Find your crew, start shooting, finishes editing, and then come visual effects, right? If you use this process, you’re not only putting yourself at risk of not being able to finish your VFX, but you might also be missing a lot of opportunities for better VFX solutions for your film. Here we are going to talk about a good process for maximizing your VFX in the film.
Soon after getting greenlit, a VFX producer should be board. He or
she will go through the script, give you a rough budget and
schedule, and point out some problems you might have. This is
the first step for VFX in your film making process.
During pre-production, the visual effects team will work on R&D,
VFX concept design, and storyboard or 3D pre-visualization. The
visual effects supervisor will work with the director for the VFX
shot design. This step combines the director’s creativity with the
VFX supervisor’s experience to make sure the director’s vision is
doable in the budget and on schedule. They also go through how
and when to shot the scenes and what props need to be prepared.
Concept drawings, story-boards, and 3D pre-vise will be used as a
guide for preparing sets or props and as a reference for the
cinematographer and editor as well. The VFX team will also have
to do some effects testing and R&D at this stage to make sure the
ideas are possible.
During filming, the VFX supervisor will be on set to make sure the
green screen is set right. If the green screen has bad lighting, it
will make the VFX work in a post more difficult and cost more time
and money. There’s also a lot of data and information needed to
be collected and recorded during the shooting. Such as camera
angle, camera lens, clean plate, HDRI, and more. Those will help a
lot in the post VFX process. At the same time, the VFX team is
doing R&D creating any 3D models or start working on some of
the full CG shots.
After the editing is finished is the time when the VFX team gets
busy. The shots that need VFX will be scanned (if it’s not digital),
organized, sent to the VFX studio, and assigned to the artists. 3D
items such as creatures, vehicles, or environments (whether the
environments should be matte paintings or 3D will be decided by
the VFX supervisor) will go through modeling, texturing/shading,
binding/rigging, animating, lighting and rendering. Most plate
elements will be tracked and keyed out of the green screen. Some
backgrounds will be replaced with matte paintings. Finally, the
compositors will get all the elements from the 3D renders, matte
paintings, and keyed plates to do the final composite. A lot of
plates clean up and fixing shooting mistakes will also be done by
compositors.
From this simple introduction, I hope that you got an idea about
the process of VFX in film. I’ll go more into detail to explain each
step of VFX production in future posts and case studies or
examples to help you learn more about VFX for film. In this post, I
just hope filmmakers understand how important it is to include
VFX in the early stage. Hope you enjoy it and please let us know
your questions or commons.
How Visual Effects Work in Film: A Guide to the 4 Types of VFX
Visual effects allow filmmakers to create breathtaking imaginary universes and achieve stunts that would be impossible to film in the real world—but visual effects aren't exclusive to blockbuster feature films. Filmmakers also use subtle visual effects in more grounded films to tell their stories more effectively.
What Is VFX?
In filmmaking, visual effects (VFX) is the creation or manipulation of any on-screen imagery that does not physically exist in real life. VFX allows filmmakers to create environments, objects, creatures, and even people that would otherwise be impractical or impossible to film in the context of a live-action shot. VFX in the film frequently involves the integration of live-action footage with computer-generated imagery (CGI).
What’s the Difference Between VFX and SFX?
The term “visual effects” is not interchangeable with the term “special effects” (SFX). Unlike VFX, SFX is achieved in real-time during filming; examples include pyrotechnics, fake rain, animatronics, and prosthetic makeup. All VFX are added after shooting in post-production.
3 Types of Visual Effects
Top visual effects studios are staffed with VFX supervisors and
teams of VFX artists who all have their specialties. Most types of
VFX fall into one or more of the following categories:
1. CGI: Computer-generated imagery is the blanket term used
to describe digitally-created VFX in film and television. These
computer graphics can be 2D or 3D, but CGI is generally
referenced when talking about 3D VFX. The most talkedabout process in CGI is 3D modeling—the creation of a 3D
representation of any object, surface, or living creature. CGI
VFX is most apparent when artists use them to create
something that doesn't exist, like a dragon or monster. But
visual effects can also be more subtle; VFX artists can use VFX
to fill a baseball stadium with a crowd of cheering fans or deage an actor to make them appear younger.
2. Compositing: Also called “chroma-keying,” compositing is
when VFX artists combine visual elements from separate
origins to make it appear as though they are in the same
place. This visual effect technique requires filming with a
green screen or blue screen that compositors later replace
with another element using compositing software in postproduction. An early form of compositing achieved this effect
with matte paintings illustrations of landscapes or sets that
were composited with live-action footage
3. Motion capture: Often shorthanded as "mocap," motion
capture is the process of digitally recording an actor's
movements, then transferring those movements to a
computer-generated 3D model. When this process includes
recording an actor's facial expressions, it's often referred to
specifically as “performance capture.” One common motion
capture method involves placing an actor in a motioncapture suit covered in special markers that a camera can
track (or in the case of performance capture, dots painted on
the actor's face). The data captured by the cameras is then
mapped onto a 3D skeleton model using motion capture
software.
REAL-TIME IN-C
Visual effects (VFX) are a great way of achieving spectacular
results when the budget doesn't allow filming for real or it's too
risky for the actors. Up till now, these were achieved mostly by
filming on green or blue screens. This new way of filmmaking
presents a way for shooting scenes with VFX directly in-camera.
For the last several years I've seen real-time VFX compositing, but
the actors are still in a green or blue screen environment. In this
presentation, the guys from Unreal Engine have managed to
utilize LED screens for both lighting and projecting visuals.
Together with the help of some real-time camera tracking, the
filmmakers can create impressive scenes that are naturally
blending with the actors and the set. The realism now depends
not on the way the characters are keyed-out from a green screen
and composited into the computer-generated scene but from the
realism of the projected imagery on the screen and additional onset lighting. If you have been working with 3D, you will know
about using HDRI backgrounds to light a scene which is basically
what is being done with these LED walls. The colors of the
projected screen reflect perfectly over the actors and the set to
create realistic lighting conditions.
While this set up is very handy for directors and DPs, it will be
interesting to hear how actors feel like being filmed for VFX in
comparison to the green or blue screens.