Lieutenant Colonel Paul Davis. Before taking his seat, the Colonel had been briefed by the overall program manager that the scene was only ninety five percent complete. Some of the flaws listed in the brief he held in his hands were things that he might not have noticed, had they not been pointed out beforehand. The voice actor who had been brought in for this task spoke in a deep baritone, which was neatly synched to the incredibly lifelike animation.

The first time Davis watched the nearly finished product, he had been looking for visual believability. The second time he listened intently to the script being delivered. The third time he tried to take it all in. Removing his cell phone from his uniform jacket inner pocket, he selected the number he was after before raising the phone to his ear.

”It's Davis. This time tomorrow we'll be ready on this end.” Davis said quickly.

Videum

If one spent any amount of time in the SGC, many strange sights were bound to be seen. This one was indeed strange, and a first for many stationed aboard the city ship. Several hours earlier, a team of makeup artists in the employ of Warner Brothers Studios have arrived through the city's internal gate, along with a wardrobe bag. Inside this bag was the costume worn by Dumbledore during the first Harry Potter film.

Surprised at his selection to play the part of Dumbledore, Doctor Lee was seated in a reclining chair with closed eyes. Leaned back, the makeup team went to work. Layers of synthetic skin were applied to both the face and neck. This process was repeated with the hands as well. The effect the makeup team was seeking was to age Lee considerably. Next, the team moved on to hair. A flowing mane of silver hair, with matching facial hair was affixed with epoxy.

With the aesthetics in place, the team set about getting their star into costume. First, Lee donned a series of undershirts with billowing cuffs. From there, the scientist put on the outer robe. As the robe was fitted, a separate team fitted Lee with the period footwear, complete with outer buckles. The finishing touch came with the application of glasses like those from the film, only in Lee's prescription.

”Are you ready to go movie star?” Colonel Reynolds asked.