USE OF VFX IN LIFE OF PI

Hi there our today’s blog is about use of VFX in the film Life of Pi. You must be little astonished, because the movie has real life like scenes believe me they are all done using fine VFX.

Life of pi won 11 awards in the Oscars that year. Isn’t that great?We will see today how the movie was made and discuss the scenes that have used in them.

 

  The movie “Life of pi” is an American drama film which is based on Yann Martel’s novel “Life of pi” released in 2001.

 The film was directed by Ang Lee. This filmhit the theatres in September 2012 was proved to be a critically as well as commercially successful.

The movie seems very natural in its screening, but major part of the movie is actually filmed using VFX effects. The effects were used to picture the animals in the movie and the scenes at the ocean and aquatic animals.

 The VFX work in the film has been done so precisely that it is very though to distinguish between the scenes with real animals and animated animals.

The detailing of the animals in the movie is done very accurately. It even includes the anatomical structures of the animals also.

Every shot in the movie was explored artistically making it more interesting. All the shots at the ocean were stunning. These shots left the viewer’s awestricken.

 The special effects in the movie “Life of PI” was done by Rhythm & Hues, a visual effects and animation company.

 They won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. It took them more than a year to study and build the animated characters in the film.

 The study of behavior of animals in different environment was done in order to screen particular scenes in the film. The scenes in the movies  really were a visual feast for viewers’ eyes.

 Now let’s see some of the scenes where the VFX effects were used to screen the shot.

The scenes at the ocean were shot in the huge water tank. High powered equipment’s were used to create the waves in the ocean.

To make the reactions of the actor, Suraj Sharma more real, high strength winds and powerful water blasts were made.

The tank was so massive and at the time of shooting the intense water sequences there were no crew members near the actor and he himself used to replace the items in the scene during the retake.

Loud horns were used to address the actor whether the scene is going on a retake or has been cut.

He also had to remember where to walk on the boat as there may be an animal in the shot at the same position.

The most challenging task for the actor was to act by using his imagination of the tiger and other animals.

He had to perform the scenes with the costars that were invisible.

After the scenes were filmed, the VFX team has given its best for applying the visual effects on these shots.

The animals used in the film were the hyena, tiger, zebra, orangutan,meerkats,whale and fishes out of which only the hyena was real while the other animals was the work of animation.

The hyena was there in the film for only seven shots and it was away from the actor in every scene. The orangutan was an animated character. The design of the orangutan was its anatomical structure. It helped the artists to animate its movements in the scene.

The tiger, Richard parker, there are only few scenes where the real tiger has been used otherwise most of the scenes the computer generated tiger was used.

Mapping out the details of each and every scene of tiger, his position and posture and what he would be doing.

The toughest scene to film was where the tiger is in water, in the midst of the storm. The tiger’s eyes had to match with the boat.

For this the Visual effects team studied the real tiger and its behavior. They needed to spend hours on studying the footages of real tiger.

The tiger was designed with so much of detailing that it has created a benchmark in VFX industry.

The anatomical structure was built to design the tiger and it enabled the animators to trace its movement. This made the tiger more realistic.

Talking about the ocean, the scenes at the water were meant to be the very realistic.

So water was treated as a separate character in the movie.The time of the day whether it is sunrise, sunset or middle of the day was a deciding factor for color of water.

The color of the water needed to match with the scene. The water used in tank could not give the original effect to the shot.

So it was to be blended with the VFX effects to give it the real life effect needed. All the waves in the water tank were extended and improved with the help of computer graphics.

If you have watched the movie, you will recall the scene where a whale jumps around the Pi’s boat.

The scene is not just screening the whale but also the disruption in water that whale’s movement causes.

The shot is truly done fantastically. The whale is enormous and thus throws huge amount of water on the boat. The picturisation is done very cleanly.

Another scene where the luminescent planktons is used, it is the scene where Pi remembers his story and what happened to his ship, animals on that ship, his mother and family.

The imagination of Pi is the main motive in the scene. The sequence is completely done using the visual effects. It is the most emotional scene in the movie and VFX adds an extra edge to it.

So these were VFX effects in the film “Life of Pi”. The hard work of the VFX team of this movie paid off and it became the popular movie of 2012.

It is not to be forgotten that they won Oscar for this film. The movie “Life of Pi” has set a benchmark for other films in terms of VFX effects.

USE OF VFX IN PICTURISING BOLLYWOOD FILM SONGS

Reading the topic you might feel like “Really… what is the need of using the VFX in Bollywood songs?” they just need hero, heroine, a set, and a number of dancers behind them.

Though this was the scenario before but now-a-days the concept of picturisation of movie songs has completely changed.

Nowadays there are hardly any movies left that hadn’t used VFX in them.

The most breathtaking sceneries that you see in the movies and songs are done using visual effects.

We will discuss such Bollywood film songs today that have used these tricks, called VFX.

VFX is not only used to add effects in a scene that exaggerate its beauty but also in scenes that has some errors such as toning of  hero or heroin’s face and body, adding backgrounds, adjusting light effects and many more to enhance the visual appeal.

The most popular extravaganza of 2015 Bahubali is the most accurate example of what VFX can do.

The fabulous effects in Bahubali left the audiences awe-strucked.

It is the most expensive movie of Indian film Industry. The VFX effects are made with such detailing that while you watch it, and get a feel of life.

The song “Dhivara” is so amazing that it would hardly get off viewer’s mind.

The beautiful Tamanna Bhatia is flaunting in the song playing Avantika.

The scene where the butterflies are resting on her has grabbed attention all over.

This view that inhibits your beats was actually the magic of the visual effects (VFX).

Actually there was no waterfall, nor is Tamanna’s white scarf fluttering as you have seen in the movie.

This was a single example but there are numerous such songs that have used visual effects.

A south Indian film “Egga” or “Makkhi” in Bollywood which was released in 2012 is another best example of use of VFX effects.

It is a story of a protagonist who is killed and he takes rebirth in form of a fly and takes revenge.

The most amazing song of the movie is “Makkhi hoon main makkhi” where the fly is seen dancing with others like it.

The song is just like the other famous songs in Bollywood but completely done using visual effects.

The song is quite cheerful and you will definitely like the flies doing the break dance.

The main focus of VFX was given to the designing of the fly’s body, especially the eyes. The aim was to make them more expressive.

Do you remember Akshay Kumar and Dipika Padukone’s movie Chandni chowk to China? It has a romantic song “Tere naina” that has used the VFX effects to pasteurize it.

You can see how VFX is used to create the complete city. The VFX is also used picturising various other scenes.

The song “Tera rasta chodu naa” depicting a romactic sequence between Shah Rukh Khan and Dipika Padukone from the film Chennai Express is another example of such tricks.

As you can see in the images how the shots are taken and after the VFX process is applied, the final scene is just mesmerizing.

Another good example is the song “Daru desi” from the famous movie Cocktail.

The scene in which the actress is seen sitting across the balcony is actually done using the VFX.

In the shot you can see the city in the movie but actually the scene was shot like this.

The movie Dhoom 3 which was released in 2013 was a complete action package.

The famous song “Malang Malang” and various other parts of it are also another example on vfx effects implementation.

The circus hall shown in the song was completely made by the use of VFX effects. The audiences sitting in the hall was also created of VFX techniques.

The shot from the film Mohenjo Daro’s song “Sarsariya” filming Hritik Roshan and Pooja Hegde which was released in 2016.

The complete set design is done using VFX. The image shows how the effects has been done while shooting the song and its screening in the movies.

The movie Bajirao Mastani, released in year 2015, has a song “Mohe rang do laal” showing Dipika Padukone dancing beneath the fort.

The fort is actually put in the scene by using VFX.

The image below shows how the song was shot and the post production scene of the film was shorted.

The picture of Amber fort of Rajasthan is shown in the scene. The visual effects add more essences to the song relating it to the historic events.

The movie Om Shanti Om’s popular song “Dhum tana” is also an example of VFX effects.

The film shows the seventies and eighties of Indian film industry. In the song Dipika Padukone is seen romancing and dancing with heroes of previous times.

But in reality it is all done with the help of VFX software. The effects have been given so cleanly that it can hardly be define difference between the two.

Another song from this movie is “Main agar kahoon” that has vfx in it.

This song has many visual effects but to name one is the glass effect was seen in a small dancing shot in the song.

This glass effect has made the scene dreamier.

Not only this, the movie has also won Filmfare award for Best Special effects category.

These were some examples of use of VFX in Bollywood film songs.

Songs in Bollywood movies are heart of it. We cannot imagine a movie that doesn’t have a song in it.

We Indians love watching movies and listening songs. Even before release of a movie its songs are released.

And if the song is sounding good and its looks spectacular then that song becomes famous like anything.

The VFX industry is giving its contribution in the Indian film industry. Hardly a song or movie sequence can be seen where VFX is not used.

Hence it is becoming its core part. Not only in films but in Television industry also visual effect is becoming more popular we are already discussed in our previous blog on the same.

So this is a short briefing on use of visual effect in picturising Bollywood film songs.

There more movies and songs striking this year with marvelous special effects. We will definitely get more this year.