Sick of posts regarding VFX breakdowns from MPC? Well, too bad. Get over yourself. You have no say in this matter. I'll write about these breakdowns until the day I die (or at least until the end of the semester). These videos are simply so fascinating. They show simple folk like you and I just how much work goes into the films we know and love.
This week's breakdown comes to you from MPC (Moving Picture Company)--the same as usual--highlighting some of the greatest visual effects accomplishments found in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I can confidently say the fourth Pirates installment is by far the worst film of the series, but it's impossible to overlook the spectacular visual effects.
Before
After
What's so fascinating about this particular breakdown is just how much of the highlights was news to me. I know that's not much of a surprise, but isn't that the true indicator of a job well-done? Not knowing something was actually added in postproduction means it was truly done with skill and precision. I was confident the majority of the effects displayed in the video were shot on-scene. Sure, I know Johnny Depp couldn't have possibly jumped from a couple hundred-foot high cliff into a rock-infested river and survived (probably), but the plants he walks past are fake?! You've got to be joking.
Apparently Barbossa's peg leg is fake, too. I guess everything I've ever known to be true is just a lie. It's an unfortunate discovery, but I'll just have to learn to live with the sad, sad truth. It's strange, really. One of Barbossa's biggest defining traits is his wooden leg, and it turns out it's been animated the entire time. It just goes to show how much of an impact animation has on individual characters as well as the entire layout of a film.
Gary Brozenich led the MPC team on Pirates of the Caribbean VFX supervisor. Having spearheaded other projects such as The Lone Ranger and Wrath of the Titans, he certainly was a good pick for the job. I'm sure he'll have other great work for us all very soon.
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: MPC is doing some amazing work and they need to be recognized as a leading visual effects company. Now, I shall leave you all with this compilation of unbelievably cute puppies.
Through many hours of YouTube scouring and fact searching, I can confidently state one thing: so much less of what we think is real in movies actually is. My mind has been sufficiently blown by the countless examples of where visual effects have replaced what I truly though had been shot on-set. Usually, one can tell what can be realistically recorded on a camera and what is produced by a computer. Well, as it turns out, that's not entirely true.
Take The Avengers for example. Now, clearly very much of the film is computer-generated. It's obvious. Unless there was actually an alien invasion that recently happened in New York City that I wasn't aware of, I think it's safe to say that the large majority of this invasion was created through the use of visual effects. What I had no idea, though, was the fact that pretty much the entire city itself was also created after the original shooting of the film. Seriously, take a look:
It's unbelievable to think that some of the only real-life things in that entire video are a couple actors in front of tiny green screens. You'd think at least some of the city landscapes would be shot on-scene, but nope! Not at all!
The Lone Ranger is another prime example of this sort of visual effects use. Now, personally speaking, I feel like the large-scale use of effects is much more noticeable in this film, even though the animators did an excellent job with it. I'm really not quite sure how to explain why I feel this way, but there's just a feeling you get when you watch the film. Here's a highlight reel of The Lone Ranger:
I had another video that was a much better example, but it decided that it didn't want to be posted. Anyway, you can see in this video that, in many scenes, the only real things are the actors themselves. Sets seem to be becoming obsolete when they can be replaced by green screens and special effects.
Here's the link to the actual video I want you to watch.
NOW you can see how ridiculous The Lone Ranger is when it comes to special effects. While the effects aren't necessarily the most realistic-looking you've ever seen, you've gotta hand it to the animators. Led by VFX Supervisor, Gary Brozenich, the visual effects company MPC created over 550 individual shots for the film. These include anything from CGI canyons and forests to horses and scorpions.
It's crazy just how much of a film can be attributed to the countless animators who you've never heard of and exactly how much of what you're seeing on screen was actually shot on-set.
