Life of Pi - Tiger

Creating a life-like tiger as a main character that must be pretty much all computer generated takes an insane amount of animation work. Everything needs to be exactly like a real tiger, down to the muscle patterns. The animators that worked on the tiger through Rhythm & Hues productions had access to real tigers for all the animating work they needed. They used real tigers in the film for only a total of 20 shots, everything else was done with the CG tigers they built. VFX supervisor Westenhofer explained that it was the most complex creature they had every animated. He said that the paws were the most challenging since they required the most amount of independent controls. Ths is the kind of animation that is truly awe inspiring, it just looks so real.

Life of Hulk

In great action movies, such as The Avengers, the effects are larger than life (EX: The Hulk). Have you ever wondered how they make these monsters look so realistic, and how they create a whole location and make it seem real? Through the advancement of technology, CGI characters are broke down to the skeleton, making the creations more believable than ever before. Also, cities and oceans are now just painted on in Post-Production as Green/Blue Screen has become a highly valued location.

In both The Avengers and Life of Pi CGI work is used for more than making an animation, but rather bring a new world, and its creatures in it, alive.

 

 

Life of Pi

So I haven't heard much about Ang Lee's Life of Pi, except that it is supposed to have amazing special effects. I did a little research and this movie looks pretty interesting. It is about a boy whose family decides to move their zoo. There is a shipwreck and the boy, Pi, has to survive. That is the very basic jist of the plot. The reviews so far are pretty good (it has an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes). The movie is based on a book that was supposed to be "impossible" to film, which I think makes it even more impressive that it is good at all, let alone great (supposedly). It came out on Nov 21, so hopefully I will get to see it soon.

Here is the trailer, the special effects don't really come in until the end but when they do, they look awesome.