I began on Rise of the Guardians in April of 2013. My first task was to take over multiple shots from a few lighters who were transitioning to a different team. The sequence was the first showdown with Pitch Black. Since I started right after completing work on Madagascar, I spent some time learning the new rig. Guardians was using an IBL approach to lighting. This was a bit complex as there were some "cheats" done to make out renderer work properly with IBL. I was able to quickly adapt to this method however. I was able to pick up some additional shots from the leads when they needed to move onto another sequence. The biggest challenge on the sequence was getting the sleigh rail to shaper properly since most the shaping came from reflections.

After completing work on the showdown, I joined my leads on a sequence in Jamies' Bedroom. Parts of the sequence were origianlly used for look-dev early on the show. Because of this the rigs needed to be updated to match the current look of the show and the shots needed to be brought up to match the look as well. The leads were only on the sequence for a few weeks and I took over once they were gone. Many of the shots were close to complete but there was still plenty of work to be done on character lighting and fx integration. It was a challenging but fun task as I was the only one on the sequence. I was also given the one-off exterior shot at the beginning of the sequence. The entirety of work during that period was a great learning experience.

The last sequence I worked on was the Celebration sequence after the final battle. The first shots I was given were one-off exterior shots in area's that the rig didn't quite cover. I also had to add interactive lighting from the fx sandstreams and sand creatures. The butterflies were originally an issue because their animation was causing the interactive lighting to be too chaotic but I was able to balance it by using an animated sphere geometry light instead. I was also given some shots during the snowball fight section. Towards the end of production it was discovered that one of the transition shots at the begining of the next sequence had fallen through the cracks. It was intended to help transition from night to dawn in the shot and was also in an area of the rigs that had not been touched before. My supervisors gave the shot to me because they trusted me to be able to quickly handle the shot without need for help in doing setup. I was able to finish it before schedule with no issues.