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.
Arena Animation –India’s premiere Media and Entertainment Training Institute offers power packed programs that help shape a Student Creative Career. Arena Animation Sayajigunj Located in vadodara one of Best and No 1 training Institute in Gujarat andwest Zone For Animation –Vfx and Gaming courses which caters need of student to become Professional In Animation Film making – Vfx Film making and Gaming courses in vadodara .
The world of visual effects relies on the wizardry of VFX Compositors & Video Editors. From Spiderman jumping across buildings to Baahubali fighting an entire army, everything is the magic of post-production, of which Compositing and Editing are the two most important aspects.
The Indian Animation & VFX industry is estimated to reach ` 151.80 billion in 2023.The Media & Entertainment industry is also expected to provide 65 lakh jobs by 2022.*
VFX Compositors are responsible for photo-realistic output by seamlessly integrating live action footage & computer graphics 2D and / or 3D, special effects. Video Editing requires visual aesthetic, a sense of pacing to draw out the emotion of the story, and an attention to detail. The artistic skills required for the role of VFX Compositor and Video Editor is the understanding of the elements of composition, lighting and shadow and colour. Therefore, Arena Animation has introduced the VFX Compositing & Editing Program.
The Vfx Compositing and Editing program Gives students better understanding about the concepts and fundamentals required for 3d Visual Effects Compositing and Video Editing.It helps students demonstrate the VFX pre-production process of Animatics and 3D Previsualization (Previz)It helps them learn and demonstrate the VFX process of Roto, Paint, Roto-prep, Keying, Matchmoving, Live Action Matte Painting & CompositingIt makes students understand and utilize the VFX Compositing workflow using industry-relevant software – Nuke, Silhouette & 3D EqualizerIt helps them learn and understand the Grammar of the edit to demonstrate Video Editing skills using Adobe Premiere / Final Cut Pro.It teaches students the skills of Colour Grading for Web Series, Commercial Ads, TV & Films.
The Student will learn the Following software’s :-
– Adobe Photoshop
– Final Draft
– Adobe Audition and adobe Premiere pro
– Adobe After Effects
– iclone
– silhouette
– 3d Equalizer
– Final cut pro
The Course will give Opportunities to the Students of Vadodara who want to make Vfx Career with professional environment –technology and proper dedicated institution that really caters the demand of 3d Visual Effects Artist required by industry.
After the Completion of the Course the students are eligible with multiple job opportunities and profiles available in Vfx Industry and they can choose from it such as :-Previz Artist-Compositor-Roto artist-3D tracking Artist-Paint artist-Roto –prep Artist-Matte Paint Artist-MatchMove Artist-Video Editor-Motion Graphics Designer&Colour Grading Artist.
The program opens doors to multiple career avenues in many industries such as Advertising –Retail- Animation and Film Vfx Studios- Media and Entertainment industry – Digital Advertising and Many More.
Arena Animation Sayajigunj – India’s premiere Media and Entertainment training institute. We offers power-packed courses that help shape a student’s creative career. We trains students in industry-relevant, employment-oriented skills through advanced tools.
The present technological advancement in movies have proven that almost nothing is impossible in the visual effects industry. With the tremendous growth of technology, day by day, there are no limits in filmmaking. We are already at a point where digital animation and CGI can look exceedingly similar to reality.
So what does the future has in the stores for VFX?
1. VFX will be used even more throughout the development, pre-production and filming process of a film. That’s the pretty obvious one!
2. The current VFX technologies are not only time consuming but also expensive. So the companies would be focusing not just to improve the quality but also to reduce the average cost of delivering a single shot. Right now the goal is to make it profitable enough to stay in business.
3. The distinction between Visual Effects shots and real-life shots will fade, further. An incredible number of visual effects shots are not even being noticed today. They go undetected as they are amazing. This gives more opportunities for creativity and storytelling to the filmmakers. For example, TV shows like The Walking Dead and movies like Fast and Furious involving car chase scenes use green screens for driving sequences.
4. VFX may still not be able to do everything 100% perfectly. Like the holograms used in I, Robot and Captain America they still pose a challenge which will hopefully be conquered with advancing software. Traditionally, the most difficult things to simulate are dust, water, smoke, fire, and light distortions.
credits: Digital Trends
5. Optimised work flow can be expected. Fully rendered animations are not real time animations, but hopefully with the advent of faster processors and better technology it will get closer to real time animation which is visually as perfect as offline rendered animation is now.
Did that go over your head? Pardon us. To present in simpler terms – the offline rendering process is usually much less performance-critical, so you have the option to use very expensive rendering techniques for better performance.
6. India may get more VFX. More and more Hollywood studios and directors are willing to outsource their post-production VFX work to Indian studios and companies. This means, there will be more job opportunities for the trained professionals who have completed job-oriented courses in VFX.
Do you see any more advancements in the VFX industry in the near future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
