Behind The Scenes of Avengers: Age of Ultron VFX

The Age of VFX has seen its share of upgrades since the silent black and white era cinema. When Chaplin dared to make a film on Hitler, he didn’t hire a supernatural amount of crowd members to be present in his scene; he used VFX.

King Kong was never a real thing, but VFX made it possible for the giant gorilla to be shown rampaging up a building. The historic flying bicycle scene in ET by movie genius Steven Spielberg was also done through the magic of VFX. In today’s generation, VFX is an integral part of movie making.

Superhero movies have been hitting the theatres since 1920, when the Mark of Zorro was released. MARVEL Studios was about to declare bankruptcy in the year 1996, but they had a last card to play when turned out to be their one-way trump card to cloud nine of success.

They started the MCU (MARVEL Cinematic Universe) under the guidance of Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe that focuses on a series of superhero films that are independently produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in the publications of Marvel Comics.

The franchise has expanded to include comic books, short films, television series, and digital series.

The first film released in the MCU was Iron Man (2008), which kicked off the first phase of films that culminated in the crossover film Marvel’s The Avengers (2012).

Theatres were swarming with members of all age demographics. The world loved it and MARVEL embraced the attention to continue on and produce two more phases and plan for the fourth.

Starring a huge range of actors Like Robert Downey Jr. (playing genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Iron Man), Chris Evans (playing the the patriotic Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (playing the super spy assassin Black Widow), British megastar Benedict Cumberbatch (playing sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange), Aussie Chris hemsworth (playing the Norse god Thor) and so many more.

Phase Two of MCU saw the return of the Avengers in the movie “Avengers – Age Of Ultron”, where the team once again assembled to fight of a secret World War 2 Nazi-based cult society that survived since then, called Hydra.

The Avengers at the beginning of the film raid the last standing outpost of the Hydra at Sokovia and retrieve a weapon.

Tony stark AKA Iron man then decided by himself to return to normal life and retire from being a superhero. He had to create some kind of substitute to take up his time, like an AI intelligent enough to detect threat and subdue it before any crisis even happened.

So he and Dr. Banner AKA Hulk created Ultron. But their project went south real quick and Ultron makes an enemy out of humanity because humans are more dangerous to themselves than anything else, and plans to destroy the earth’s population.

But the Avengers help save the day from an army of intelligent robots created by Ultron in the end in a thrilling action sequence. As exciting the movie sounds, it takes a lot of time to shoot, execute and finally release a film on this big a scale.

All the stars present in the same set is both exciting and severely stressful to direct and pay attention to each and everyone.

The film contains 3,000 visual effects shots, completed by ten different visual effects studios, including Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Trixter, Double Negative, Animal Logic, Framestore, Lola VFX, Territory, Perception, Method Studios, Luma Pictures and The Third Floor.

Joss Whedon said in an Age of Ultron promotional interview to CNN that, “This one was harder than anything I have done, both structurally and physically”. So even if the film looks great, it’s what happens behind the scenes that tells us the whole story.

In the same interview, other cast members were asked about their experience on set with Joss and they had some pretty funny stories to share.

Cobie Smulders (who plays Agent Maria Hill) said, “Joss does an amazing job of keeping the set happy and fun, and everyone is happy and well”.

Chris Hems-worth and Chris Evans mischievously revealed that them being together again on set felt good and they made a lot of commotion and felt like they were back in high school, but Joss was like their Principal and shouted at them several times to make them work more seriously.

The development of the characters in the movie is very interesting. Tony, the fast moving, narcissistic genius is shown to have grown closer to life.

He is shown to fund every student’s project at MIT but doesn’t get personal with them; he is also shown to not like being a superhero because the love of his life is avoiding him just for being a superhero all the time, which is exactly why he wants to retire and consequently creates Ultron.

Bruce Banner, who prefers being a loner because he knows being the Hulk might get him (and others with him) in trouble, is growing a love interest for Natasha but is hesitating to move forward with that train thought; Natasha, too, is shown to be a tortured cult product from Russia where she is taught to be a cold blooded killer and turned infertile.

Steve Rogers, the perfect soldier, is shown to carry the burden of the failures of his team. Thor, after rejecting his throne at Asgard and living on earth with his lover, loses his motive to be a hero but finds it again because of a nightmarish premonition.

Clint Barton AKA Hawk-Eye is shown to have a family isolated and living off the grid so that they are safe from any danger he might be in.

Ultron, too, is developed as a great character – originally created to save humanity, he grows into a killing robot because he concludes from all his knowledge that humans are their own worst enemy.

MARVEL studios have been excelling in the VFX department from the first Iron Man film.

Visual effects are often integral to a movie’s story and appeal. Although most visual effects work is completed during post-production, it usually must be carefully planned and choreographed in pre-production and production.

Visual effects are primarily executed in Post-Production with the use of multiple tools and technologies such as graphic design, modelling, animation and similar software, while special effects such as explosions and car chases are sometimes made on set.

A visual effects supervisor is usually involved with the production from an early stage to work closely with production and the film’s director design, guide and lead the teams required to achieve the desired effects.

VFX can be categorized into: Simulation FX, Animation, Modeling, Matte painting, and Composting. From making Tony Stark fly to Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk, almost everything is done with the help of VFX.

The production for this movie was really high of about $267.4 million is earned a gigantic amount of $1.405 billion which is fabulous.

Although Ultron had many an appearance in the comic books, this story was independently created for the MCU and had very little inspiration from the original comic books, making it 10 times more interesting to watch as an original take on the subject.

The film performed really well in theatres and got a rating of 7.5 on IMDB, and even performed well commercially. The Avengers will assemble again in April of the year 2018, in the film Avengers: Infinity War, with solo films of members of the Avengers in between.

Let us look forward to the awesome work to come our way with these films.

“Explosion in Animation & VFX In Indian M&E Sector”

The use of Animation & VFX has become widespread. Its use ranges from media channels, advertising, and websites to music videos, movies and is gradually increasing its reach.

With distinctive lines between live action and animation are also blurring, as shown in some of the movies in 2016-17 namely Beauty and the Beast , Jungle Book etc.  Which depended as much on the believability of their animated or motion captured characters as much as the ‘real actors’.

Animation technology trends that are expected to dominate the future are:-

Colour 3D printing can help generate millions of facial expressions for the characters which stop-motion and CGI experts use.

On the other hand 3D painting is going to be an invaluable tool with stop-motion animators, who will be able to leverage its possibilities to create bigger, better and more complex animations.

Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) is an area of computer graphics that focuses on enabling a wide variety of expressive styles for digital art. Animator use 3D software to create an impressionistic hand-drawn media image visually appealing.

Projection mapping is a projection technology used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into a display surface for video projection.

One of the examples of its use in 2015 was the use of the Sydney Opera House by 20 different animation studios worldwide to create a living mural.

VR and AR are emerging as important tools for technology companies, content providers and animation/VFX players.

Currently, this tech is mostly used in the gaming community as the companies are hesitant towards non-gaming VR due to lack of demand for such media.

The potential challenges faced by the Indian animation industry are:-

The existing AVGC industry stakeholders have expressed finding highly skilled professionals as a major challenge to sustain growth.

Most of the small animation education institutes which has started in India of late are lacking in the quality of programme inputs (infrastructure, teaching resources etc.) budding a few reputed Institute where they have excellent training team and hi-end infrastructure.

But the course fee is high with them. Many students tend to opt for the centre with low fee structure but they tend to forget the quality they get. Which is not upto the industry standard.

Focus should be shifted towards the design and creative aspects of content, animation education and creation of skilled workforce.

Animation is not a quick and easy process; it involves thorough visualisation and adequate process of storytelling. Therefore, the genre needs more time and labour.

Animation in India lacks funding unlike western film makers. Despite of possessing a vast potential, India does not produce a high percentage of animated films due to lack of initial high investment. Therefore we end up doing outsourced work for Hollywood more than creating our own IP.

The industry would benefit if measures such as reservation of a certain number of hours of domestically produced content on channels, ‘must-carry’ clause for kid’s channels and tax benefits and treaties are provided by the government.

Government is also not that supportive which is also affecting the growth of animation in India.

The Intellectual Property (IP) protection policy needs to be strengthened and companies operating in the outsourcing sphere need to take stringent steps to protect clients’ IP rights.

On the other hand consistent growth in VFX industry in India has brought a revolution in all verticals with blockbusters like Baahubali and Bajirao Mastani bewildering the audience worldwide.

The key trends include:-

 The year witnessed the Increasing presence of VFX in all M&E segments like films, television and advertisements.

In addition to that, VFX has ventured into the web space as new age companies are using 3D technology to conduct their digital business.

VFX players are now increasingly engaged in creating live action imagery by using computer-generated effects of what would have been handled by traditional animation.

Growing presence of Indian studios in international markets has led to global acceptance of Indian talent.

Captive centres in India have moved up the value chain to become Centres of Excellence (COE) in specific areas for many animation and VFX companies.

Virtual Reality (VR) is seen as an upward trend and is the inevitable evolution of visual effects due to its high implications for next generation talent.

The digital dawn has taken place with increasing internet penetration and access speeds, a plethora of devices that support content consumption, and the rise of digital media players driving the on-demand digital content industry.

The key challenges that the VFX industry in India currently faces are:-

Developed countries outsourcing VFX projects to low-cost ones have been significantly on the rise.

The incentives provided by foreign government, grants, labour tax credits and subsidies to domestic companies engaged in VFX work thus help them to retain artists as well as facilitate their expansion efforts.

Digital visual effects are quite flexible and thus can be revised over and over again which demands clearly more cost and time.

Such digital problems, hardware costs of equipment, electricity, staff costs, rent, and even depreciation are some of the major hurdles faced by the VFX industry today.

Special Effects In Kid’s Films That Steals Their Heart

When you think of groundbreaking special effects, the first thing that comes to our mind is kids film that comes in summer vacation and turns out to be the blockbusters from big production houses. So children’s films are often a source of innovative special effects.

Earlier the movies were intended for general audiences rather than being targeted to specific age groups, since that time making a movie was the priority. Some found inspiration in the kid-friendly fiction of Jules Verne and Lewis Carroll.

Among them Georges Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon“ (1902) and “The Impossible Voyage” (1904) and Cecil Hepworth’s “Alice in Wonderland“ (1903) used pioneering special effects and editing such as multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, substitution splices, and creative use of set design and camera placement to bring imaginary worlds to life on screen.

Gertie The Dinosaur (1914)

Such a example of special effects film “Gertie The Dinosaur“(1914). The film is considered to be one of the earliest examples of animation films.

Gertie is the Dinosaur who is said to be influenced animators such as the Fleischer Brothers and Walt Disney.

In the film, Winsor McCay draws Gertie “live” in a clever sequence that is humorous and graceful and is an extreme delight to watch.

The short film also gives viewers an inside sneak and peeks at the animation process when McCay reveals the 10,000 drawings or sketches needed to make just a few minutes worth of animation film.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs“(1937). The Walt Disney Company’s 1937 film was the first full-length feature film using cel animation.

Concept Artist Albert Hurter oversaw every part of the film’s design from backgrounds to individual characters.

Disney’s team did not restrict themselves into any boundaries rather they went ahead to draw inspiration from German expressionist films as well as mainstream cinema which is commendable, and the result is there in front of our eyes about Disney’s success.

The Queen’s transformation scene is one example of where the Disney studios borrowed from the likes of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” as well as 1931’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Disney Studios developed the multiplane camera in order to create realistic depth and movement of backgrounds; it was first tested on the short “The Old Mill“and used for Snow White and other classics. “The Little Mermaid” was the last Disney film to use a multiplane camera.

Toy Story (1995)

Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story was hailed by critics and audiences alike.

The film has been recognised as the first feature film which is fully animated with computers works.

As Julia Zorthian discusses in her look back at Toy Story twenty years after its release,  according to her one of the key to its success was the excellent storytelling the film projects which has actually helped the film  a good longevity long after CGI has become an industry standard.

The Harry Potter Series (2000s)

Creating a believable world of magic and Muggles has been a task for the director and production teams on each film in the series and they have used every trick from old fashioned optical illusions and model sets to CGI and green screens to pull it off.

Hugo (2011)

Director Martin Scorsese wanted the opening shot of Hugo to be a seamless long shot from outside the railway station through the clockworks and into Hugo’s hidden home.

To bring Brian Selznick’s book to life, Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato and Pixomondo Ben Grossman devised many tricks and transitions to create the signature opening with other scenes that indeed pays homage to Méliès and other filmmakers of the earliest days of cinema.

The Jungle Book (2016)

Using a live actor with computer animation and motion capture had not been done on this scale, but director Jon Favreau and special effects supervisor Rob Legato worked with hundreds of designers to create the seamless animated backgrounds and animal characters.

And they did all the previz using VR headsets.

The end result is also a testament to Neel Sethi’s talent as an actor, since he had to deliver an emotionally true performance while responding to puppets.

TV Shows With High-End VFX

TV has come a long way over the years. There have been some incredible highs that have almost literally gotten the whole world talking, as well as some abysmal lows populated with shows that are better left unmentioned.  VFX is used in serials in television to enhancing the look and feel of a particular scene and helps to create the scene more visually appealing.

As things have progressed, so too has the job of the visual effect artist, a job which has changed dramatically over the years. It’s always worth taking a minute to review what lead us to where we are today.

So, without further delay, let’s begin our tour of visual effects in popular television channels that have stolen our hearts.

VFX-driven TV shows have always been liked by the audience regardless of their age. After all, why would anyone not like the idea of escaping from the real world and watching something which is possible only in the reel world?

The trend of using visual effects in TV shows began with Ramanand Sagara’s superhit mythological show, Ramayan based on the life of Lord Rama.

Usage of  VFX was one of the biggest reasons that viewers were drawn to the show. Much has changed since then and the kind of VFX we get to see in today’s shows is way ahead of what we saw during our childhood.

What hasn’t changed is the fondness for VFX which infuses life and drama to these shows. Let’s take a look at some TV shows which are making the best use of VFX €

Maha Kumbh: Ek Rahasaya, Ek Kahani: It is a thriller show set in the backdrop of Uttar Pradesh.

The story deals with Rudra, a boy who possesses supernatural powers but is unaware of them. A perfect blend of contemporary and period drama, the show features fight sequences with VFX adding a flavour to them.

The 35-member VFX team leaves no stone unturned in creating a fascinating make-believe world.

Razia Sultan: & TV show Razia Sultan is the story of Delhi’s first queen, Razia Sultan. Having a grand set in Gujarat’s Umargaon, the show’s  production team consists of 200 members.

According to a report on Animationxpress.com, a sequence from the show which shows Razia taking on a tiger took as long as two and a half months to create.

Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat: Based on the life of Indian Emperor of Maurya Dynasty, Ashoka, the periodic drama is being shot on a large scale in parts of Kerala, Jaisalmer, Mumbai Film City and Karjat.

The ambitious project is handled by a team of 500 people. Featuring first-rate VFX, the show is becoming hot favorite among the audience.

Maharakshak Devi: Maharakshak Devi revolves around Devi, the most powerful girl in the world who is shown fighting evils of the contemporary world.

The highly advanced VFX imparts an eye-catching look to the show and infuses life into the riveting story line.

These are just few examples of serials which are using vfx on regular basis.  And many many more to come. This gives us an idea how much scope vfx artist holds after completing his course.