Cinesite completed a series of complex and challenging visual effects for Spyglass Entertainment's Leap Year.

Cinesite's 61 shots involved creating scenery, producing realistic elements and creating a photorealistic boat and castle to ensure the film's main look and feel represented a picturesque Irish countryside.

	Before

Leap Year follows the story of Anna (Amy Adams) on her quest to propose to her boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) on Leap Day, an Irish tradition that occurs every four years, on Feb. 29. Anna faces major trials and setbacks due to unpredictable weather as she attempts to travel from Boston to Dublin to make her proposal. But with the help of a stranger, played by Matthew Goode, Anna's wish just might come true.

For one scene, Cinesite had to re-create photorealistic backgrounds of Boston to complete greenscreen foreground elements that were shot in a studio. To achieve the scene, Cinesite artists flew to Boston and shot still panoramas of well known sites. The shots were then extensively treated by Cinesite's CGI and matte painting department, which involved color grading, adding snow elements and replacing undesired objects from the original photography. The final composite was completed using the Foundry Nuke and Apple Shake.

	After

Another key scene Cinesite worked on was Anna's journey across the sea in a small boat in an attempt to reach Ireland from Wales. As the scene was too ambitions to be shot as live action, Cinesite was tasked with creating a full CGI boat and ocean for the wide establishing shot. Close-up shots of principal actors and the boat were achieved by setting the boat on a gimbal rig with a greenscreen background. The storm element was digitally created. The boat was graded and lightening and heavy rain particles were added to make the storm more intense.

In addition to the CGI ocean and particle elements, live-action elements of rain and water splashes were shot by Cinesite Production Services at Shepperton Studios and seamlessly integrated to make the scene realistic and reflective of treacherous stormy conditions. The ocean and particle elements were created in Autodesk Maya and rendered in Pixar RenderMan, and the whole scene was composited in Shake.

For another scene, the Cinesite team had to create and animate a 360-degree panoramic landscape of an Irish castle. To create the scene, Cinesite artists went on location to the west coast of Ireland to shoot the ruins of an old castle and various panoramas to create a matte painting. The castle ruins were enhanced by adding a CGI tower and the sky was animated to create atmospherics. The animated panoramic landscape was then composited onto footage of the actors standing in front of a greenscreen. Further detail was added to the sky as well as rain as the scene turns from sunshine into heavy rain.

Antony Hunt, managing director at Cinesite, says, "Leap Year was a great project to work on because it really tested our element-making skills. Creating our very first full CGI ocean and achieving director Anand Tucker's creative vision is something we're particularly proud of."