CMU School of Drama


Friday, March 31, 2017

How 'Ghost in the Shell' VFX Artists Built the World of New Port City

Creators: Building New Port City was a monumental task. The vivid world of Ghost in the Shell was conceived in Masamune Shirow's 1989 manga, then further fleshed out in Mamoru Oshii's 1995 anime film and Kenji Kamiyama's 2005 television series. For Rupert Sanders' take on the film, which hits theaters nationwide today, he enlisted the help of a sprawling, multi-studio VFX team to build a metropolis that updates his animated forebears, and becomes one of the most gratifying aspects of the new film.

2 comments:

Claire Krueger said...

I love how critical world building was to the CGI. Not in the literal sense that they are building a world but it the technicalities like eliminating iphones tablets and screens. I guess I should say the world editing rather than world building. Conceptualising all the way down to the hundreds of shop signs with our iphones, tablets and screens. I understand next to nothing about technology so I couldn't begin to conceptualize the process. The video in the article helped me begin to understand the process and it was a nice touch to explain just how in depth each of the hundreds of storefront signs went. Looking at the process of 3-D to color to texture and shadows lets me see into both the technical aspects I don't understand and the abstract concepts I can now kind of grasp at. It makes me fear my severe inadequacy of technology just a little less.

Galen shila said...

I is spectacular how beautifully subtle the CGI is it really blends into to landscape. I am really happy with the care taken to pull this off. Everything from adding storefront designs to the concept of abandoning the idea of flat screens. It is this kind of out of the box ideas that helped shape the Cyberpunk aesthetic. Creating the overstimulating advertising mecca that is the cyberpunk future takes a certain amount of finesse. It seems that these designers really went above and beyond and used that aesthetic as a tool for storytelling. In the original Ghost in the shell the idea of a multicultural city that clashes between new and old was a part of the overall philosophy of the film. From the looks of it they are trying to capture that in a more realistic and creative vision. I am very excited to see this film i have always loved the cyberpunk genre and now that i am starved for content this film comes as a welcome supply.