Of late India’s VFX players have been firing on all cylinders. The conviction and proof that India is capable of doing high quality FX has finally set in.
Celebrating the coming of age of Indian FX, ABAI Fest 06 had a separate session dedicated to Case Studies on VFX which featured work done for both, Bollywood as well as Hollywood.
And the ‘Desert for the Day’ session as the organizers called it, featured some delectable lip smacking FX from EFX (Krrish), VCL (KANK, Rang De Basanti) and R&H India (Superman Returns).
Chairing the session, Indian VFX celebrity N Madhu Sudhanan shared, “Of late we have finally begun seeing a lot of Hollywood VFX work being delivered by Indian studios and things are going to grow really fast for this segment. I have been in this field for long and according to me, most important is the belief and confidence levels in studios that they can do great quality. We have always had it in us, but it’s more a matter of self belief than of execution. And finally we have started believing in ourselves”
“In the past 24 months, Indian studios have delivered quality VFX and on time for quite a few Hollywood projects. Next year we are going to witness a 2x increase in the amount of FX work being delivered and will take us to the top bracket as a VFX outsourcing destination, the world over” he added.
Experiencing Krrish FX courtesy EFX
With more than a 1000 VFX Shots, Krrish is without doubt a landmark film in Indian VFX. The film features a huge amount of CG & FX work right from Fires, Stunts, Futuristic Settings, Atmospheric Effects, 3D actors in stunts etc
“Working on Krrish was a great experience for us. There was a lot of research that went into it. There were many firsts attached to this project, it was one of the first Indian superhero films, one of the first Bollywood films to feature more than a 1000 vfx shots of which quite a few were complex and challenging” shared EFX’ Mohan Krishnan.
“Besides the research, technical expertise and creative input involved in our work on Krrish, we also evolved in terms of our sophisticated project management system and software’ he added.
Some of the sequences and shot break downs that Mohan shared at ABAI Fest ’06 included the CG Bike stunt sequence where halfway through the sequence, the CG bike replaces the real bike and goes spinning away; the CG trailer stunt sequence where Krrish does a split second jump right through the small space between a trailer’s front and container – the container was done completely in CG and was tracked to the front even as Krrish jumped across.
Some other shots showcased include the basket ball sequence, the Circus fire, the atmospheric effects in the Song Sequence amongst others.
“Krrish is definitely a milestone film in Indian VFX and we consider it as a very good beginning to full scale usage of VFX in Bollywood. But there is still a long way to go and we will get there” concluded Mohan.
CG stadiums, Crowd Multiplications, Extensive Motion Tracking & Seamless Compositing, VCL goes the whole hog with KANK and RDB
It is interesting to see that two of this year’s biggest and most talked about films Rang De Basanti and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna featured a great amount of VFX.
VCL, Tata Elxsi’s Vishal Anand shared some of the stills and work in progress shots from both the movies. “KANK featured 45 minutes of VFX” said Vishal. “A major highlight was the CG football stadium and the neighboring city in the aerial views. It is for the first time in Bollywood that anyone has done advanced crowd multiplication sequences”
Another highlight of KANK FX that Vishal focused on was the ‘Digital Snow’ shot with Shah Rukh Khan. “We had this scene where SRK was walking alone across a cemetery covered with snow. The idea was to convey the actor’s loneliness by showing him and the solitary trail of footsteps he leaves. But it so happened that while shooting, due to some delay and rescheduling of the shot, the snow covered patch got full of foot prints and the shot was canned with SRK and the multiple footprint trails. The at VCL we painted out the extra trails with snow and restored the shot as per the original vision of the director”
Vishal emphasized that the primary objective of VFX is to make the Director’s vision come alive.
Talking next about Rang De Basanti, Vishal spoke about the day for night sequence which has been done across a complete song. A truly amazing piece of work, it is really impossible to know that the scene is a day for night until told so.
“While doing day for nights is something that’s a standard today” said Vishal “The challenge here was that it was a song sequence with a lot of Car and Bike motion. Creating CG lights and tracking it to the moving vehicles plus CG lighting the shot, was the finesse of this work”
Other sequences from RDB that Vishal elaborated on included the CG airbase and the pledge sequence which has a CG flicker, with lots of tracking, compositing and lighting work done.
Super Research, Super Effort, R&H showcases Superman Returns sequence
Rhythm & Hues India has been at the forefront of VFX work from India and has played a significant role in making Hollywood Giants take note of and acknowledge Indian VFX.
The fact that the studio in the past five years has done VFX work (of course, in collaboration with its LA based parent) for more than 20 Hollywood blockbusters has given Hollywood and International producers, confidence that India can do great VFX stuff.
R&H India’s Digital production Manager A.R.Seshaprasad kick-started his presentation with a show-reel of some of R&H’s work from movies such as Narnia , Ring2, X Men 2, Around the world in 80 days, The Run Down, The sum of all fears, Harry POTTER & The Sorcerers Stone, Garfield, Solaris, Elf, MIB.
“We have been in India for more than 5 years and have contributed to more than over 20 films from Hollywood. Contrary to the notion that R&H India operates in an outsourced model, we are the same company with a highly integrated and highly collaborative sets of teams, sharing the same culture and values.Our computer networks are fully integrated and we expect the same quality of work from all our employees irrespective of where they are located.” shared Prasad.
Speaking about the Rhythm & Hues’s experience and especially focusing on Superman Returns sequences, Prasad shared, “Good Work takes good time. And great research too”
He then went on to elaborate on two VFX sequences from Superman Returns. ‘Fortress of Solitude’ and the ‘Ship rescue sequence’.
Recreating Marlon Brando@ R&H
In ‘Fortress of Solitude’, the context was that Superman used to frequently visit the fortress to listen to the holograms of his father to know the ways of the universe & the character of Superman’s father had been played by Marlon Brando in the previous Superman films and in spite of the fact that the legendary actor had passed away in 2004, the director Bryan Singer still wanted Brando to play Superman’s father as he felt nobody else could embody the character better.
Using existing footage from Brando’s scenes from the previous Superman Movies, R&H recreated Brando using complex and highly sophisticated techniques. The result was Brando came alive for Superman Returns.
Prasad played a very impressive video on the making of the same which had the audience spell bound.
Next he spoke about the Ship Rescue sequence where R&H worked with leading scientists in the field of computational fluid dynamics.
“Each and every shot requires weeks of research and preparation.” shared Prasad “Sometimes even a single shot takes months and a lot of finishing until it gets approved by clients”
The greatest challenge in VFX today is not only in writing software for creating some complex simulations but in giving the director complete control and flexibility over each shot. Film making is the director’s medium and finally he has to have the final say.
Talking about Indian VFX coming of age Prasad remarked, “These are some very exciting times ahead for all of us in our Industry and the level of expertise is developing at a very good pace within the Indian artist pool”
Concluding his presentation with a final word of advice for the studens and artists, Prasad stressed, “Don’t fall in love with any particular software, It’s a marriage between art and technology”