Movie - Unbroken released - 2014 Director - Angelina Jolie Cinematography - Roger Deakins VFX -Industrial Light & Magic | Rodeo FX
Rodeo FX delivered 240 staggering visual Effects shots for Angelina Jolie's biopic Unbroken, including the amazing air battle between the B24s and the Zero fighter aircraft, and in addition the arrival scene of the harmed B24 Superman plane at the Funafuti airstrip. In light of the top rated memoir by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken recounts the narrative of war saint, Louis Zamperini (Jack O'Connell), whose B24 plane crshed in to Pacific. Zamperini was caught and put in more than two years in awful conditions in Japanese POW camps. With the supervision & Acting skills of Director Jolie, to essayists Joel and Ethan Coen, DP Roger Deakins, and to Zamperini himself, who was still alive amid creation – this is a prominent venture that required Visual effects from more than 100 craftsmen who dealt with the film at Rodeo FX. The Director chose a visual styling that was true to the day and age with imperceptible VFX that did not occupy the viewer from the intense movie.
Rodeo FX constructed high detailed 3D models of the B24 utilizing blueprints and verifiable photographs as references. "The plane resource was a test since we just had a set number of recorded photographs," Matthew Rouleau, VFX administrator at Rodeo FX. One of the difficulties Rodeo FX confronted was making these completely CG successions look photoreal, The cockpit insides were shot utilizing an incomplete model set on a gimbal, encompassed by a whitescreen to give more common light. Rodeo FX made the impact of appearance in the glass, and additionally compositing scratches, earth, and surfaces.
Rodeo FX has a long history of working with ILM, having made visual effects together on such movies as Pacific Rim, Terminator, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, and Red Tails. ILM's Bill George was additionally VFX manager on The Planet of the Apes (2001) and won an Oscar for the VFX in Innerspace (1987).
Mask is a popular movie based on the comic series of the same name. The movies plot is simple but still the movie along with it's special effects & the Cast made it a great to watch piece. Movies special effects starts with the mask coming to act on jim Carrey who plays the lead role. when donned, the mask turns the individual into a cartoon character giving him/ it the magical powers it has in the cartoon world which affects the real world too.
Relying on practical effects for a small portion of the movie, like makeups and latex green make over the head, all the visual effects are CGI.
ILM was tasked with creating jim carrey & other Actors cartoon charachetrs, or mix them with thier cartoon counterparts so that a real 7 cartoonish mix was achieved on the final production.
Match moving characters, erasing entire parts from screen and then replacing them with computer created cartoon counterparts was done by the team at ILM.
Jumanji is a board game, which has magical aspects to it with which the players & the world gets affected with each roll of the dice. the movie uses many practical & CGI shots as most of this magical world includes Animals running around in the world spelled by magic.
The Lion that everyone thought real was indeed full animatronics with a human inside! this video show how much work and concentration went in to create such a feet! the final product on film is unbelievable!
The CGI Wasps & the Monkeys in film are fully CGI as they had no interaction with the human characters on set. ILM team did an outstanding job hear with the computer generated work!
The stampede scene which has Rhinos, Elephant's Zebras running through the city demolishing cars & other structures feel a bit CGI by todays standards, it was nothing short of a WOW factor at the time. the creatures move a bit blocky at some point's but the entire shot is believable when added with crumbling cars and moving shots.
The Animatronics built by Amalgamated dynamics is hown here where Robbin william fights with the giant prehistoric crocadile. a full scale animatronic crocodile is built which Robin williams gets on and interacts with.
RIP Robin williams, the Actor who had a tragic death is a talented individual who is known for his iconic roles, as a comedian and if I recall correctly a guy behind the game spore
As of writing this small piece I found out that a sequel to the original Jumanji is being worked on! it features the Rock, kevin hart, jack black & Karen Gillan, and is scheduled to be released december 2017
Movie - Flubber released - 1997 Director - Less Mayfield Cinematography - Dean Cundey VFX - ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) Practical / Animatronics -
If flying Robots & Flying robots aren't enough a gone wrong experiment gives life to a live n dancing jelly called flubber! Just to let you know that I'm not using any copy pasting here to write articles but my memory of the film & captures pulled from the net. If i got the movie with me I do my own captures too.
Flubber was a more open approach to ILM as the directors wanted their input's on forming the jelly goo. and it was something way different to the CGI characters ILM was doing at the time. Creatures like Dinosaurs or other animals retained their shape throughout a story unless they were damaged allowing ILM to use the same digital model for animations. but this jello guy had no boundaries when it came to popping heads, arms n legs when needed!
Professor philip portrayed by the great Actor 7 comedian Robbin williams, is a goofy guy himself. having a fully automated house with robots who make toast n eggs n sporting a one of a kind flying car "thunderbird" he lives a crazy life experimenting & blowing things off!
This movie is one of a kind for the time it was shot n produced as the main character of the film which is a CGI element will only be added in post production. so until then the Actor had to interact with an imagined character, Robin williams pulled this off as he had done a few movies before which had VFX including "Jumanji".
Weebo the flying robot assistant who flies around the house showing it's emotions via the two ear like hovering controllers is a hand held puppet. It also uses it's LCD panel which it pops out when needed to display parts of movies to show how it feels. Weebo had a few models, one for flying around and functioning with all it's wings, another which would bump into walls & get hit.
the following clip shows a remake project of Weebo where the actual guy interviews the project head with all the crazy details n input & what he had to endure in the movie.
If a movie had so much hype, then this was the movie that had it all. After the success of the original, which captured fans young & old around the world, it was no easy task to create a movie that delivered what the audience wanted.
The movie's effects worth noting starts with a young girl who wonders into the woods attacked by a small pack of compies. The small dinos who are portrayed as a bunch who coordinated and hunted in packs are a great way to start as it was a moment for humour & fear. the special effects used a mix of puppets for the closeups & CGI for group shots.
how the puppets worked. look at their eyes, how realistically they work.
how the Remote controlled latex puppets were used to depict being eaten alive, this shot was actually planned for CGI but the clever stan winstons team stole it from them with practical effects.
Hey Mr. get up! compy looks at his prey, the size doesn't matter when your numbers are bigger!
As Dr. Sarah meets a baby dino stegosaurus, animatronic effect comes into play and the life size model is the key here for natural reactions by the actress. how ever when her camera jams and scares away the baby dino stegosaurus which triggers the parent stegosaurus dinosaurs attacking Dr. Sarah practical effects plus CGI is used.
The Hunting shots are fun to watch and use CGI mostly. whats amazing is that the shots never feel they are animated nor used fake animals of any kind. Spielberg, with inputs from various individuals in many fields, had the secret formula to fool the audience to think these creatures are actually alive. Each capture of individual dinosaur type & reaction is unique in its own, Just think how much of story boarding and thinking went into this to pull such a neat shot. I'm still amazed at how the human flies around as the dino swings him, the action & the reaction is so perfect you will not feel that it's fake, but it uses CGI.
Steven Spielberg could have gone to simple captures for every creature type, instead he went on to create dino specific capture vehicles, and this pays off adding depth into the shots.
Jurassic park I had it's own iconic auto driven jeeps & the sequel needed something badass too. The Benz jeeps with the camo & special fit-ons with flood lights attached around them make up a very aggressive feel.
Then comes the trailer, this with the other two jeeps gets rolled over a cliff n blown, but still with those window grills and camo paint on it makes you feel very comfortable about how strong it will stand against dinos. but that idea of security is blown away when the T rexes attack it and destroy it like cardboard boxes.
Once the Hunting of Ingen stops for the night, the other team make their way into the camp and release the captured dinos, The stupidity pays off at the end when they are attacked by every known prehistoric predator.
this particular & rather stupid move to fix the baby T rexes broken leg, which lures the angry parents to the trailer uses two animatronic models, one for closeups where it's on the table, and another full Remote controlled version to carry around.
Getting chased by the Trex is pretty awesome! when at the actual set all you had was a cardboard cut out of a Trex head prop. These shot's with fully CGI Dinos added later, with the camera shake to mimic the giant footsteps made an impact on the audience.
When the balled guy arrives to help & pull back the trailer hanging on the edge of the cliff, the T rexes come back for a happy meal. eaten head first, this scene was one of the most scary ones in the movie, feeling that your safe inside the jeep for a moment, and then getting the roof ripped off was enough to jump out n run for your life, instead the guy keeps on pulling back!
This scenes uses practical effects & the timing to build up tension which make the audience jump out of their seats! You don't need big Dinos to build up tension in this film.
Most of the time when the Trex appeared ramming cars & busses, it was an animatronic model on a track which did it on close up shots.
When the T rex comes to the mainland & makes it's way to the sleepy neighbourhood & stops for a zip at a swimming pool (you know the rest if you watched it!) The Dog gets what it deserves for disturbing the Trex. Still the practical application of such incidents add up to the whole story.
The city scenes are a joy to look at and uses a mix of Animatronics & CGI models, If your a VFX lover, you should watch this movie soon. If you read through the entire writeup please be kind to leave a comment! how my writing is (English is not my primary language) I do this to improve my writing skills as well as to keep in track with the movies i have watched!
Movie - The Terminator released - 1984 Director - james cameron Cinematography - Adam greenberg VFX - Fantasy II Animatronics - Stan Winston
No this isn't the well known Terminator II judgement day! this is the original not so tech involved original movie which started a franchise! Terminator 1 is not the all shining technologically advanced movie you will want to see, but it uses animatronic puppets cleverly mixed with CGI to some extent.
This shot is the deal breaker that shows the then (1983) state of the art animatronics used in the industry. James cameron pulled this feat with the assistance of Stan Winston & the team. the shot which shows the Damaged terminator fixing himself is pretty nicely pulled when it comes to mixing of shots. Actual hand is shown until Arnold cuts it open, but ones that initial cut is shown the shot moves to the facial expressions & the tools, this is an interesting way of making the viewer wanting to see what's actually going on and that they forget the puppet (fake) aspect due to the built up curiosity. But when the mechanism of the hand is shown with shining metal covered with flesh & blood, it pays off for the built up hype.
Even the face is clearly noticeable between the puppet n actual actor. but still after he punctures the eye with the blade, it shows a side of the face with Arnold faking a surgery on the eye which is covered to the camera.
this clip found on youtube gives a shortened version of the entire movies VFX scenes. The very basic scanning & machine view of the terminator, to the guns laser pointer that was not something simple like todays handy coin sized gadgets. At 1983 Diode lasers were not available and even the working helium neon laser had a high power requirement. for this a separate power pack was made that would connect to the gun & when needed Arnold needed to activate it.
All in all the movie, for its time was something the audience have not experienced & went on to earn a box office.
Preface----
The year was 1996, the time when VHS, Deck & the Big bulge CRT TVs were a luxury. I remember watching Jurassic park at my hostel TV for the first time. I remember each part of the movie and have a digital copy of it with me on my PC.
Jurrassic park is a masterpiece to this date in it's own glory & in the field of animatronics & Visual effects. but what it also had was a great setting and a storyline that connected to each other. the charachters were rememberable, you could point out most of the main charachters by their personality and laugh about them or argue about how they would have done things if they were in other roles. also the depth of a big story was present from start to finish.
As kids we all were amazed by what it had in it's sleeves. but what i didn't know was it was going to amaze me in the years to come and would shape my career! we watched the film, I started collecting info about dinos, and was looking forward for a sequel and attended computer classes. and when i so a program on Discovery channel which was called "mega movie magic" few years after, the dots connected! it showed what and how the effects were done and how the computer 3D graphics came into play. Animatronics were an interesting field but still it was the computer VFX that pulled me in. OK enough of how the dot's connected and lets get down to what I feel about the VFX on this movie.
The movies plot is a simple theme park gone wrong type which ends in a bad but still an entertaining way. Starting with a very calm trip to the island and presenting the main subjects of the film (of course the dinosaurs) in a mild manner at their hatching in the lab, the movie sets the stage for the main drama of what to come by showing you the scale of things.
Movie uses animatronics & computer generated imagery (CGI from here forward) to show the once live dinosaurs brought back to life. If you watch the movie you will notice that for the entire running time of the movie you get less than 20 minutes (rough estimate) of dinosaurs on screen.
Unlike movies nowadays which use visual effects from start to finish, the movie uses actual locations & mockups, adding to the realism of the movie. Originally the film was planned to have stop motion dinosours, but the tides changed when guys at ILM showed spielberg what they could do with CGI.
but still spielberg was careful enough to use CGI only when critically needed & also sought the assistance of stan winstons animatronics team. The Big T REX & parts of brachiosoures and also the sick triceratops and many other parts were animatronics. practical effects were used all over the film and the CGI scenes were very few & were pulled off perfectly above expectations for the time.
As of 2017 the film is still a masterpiece & a must watch by every fan of dinosaurs & VFX students.
in this clip you see the Animatronics T rex getting ready for it's take, and how much of work it needed to set this giant machine in place at the set. because the hydralics & the creature was huge, the set was built around it in a studio
