STARNO collaborated with Raynault FX to deliver high-end "invisible" visual effects for the Nicholas Sparks film adaptation, THE BEST OF ME. Our primary focus was a complex, sweeping aerial shot over a quiet American town, culminating in a romantic moment atop the city’s water tank under a magical sunset.
This sequence was entirely created using advanced Digital Matte Painting and environment reconstruction techniques. To achieve the required look, drone photography was captured over a similar village in Quebec. These plates served as the foundation for a complete digital transformation. As a Freelance Matte Painter, Frédéric St-Arnaud worked meticulously to reconstruct the American town, a laborious process that involved separating and managing nearly 80 individual layers.
Every element—including chimneys, residential buildings, trees, and street props—was treated as a separate layer to ensure perfect parallax during the camera movement. The goal was to create a sunset environment so seamless that the VFX would remain entirely undetectable to the audience, grounding the romantic narrative in a photorealistic reality.
Based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks, THE BEST OF ME tells the story of Dawson and Amanda, two high school sweethearts who find themselves reunited after twenty years apart when they return to their small hometown for a friend's funeral.
Their bittersweet reunion reignites the love they've never forgotten, but they soon discover that the forces that drove them apart two decades ago live on, posing even more serious threats today. Spanning decades, this epic love story explores the enduring power of first love and the gut-wrenching choices we face when confronted with elusive second chances.
STARNO TEAM:Frédéric St-Arnaud (Freelance Matte Painter)
Raynault FX
FEATURE FILM – 2014
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