In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, MPC was entrusted with bringing the character of Dr. Egon Spengler, who had been played by the late Harold Ramis back to the big screen.
To bring Egon Spengler back from the spirit realm, MPC Film's Character Lab built a library of reference material from the 1984 and 1989 Ghostbusters films and were given access to digital scans of earlier footage that had never been used before. By studying the footage, the artists were able to select key angles and facial expressions and began to create an accurate likeness.
This talk will cover the process used by MPC's VFX artists throughout the production, including recreating Egon from 1984, ageing Egon based on concept art and integration in live-action photography through lighting and compositing.
Will Earl is Head of Optimization at MPC Film, working on improving efficiencies within asset development and production rendering. He has worked for several years at MPC Film as a lighting and look-development lead on Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Sonic The Hedgehog.
Prior to that, he worked at Aardman Animations, Cinesite, Double Negative and got his start in visual effects at Weta Digital as a Modeller on King Kong.
