Under the leadership of VFX Supervisor Jeremy Robert and VFX Producer Roy Khalil, artists based at MPC Montreal and MPC Bangalore meticulously crafted over 220 visual effects shots that seamlessly integrate and support the narrative of Young Woman and the Sea.

To bring director and executive producer Joachim Rønning’s vision to life, MPC employed a range of advanced techniques and technologies. To capture the sense of danger evident during Trudy Ederle’s marathon swim across the English Channel, calm water plates were enhanced with digital ocean replacements in key places. The creation of such effects involved complex, multi-layered FX simulations to try and capture the natural movement and texture of the choppy waters in the Channel.

Artists utilized Houdini software as well as a proprietary in-house ocean pipeline to ensure the digital oceans were both photorealistic and seamlessly matched to the live-action plates whilst still giving the filmmakers creative control over the size, look and timing of crests and waves. This process involved meticulous attention to detail. MPC ensured that not only was the water simulated in a realistic way but that the lighting and perspective were consistent with any existing foreground water that needed to be retained and that both plate and CG were composited together naturally.

In addition to creating digital oceans, MPC was responsible for a perilous sequence in which Ederle swims through a smack of jellyfish. Integrating these CG creatures into the live-action plates required precise compositing and animation, ensuring they interacted seamlessly with actress Daisy Ridley as she swam. Special attention was paid to the tracking of the plate and a digi-double of Ridley was created and roto-animated to her performance to ensure that subsequent creature work would all be animated, simulated and composited at the correct depth. The jellyfish performance was achieved through a mix of animation and simulation techniques to achieve the right balance of bespoke motion and cloth-like secondary movements of the tentacles. FX simulations of particulate, bubbles and foam were produced to help marry CG with live-action in the final composite.

The jellyfish would need to interact naturally with the swimmer and environment by casting realistic shadows and scattering light through their translucent surface. Advanced lighting and shading techniques were used to give the compositing team maximum control over the final look of jellyfish, whilst still respecting a photo-realistic ‘physically-based rendering’ approach, taking the properties of how light interacts with water and the jellyfish’s surface in to account to achieve the final look.

 ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ required close collaboration between VFX artists, production and the film’s creative team. Production VFX Producer Carrie Rishel and Production VFX Supervisor Richard Briscoe’s team at Disney worked closely with MPC to achieve a shared vision and ensure that each VFX shot and sequence was aligned with Rønning’s vision.