Fantasy adventure film The Portable Door was released to glowing reviews this March, with many critics highlighting the series’ stunning visuals and CGI work. In this month’s visual effects feature, new Ausfilm member Future Associate share how their team delivered over 100 VFX shots for the film, helping to translate a much-loved novel to the silver screen.

Co-produced by The Jim Henson Company and Queensland’s Story Bridge Films, and featuring Sam Neill and Christoph Waltz – The Portable Door follows Paul Carpenter (Patrick Gibson) and Sophie Pettingel (Sophie Wilde) as they begin work at the mysterious London firm J.W. Wells & Co.

Despite the English setting, it was over 10,000 miles away in sunny Australia where the real magic took shape, with the film’s Production VFX Supervisor Murray Pope tapping Future Associate to bring many of the story’s fantastical elements to life.

Led by studio founder and VFX supervisor Lindsay Adams, Future Associate were tasked with delivering more than 140 effects shots over a 5 month period, developing a number of unique effects in the process.

One standout example was the tricky task of rendering realistic virtual hair for Rachel House’s character, whose enchanted locks would need to take on a life of their own, spelling the word ‘beware’ while still tracking to the character’s movements.

This effect was accomplished by tapping the team’s expertise in the procedural modelling software Houdini, where Future Associate’s animators were able to synthesise hyper-realistic hair using the program’s HairGen feature, utilising curves to guide the hair’s movement.

These prototype animated hairs were then simulated in detail using Vellum hair, and point deformed back to the guide curves, after which renders could be handed off to Future Associate’s Compositing team to be recombined into the final shot.

The glowing beams of magic cast by Christoph Waltz’s two characters were also an interesting challenge to achieve visually – which Future Associate tackled using a combination of POP and Pyro sims, tools which allow animators to simulate realistic particles and fluids.

Animators initially mapped out the path of the beams by drawing a curve between two points in the scene, before custom noise was added to give the lines a more interesting shape.

For further texture, a randomised scattered particle simulator was then used to generate moving points along the curve’s path, giving lines a lightning-like or pulsing energy effect.

Variations on these techniques were also able to be repurposed for other uses, such as a scene featuring a magical glowing blue orb. For this shot, Future Associate combined their particle techniques with a spherical mesh to create a visually stunning modern take on the classic crystal ball.

“The Portable Door had such a variety of magic effects,” explains Future Associate’s Lindsay Adams. “Animated hair, giant ears, magical doorways, tractor beams, holograms and orb battles. The project really challenged us technically and creatively.”

Future Associate’s hard work on the film has clearly paid off, with the movie currently featuring an 4 ½ star rating on Amazon Prime and having been picked up by MGM for international distribution.

The Portable Door is available to stream now on Stan in Australia, Sky Cinema in the UK, and MGM+ in the U.S.