Visual Effects in 2011

2011's been a year with a bucket-load of blockbusters. 2012 is going to most likely top this year. 

For me personally 2011 was great work-wise because three films that I worked on were released through the year -  Rango, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Rango will always hold a special place for me mainly because it was ILM's first animated feature, it was revolutionary in terms of design and approach for an animated film and last but not least, I got to spend a couple of months in San Francisco working with the main core team on the film.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon was the most challenging film and has some of my best work to date, which I hope to surpass with the next round of films. Visual Effects wise Transformers was a mammoth and required six months of really hard work which paid-off in the end with some amazing shots. With the completion of Transformers, I had a new found respect for Michael Bay as a film-maker, I seriously think only he has the b***s to pull off a movie and franchise like Transformers.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was a surprise assignment but was a really fun project to roll off onto after Transformers 3. The work was exciting and a welcome change from giant robots and also I got to play the role of a Sequence Lead on this film. Most of my work can be seen with the Missile launch sequence and some parts of the Red Square.

To recap the year's hit list, The Daily has put together some of their exclusives (catch my shot being broken-down in the Transformers segment at 00:43s)

watch on YouTube

SIGGRAPH Asia 2011

In a weeks time I will be at SIGGRAPH Asia at Hong Kong, to deliver two talks - 

The first with The Foundry at the Geekfest, where I will be breaking down one of my shots from Transformers 3 in Nuke and the second would be at the Computer Animation Festival presenting ILM's work on Transformers : Dark of the Moon. Be There!!

NUKE in Film: TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON - ILM

Abishek Nair | Compositor | ILM - Singapore

ILM was the principal visual effects house for the highly anticipated robot flick Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This is the biggest project to date for the Singapore studio, with 235 shots across all disciplines: from layout to animation, digital matte panting, rotoscoping, creature TD and lighting and compositing.
Abishek Nair, Compositor at ILM Singapore, will share his work onTransformers: Dark of the Moon using NUKE. He will illustrate his presentation using actual shots as examples – don’t miss this opportunity!

Abishek Nair | Compositor | ILM Singapore

Transformers: Dark of The Moon. Paramount Pictures all rights reserved

Transformers: Dark of The Moon. Paramount Pictures all rights reserved

Tintin

I've been a huge Tintin fan from my childhood and have every single Tintin book ever written. When I heard Steven Spielberg along with Peter Jackson was making The Secret of the Unicorn as a CG film at Weta, I was a little disappointed. Mainly because I had always liked Tintin in the comics and never liked the 2D animated films that came out a few years back. They just didn't do justice and to hear that it was going to be made as a CG film, I didn't know what to make of it.

 I couldn't imagine Tintin as a Three Dimensional character because in the comics his face primarily composed of a circle and two dots and I was curious to know how the guys at Weta would deal with it and how they would cross the uncanny valley.

The first picture of Tintin, that was published on the cover of Empire magazine didnt help too much because most of it was in shadow and it was not the still I was worried about, it was the animation and feel of the film. 

 The first teaser that came out showed really beautiful imagery but not much of "acting". I did notice some really good bits in the International Trailer that was released but I still wasn't sure about the whole deal. Until I saw these bunch of clips that were released earlier today and I must say it does look really good. I am not really bothered by the uncanny valley as much and I enjoyed looking at the clips. Totally.

I think this is where I would stop watching anymore clips from the film and wait till its released and see what it looks like put together. I must applaud the folks at Weta for such an amazing job.

I've embedded some of the clips below, you can find the rest of them, with some behind the scenes here

 

India's Effects Wiz Passes Away, Last Year

Babubhai Mistry is one of the few unknown heroes of early Indian Cinema, before the whole Bollywood-ization of the cinema industry. There were some really brilliant attempts in the case of visual effects and miniature photography. For example  first sci-fi film, Hindi space adventure Trip to Moon, made in India in 1967.

I came across this article (below) mentioning Babubhai's demise and a mention of his work, which is worth a read. Also if you're keen on spending 2 and half hours to see what 'Trip to Moon' looked like you can watch it here 

Ace Effects Wiz Babubhai Mistry Passes Away


source IndiaWest.com


MUMBAI — How ironic is it that the man who gave so much to Hindi cinema in every sense of the term should pass away so unsung? On Dec. 20 last year, ace special effects wizard, director and art director Babubhai Mistry passed away, leaving behind not just a celluloid treasure but so many discoveries that are now legends by themselves today.

But few, including those protégés, were aware of the fact that this genius, who gave seven decades of his life, was no more.

“We just gave a small obit in a Gujarati newspaper,” said a close relative when India-West called up his residence for an interview with the man who was termed a living legend and were told of the shocking news. His assistant for decades and nephew, Kamlesh Kapadia, works for the Sahara News channel and they too had carried the news. “Those who did not get to read or watch this never knew that my uncle has passed away, though we informed a few very close friends from the industry.”

As in his entire career, Babubhai Mistry was low-profile. His long list of major discoveries includes filmmaker Manmohan Desai, cinematography and special effects whiz kid Peter Pereira (whom he introduced as a DOP in his directorial venture “Parasmani”), director-cinematographer and special effects master Ravee Nagaich (all of whom started their sojourns in films as his assistant), and many others.

Babubhai J.Mistry was born Sept. 5, 1916, in Surat in Gujarat to a sculptor father, and so art lay within his genes. He came to Mumbai at 14 to assist Rangildas Mistry, his paternal uncle, who was a background painter for cinema. In those days in the 1930s, sets were rarely there. A one-dimensional background painting, just like on stage, was the norm. Mistry soon developed a tremendous interest in the camera and began to work with Shri renowned producer Shankerbhai Bhatt and director Vijay Bhatt on special effects; and also did many films with Shri Krishna Film Company. In 1942, he became Studio Manager of Basant Studios in owned by his filmmaker friends Homi Wadia and Nanabhai Bhatt, Mukesh’s and Mahesh Bhatt’s father. He made his debut as a director with “Muqabla,” co-directed by Batuk Bhatt.

In many films, Babubhai Mistry was billed jointly with other names or as associate director because he was mainly looking after the “trick photography,” as visual effects were termed in those pre-digital days. Mistry chalked up over 60 films as a director (in all of which he was director of special effects), more than 25 films only as a special effects man and about 40 films as an art director.

The most famous ones include his debut film “Muqabla,” “Sampoorna Ramayan,” “Har Har Gange,” “ Madari,” “King Kong,” “Samrat Chandragupta,” “Parasmani,” “Naag Panchmi” and the film “Mahabharat.”

Mistry was among the earliest to use the new “Chroma technique” and India’s first technician to use “Live Chroma,” in which actors were placed in front of green screens, the visuals added later.

Mistry was also one of the earliest names to use miniatures, saving his filmmakers a bomb in money. He made them look real by using wide-angle shots and special lenses, lighting and placement of camera.

Mistry even survived throat cancer, which was detected in 1962, and his larynx (voice-box) had been removed then. But he continued to “speak” with the aid of a gadget, and had his most prolific phase as filmmaker and special effects wizard after that! His last film was “Saki Hatim Tai” (1990) featuring Jeetendra and Sangeeta Bijlani.

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, his epic work included T-Series’ ”Shiv Maha Puran” (which he directed himself), Indian television’s greatest epic, B.R. Chopra’s ”Mahabharat” and Dheeraj Kumar’s ”Om Namah Shivaye,” in both of which he was in charge of Special Effects.

The Sound of Transformers 3

Very rarely do we get an inside peek at oneof the most important aspects of film making - Sound Design. I cannot stress upon how important good sound design is for any movie, commercial or game. Try watching the opening of Saving Private Ryan with the audio on mute and you'll know what am talking about.

Even Visual Effects have a bigger impact with great sound. Your explosions, laser blasts etc have more impact with a great sound effect mixed into it.

Check this Video out on the making of the Sound for TF3

" Director Michael Bay and Producer Steven Spielberg return this summer for the third film in the Transformers franchise, Tranformers: Dark of the Moon. The amazing visual effects in this film are complemented by the talented efforts of the sound team including Re-recording Mixers Greg Russell and Jeff Haboush, and Supervising Sound Editor and Sound Designers Ethan Van der Ryn, and Erik Aadahl.

This is the first 3D film of the series and will also be presented in regular 2D, Real D 3D and IMAX, featuring Dolby Surround 7.1 sound."

Watch on Vimeo

Portal: No Escape

"Portal: No Escape" , directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who's a commercials Director. In May, he directed a horror short film “More Than You Can Chew” for Black Box TV. Dan premiered a new short film at Comic-Con, which was met with a standing ovation. 

The short looks pretty cool, but I wonder how this would hold up as a feature length film, the concept is great for the game, making it a really fun puzzle play.  I know the game has a plot but don't know how far it will go.

Watch embedded below -

Watch on YouTube

The Daily features one of my shots from TF3

Am sure a lot of you must have seen Transformers: Dark of the Moon. If you havent go do that right away.

Transformers 3 was one of the most complex projects I've worked on and had some really hard shots on my plate. Its one of those films where, while working on it you know that if you endure the  hard work it will eventually pay off big time and hell yea it did! The satisfaction and joy you get when you watch your work on the big screen with the general movie going audience, when they gasp and cheers at some of your shots is un-explainable.

One of the biggest shots that I got to do is featured with breakdowns in this YouTube video [Starts at about 00:50] Enjoy!!

Michael Bay's Master Class

What is art? Is it defined by a stringent set of rules and regulations or can each be a master of their own medium? Complaining about the absence of gravitas in a film like Con Air is the same as looking at a work of Miro and saying "That sucks, it's all squiggly!". Every artist has their strengths and styles. 

Watch the film. Catch my name in the credits ;)

Cinematics bordering reality.

With E3 going on in L.A, videos of some of the upcoming games are bouncing all over the internet. As exciting as these videos are, some of them are simply mind blowing!

Game Cinematics have always been the cherry on the top of most big game titles. They look so good and are a whole production by themselves. Over the years they have been getting so real that you cant really tell if they are CGI or not. I remember way back in 2004 when the Warcraft 3 intro cinematics came out, they were simply jaw dropping at that time and have been getting better and have been making leaps and bounds with the technology out there. 

The line between real and CGI is definitely blurring when it comes to environments, lighting and presentation. Things do break and slide into the uncanny valley when it comes to facial animations but otherwise the quality and realism is fantastic. No questions or doubts when it come to inorganic stuff like giant robots, vehicles, mechas etc

Check out these two cinematics from Armored Core 5 and Assassin's Creed Revelations. What got me riveted in both these videos were the environments and cinematography. Rock Solid and Real!

Armored Core 5

 Watch on YouTube

Assassin's Creed Revelations

Watch on YouTube