Saturday, November 23, 2013
Watch: 'Gravity' Visual Effects Breakdown & 3D Conversion Featurette
FirstShowing.net: After seeing the sci-fi sensation Gravity, the film's special effects are so seamless and realistic, you're not sure where practical filmmaking ends and the world of visual effects and computer generated imagery begins. If you saw the film in 3D, the film is that much more captivating, and knowing that every single shot of the film is a visual effects shots makes the 3D elements of the film all the more impressive and taxing on the filmmakers.
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9 comments:
I think that visual effects software is really interesting. It's cool for me to get an inside look at some of the more technical information behind a major motion picture. I am often frustrated by the simple watered down explanations that we see in behind the scenes footage for other films. I didn't understand all of the things that this video talked about, but I know enough about visual effects to get most of it. It was really interesting to me to see that the film visual effects industry deals with many of the same problems as the theatre industry. Namely sending material back and forth between teams and a tight timeline. I really love the idea of software being able to help out groups of people with this element of communication. To me that is one of the most powerful things a program can do.
I'm thoroughly intrigued by this software. I don't know much about the world of visual effects but I'm always fascinated when a film can take elements that are entirely fake and make them appear to be so real. In the past I have been a stung proponent against film effects that are not real, because the "real" film effect gives the actor something to interact with not to mention that it usually seems to fit better in the world of the play. In this case however, I don't think any real film trickery could have produced the same stunning effect that the visual effects and 3D conversion created. I wonder how some of this technology could be adapted and applied to media design in theater.
I think it is really interesting that we have software that can do visual effects so seamlessly nowadays. it is however, by no means perfect. If I hadn't been watching this video I probably wouldn't have noticed that the helmet wasn't real but now that I've seen this I can completely tell. I find it interesting how CGI has changed so much so that we went from complaining about how fake the shark looked in Jaws to how I can barely tell that the helmet wasn't real. I still think it needs work, though. I wonder if we'll ever get to a point where the images will be so real looking that it will be impossible to tell that it's CGI
I am always amazed to see how many films are actually broken down into real and computer generated images. It begins to make you think about many movies and what parts of them might actually be added in or enhanced in post-production. Although this level of precision may not fit into the timeline of a typical production, I could imagine it could apply to a large scale production. I wouldn't be surprised if designers contract with companies like this to work on complicated parts of their animation process, especially when film and animation need to be merged together in one shot.
It was interesting to see how they related the completely mathematical ideas of manipulating shots through computers and with the footage actually taken. The amount of work put in to getting one shot is absurd. The completely graphical world vs. the physical world id amazing if you look at them. The amount of acting that occurs in a physical world vs. a studio is even more amazing. Its interesting to look at it from a technical and production standpoint, but thinking about how the actors relate to the new technology is a whole new world for them as well.
PFW's View-D software looks ver interesting and useful for this type of project. The production team achieved their goal of blurred the lines between reality and fantasy. The software, just like almost every other visual effects software is complicated and time consuming and takes a lot of effort. Its crazy for me to think about how something goes from being completely made up into an image of "reality." I have not seen the movie Gravity yet, but from the little clips the visual effects were stunning and truly "realistic."
Wonderful. Simply wonderful. I never stop being fascinated by behind-the-scenes footage. It's videos like this one that made me want to pursue a career in the world of entertainment in the first place. Yes, the final product is breathtaking, but what interests me most is how that comes to be. So many artists are working to create this piece, the teamwork is truly unbelieveable.
Also, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7XzyZB6WEM , was the video that YouTube suggested I watch after watching the Gravity one and it is a very interesting piece on projectors and video street art. If anything, just skip to 1:13.
Don't follow that link. Forget I said anything.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen Gravity yet, but when I do I hope I don't focus on finding what is a digital effect and what isn't. But the fact that it has become so seamless is amazing, I definitely remember the movies that you would always say, "that is soooo fake!" And now it is a very different process, especially with sending the assets/footage/material between different teams throughout the process, just wow! But that's what is great about software that helps with communication. And to actually here something about "applied math" is funny to me because I have quite a few math majors as residents and it is amazing to think that they could help with the math side of this in the future.
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