Whether you are an aspiring VFX professional or a superhero movie enthusiast, you are here because you are impressed by the visual effects of the original MCU series, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
The MCU, for more than a decade has been carrying the Torch of legendary CGI epics. But lately they have been trying to shift your attention from heavily CG-ed wars to grounded and realistic TV series like The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. These shows have given us CGI scenes so perfect that none of us could have ever doubted it to not be real. From the aerial chase in the first episode and a few others that we would be exploring shortly. And who other than Weta Digital could have been trusted with such epic sequences amidst the global pandemic!
The show received a total of five award nominations including a nomination for a 2021 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects. The VFX team involved was supervised by Charlie Tait who alongside Eric Leven have been part of the Weta digital team for over two decades. You may not have heard his name but we are pretty sure that you would have enjoyed his work, which includes Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool, Alita: Battle Angel, and Game Of Thrones Season 8. K
Meant for theaters, the production had a blockbuster budget with each of the six episodes reportedly costing $25 million and featuring a total of 2,500 visual effects shots.
Here are our top 3 favourite breakdowns of the VFX shots:
Madripoor
Establishing shots of Madripoor were entirely CGed with Hong Kong as the key reference for it. The uniquely shaped sky-scrapers and the dense slum was a mixture of on-set special effects and VFX. It’s amazing how they could show the stark contrast between the slum life and the riches all through CG, since Madipoor was essentially a pirate city.
Credits: (c)Weta Digital and (c)Marvel Studios
Canyon chase sequence
It was the first of the sequence to make us realise the brilliance of MCU’s execution of fight scenes. But what makes it unique from the ones we saw in the movies was the different visual language using the GoPro mount.
Credits: (c)Weta Digital and (c)Marvel Studios
Digital double of Walker
The Walker you saw running and jumping through the window was a CG John Walker. A stunt double enacted the fall through the window on the car but the dents, exploding car windows, and the smashing through the house window was CGed. It might seem simple to create it but calculating the intensity of the smash is challenging.
Some scenes had digital doubles of both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. And since they have been in the MCU for a long time, they have become a few of the recognisable faces in the industry. Thus there wasn’t any room for the slightest of the mistakes in creating their CGs.
Credits: (c)Weta Digital and (c)Marvel Studios
Truck battle
The trucks were absolutely stationary! The only thing moving was the CGI-Ed road. The road was moved at the required speed (120km/s) while adding bits of rocks, dirt and dust being kicked up subtly to enhance realism in the scene. In addition to that the sequence was shot in Atlanta (USA) and thus sign boards and surrounding environment was required to be transformed to that of Germany.
Credits: (c)Weta Digital and (c)Marvel Studios via beforesandafters.com
Marvel is stepping up the game for other superhero franchises like The Boys (Prime) and the DCEU. We believe there are much more surprises waiting for us in ‘Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness’.
Pruthviraj Talanpuri was always creative in his mind. From kindergarten, he was fond of Toonami cartoons. Later on, with the advent of life, he started gaining interest in animations. He used to search google and try to learn many things. He got very confused. He thought his parents won’t understand his diversion towards animation, hence he opted for science and mathematics in his 10 + 2 studies. Like a normal science student would do, he chose engineering in graduation. But, computers could not be separated from him, hence completed his Bachelors in engineering and technology in the Computer Science branch from Babaria Institute of Technology, Vadodara.
While during engineering he came across an animators group in his college. He was highly influenced by them. He took help from them and found out that his dreams can get wings in Arena Animation Sayajigunj. Later he searched on Google about Arena Animation Sayajigunj and found out it was the best institute in animation and VFX.
The very next day he came to our institute and had counseling with us. After completing his engineering he immediately enrolled himself in the animation and VFX course with Arena Animation Sayajigunj which is a 3 years course. He enrolled for Advanced Animation International Program AAIP (VFX) here in the Arena Animation Institute Vadodara.
The faculties and mentors here in Arena Animation are so helpful that they cleared every doubt of mine at every step. Arena Animation Sayajigunj has Gujarat’s biggest infrastructure facilities including Green Room, Recording Studio, VR Gaming Zone, 5 Highly Advanced computer Labs, 1000 Student capacity to name a few.
The platform equips every student to represent their creative abilities and skills during the placement drives. They make us job ready professionals with appropriate interview training and relevant skills to kick start a successful career in the areas of Animation, Gaming, VFX, Filmmaking, Broadcasting Multimedia, and every other area that falls in the Media & Entertainment industry. Arena Animation Sayajigunj invites the top recruiters namely Pixel Studio, Shemaroo, Torrecid and more of such thriving companies in the VFX industry.
He states that “ My life was changed when I enrolled here in Arena Animation Sayajigunj and it was the best decision of my life. I consider myself lucky to get counseling from top mentors and to be a student under them. Earlier I had a vague knowledge of VFX. But here in Arena animation Sayajigunj, my mentors provided me with correct knowledge and guidance and it seriously helped me to kickstart my career in VFX and the animation industry.”
He also added “ I am thankful to Arena Animation Sayajigunj that I am working in JCB International as a 3D Lighting Artist. I earn money from what I love doing. I will always recommend Arena Animation Sayajigunj to all the like-minded people.”
We were overwhelmed by the response we got from Pruthviraj Talanpuri and by stating his example we can say that you can achieve anything in life if you have passion and patience for it. We hope Pruthviraj the best of luck and may he achieve the highest!
Though Indian movies may be running a bit late to catch up with the global CGI and VFX, many of the popular Hollywood movie production houses choose companies in India for their visual effects works.
Don’t believe us? Here are some VFX companies in India that are becoming hot favorites among Hollywood filmmakers:
Digital Domain
The visual effects of the chart topping Hollywood superhero movies like Deadpool, X-men Apocalypse and Spider-man: Homecoming were all made possible by Digital Domain.
Phantom FX
It is a leading VFX company today, and have created the awesome transformations of robots to cars for Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise. Along with it, they have worked on some other movies including The Avengers, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Ghostbusters.
Prana studios
When watching Game of thrones most of you would at least have had one awe struck moment viewing the majestic fire-breathing Dragons. Well, the next time you watch those dragons, don’t forget to tell your friends or family that it is the work of Indian visual effects artists.
MPC
Since its inception in December 2010, the Bangalore division of Moving Picture Company (MPC) has delivered high quality visual effects for Hollywood movies. The team has contributed VFX for movies including X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy, Cinderella, and The Martian.
Prime Focus
Avatar, one of the most expensive movies ever made, with a budget of Rs. 1,100 crore was revolutionary in terms of its visual effects. 200+ VFX shots for this movie was done by none other than the Indian company Prime Focus.
Prime focus founded by Namit Malhotra has now proved itself worthy enough to be the world’s largest independent and integrated media services powerhouse. To their credit are Hollywood entertainers like Gravity, Interstellar, Shrek, and Tron: Legacy, among others.
After winning the Oscar for the Best Visual Effects in 2010 for Gravity, in 2015 the team again got their well-deserved win for the same category for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar!
A year later, Prime Focus again received five Oscar nominations for their works in Tree of Life, X-Men: First Class, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Hugo.
These simply prove that the VFX studios in India have already made their mark in the global cinema. The industry needs more and more trained VFX professionals to create such marvelous films. Now is the right time for you to enter the industry. Arena’s Vfx career course can definitely help you get started.
Which is your favorite VFX-heavy film till date? Let us know in the comments below.
શું તમને સાયન્સ ફિક્શન અને કાલ્પનિક ફિલ્મ ગમે છે ? કાલ્પનિક વિશ્વને દર્શાવતી ફિલ્મ ગમે છે ? તેમાં વિઝયુઅલ ઇફેક્ટ્સ (દ્રશ્ય અસરો) હોય છે. જ્યાં લાઈવ એકશન (જીવંતદ્રશ્યો) કમ્પ્યુટર દ્રારા નિર્મિત ઘટકો, પાત્રો કે અસરો સાથે સાયુજ્યસાધી અને દર્શાવવા છે. અને એ થયા બાદ આપણને લાઈવ એક્શન અને વિઝયુઅલ ઈફેક્ટસ વચ્ચેનો ભેદ ખબર પણ ના પડે એટલું વાસ્તવિક થઇ જાય છે.
At its core, Visual Effects (abbreviated VFX) is the process by which digital imagery is created to manipulate or enhance real world footage that has been filmed with a video camera. Visual effects involve the integration of video camera footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, expensive, impractical, time consuming or impossible to capture on film.
Visual Effects Are Not Just Limited To Big Block Buster Films, They Are Commonly Seen In Television Commercials, Broadcast Series, Architecture, Advertising And More
WHY WORK IN VISUAL EFFECTS?
Maybe because it’s a career that involves the perfect mix of story telling, cutting-edge technology and creativity. It could also be because you love films and want to hang out on set surrounded by movie stars. Maybe you want a career that allows you to travel the world or even work remotely from home. Or maybe it’s because you love drawing and building things with your hands and on the computer. There are so many reasons why you would want to work in Visual Effects and there are dozen of possible career paths open to you across multiple industries.
There are plenty of jobs available to people in the visual effects industry. For those of you interested in the more creative and technical roles there are definitely some important skills you should focus on early in your training. The skills I’m referring to are not related to software and technology. Those will come later when you really start digging into your training. However, a solid foundation in the following skills will help you for years to come:
Traditionally speaking, there are two main ways to start learning Visual Effects. Go to a school, or teach yourself at home. It’s very easy to find persuasive case studies for both learning paths so which should you choose?
Regardless of which approach to learning vfx you take, the most important thing to do is start.
Regardless of which approach to learning you take, the most important thing to do is start. It’s that simple. Pick up a book, start sketching, watch and analyse a movie, watch documentaries about visual effects, attend local events. Just get started.
Some Words for Parents and Guardians
If you have read this far, then it’s clear that you care, but it also means that you are probably still a bit confused by all this and just want to make sure the right decisions are made. The Visual Effects industry is relatively new and there are so many avenues into this industry crossing creative and technical skills, so it’s a lot to take in but here are some key points you should remember:
the visual effects industry opens a lot of doors to travel around the world.
there are plenty of opportunities out there, and it’s not slowing down
skills learned at Visual Effects schools are not just for films. Television, Advertising, Architecture, Automotive Industry, Medical, Games, use lots of VFX and these are only set to grow over the years.
career progression into senior management roles is quite common. There are studio executives that started as runners and junior artists.
visual effects artists can win Oscars, help solve medical problems, visualise cities and even space. Imagination really is the only limit here these days
so please make sure to support your children with their own creative projects whether it’s film, drawing, music, writing, technology or gaming. It all helps.
Thanks for reading this guide. I plan to keep updating this often to make sure it remains relevant and helpful. Please reach out to me via the comments section with any suggestions or questions.
