What may seem like a ferocious animal to the naked eye might just be a prop dangling around. The heavy use of VFX and CGI has led to creation of crucial scenes by using simple props. So be it a bull in Baahubali: The Beginning or a bear in The Revenant, anything can be created digitally without even causing a scratch to the actor.
SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali is still the talking point as far as creation of various spectacular sequences and visual effects is concerned. Recently, the VFX team released a video of the bull fight scene of the character Bhallala Deva played by Rana Daggubati.
The entire video put together by Tau Films of Malaysia clearly displays green screens and other props that were used to give the fight a realistic look in the final output. With Makuta VFX at the VFX helm and the supervision of the mastermind Srinivas Mohan, this whole bison scene was created by Tau Films right from the grass root level.
Ever wondered how Bhallaladeva fought the Bull? Check out this video, courtesy of the talented Tau Films team! https://t.co/Aa9nGsNzgt
— Baahubali (@BaahubaliMovie) January 6, 2016
Apart from the bull’s head prop that was used on the set to give the actors some spatial context and feel so that Rana could apply his strength to bring alive the intensity of the scene, the bull was rendered entirely in post-production. To bring out the expressions and force that’s required to push the bull, a man is seen holding the head giving an opposite direction force.
While, on the Hollywood front Alejandro González Ińárritu’s The Revenant had a beast fight scene too. Starring the phenomenal Leonardo DiCaprio playing the lead character Hugh Glass, the film had a four minute sequence of a fierce bear attack on the protagonist.
The VFX Studio Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) at the helm with RichMcBride supervising the entire visual effects, this bear attack scene was unfolded just how an actual bear attack would occur. The bear in this scene was a huge monster covered with tones of fur as compared to the bison seen in Baahubali and Leonardo too had a heavy coat over him unlike the bare body of Rana.
Both McBride and Alejandro wanted the attack to be sudden, realistic and outrageously ferocious. Therefore the mauling of Leonardo was kept very messy as the mother bear swings and tears him apart with a view of protecting her cubs. According to a report in Indiewire, there was simulation of flesh over the bones and then a layer of skin that got another layer of simulation and then the fur got simulated on top of that. Because of the dramatic use of VFX, the bear is portrayed bleeding and Leo’s torn up in a freezing jungle environment with cubs running in the background quite evidently and realistically.
More importantly, the whole attack sequence was neatly composed together so that it looked like one continuous take in the woods. Alejandro wanted to keep the feel alive so a stuntman was used with an animal skin draped over him to depict the action of the bear attack, and how it would tear apart the costume.
Both of these sequences profoundly claim what wonders VFX has been creating in the film industry to fabricate anything and everything. Be it nature, animal, human or an illusion on screen, VFX is the key element and the answer to the creation of the impossible in the world!
