Once we had designed, animated and delivered the primary film elements, the scope of the project continued to expand and we were asked to develop a fully rendered 3D version of El Cap. While Jimmy and the crew had captured extraordinary shots of El Cap, there was a need to visualize Alex’s climb through seamless transitions as he met each pitch point during his training and ultimately, his successful climb of the mountain’s face.
We worked with Google Imagery to create a pixel-by-pixel rendering of the exact image of El Cap’s structure. Through this partnership, we were able to zoom in extremely close to our model of the mountain and maintain the most finite details--as well as scale back wide enough to show the enormity of El Cap in relation to Alex’s location. This gave our 3D team all the advantages they could dream of and the rare opportunity to create an accurate, minutely-detailed final result.
Ultimately, we created seven unique scenes with precise mapping of the route from every angle, lighting and time-lapse effects, delivering an authentic model that would visually pinpoint all the pitches Alex had to meet and defy on his way to the top.