Visual effects team creates Paris, winter for this Rizal

ALDEN Richards didn’t have to travel to Europe for this scene; the Eiffel Tower in the background was computer-generated.

For Alden Richards, portraying national hero Jose Rizal came with a truckload of physical and emotional challenges.

Surely, that went beyond the full hour he spent daily in the makeup chair to darken his skin. “There was a lot of pressure; expectations were very high,” Richards said. “Our director (King Mark Baco) was very particular about my acting. All in all, it was a fulfilling experience.”

From the script, Richards picked up additional information on the iconic character on top of history books and Rizal’s two novels, “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo,” which he studied in school.

In short, he met the man behind the monument.

Dramatic highlight

“Rizal was a playboy,” quipped the 21-year-old actor who hails from Laguna province, like the hero did. “He had nine girlfriends around the world. In the show, we focused on two women—Leonor Rivera, his true love; and Nellie Boustead, the Frenchwoman he almost married.”

He depicted the hero’s moment of weakness in one dramatic highlight. “He almost burned ‘Noli,’ but stopped himself because of his intense love for the country.”

In his kissing scene with Solenn Heussaff, who plays Boustead, Richards said he had to be extra-gentle, “or my mustache would be transferred to Solenn. We did four takes because some of my fake facial hair actually ended up on her.”

“Ilustrado,” which ends its 20-episode run tomorrow, pushed him as an actor, he recounted. “We used high-tech Arri Alexa cameras. It was as if we were shooting a movie.”

Green screen

He got to experience acting in front of a green screen. “That went well,” he recalled. “Before we started taping, the visual effects department laid out everything for us. By the time we came in, everything was ready.”

A visual effects expert made sure the actors remained on their marks. Richards related, “In the scene where I was standing on the deck of a sailing ship, my movements had to be precise so as not to cover any part of the CGI (computer-generated images).”

Fake Eiffel

The scene, where he emerged from a bank onto a busy 19th-century Madrid street, was computer-generated as well. “The people walking on the street were not real.”

His imagination had to work overtime in those CGI scenes.

“We didn’t travel to Europe,” he said. “The effects staff added the Eiffel Tower in the background for the Paris scenes. After we shot each scene, our director would explain to us how the effects would be rendered.”

He was most impressed by the winter scenes. “The mist coming out of my mouth and the snow were added by computer, too,” Richards said.

According to Cathy Frayco, visual effects supervisor, at least 11 artists worked on the CGI. “We used Autodesk Maya for the 3-D elements and animation, Adobe After Effects for pre-compositing and Flame Premium for final compositing.”

The team worked on the effects for two weeks per episode, Frayco said.

“The visual effects served the overall narrative, cinematography and production design,” said Jayson Santos, executive producer. “We are proud of our visual artists, who merged art and technology, and showcased Filipino artistry.”

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