The Making of "Pacific Rim" Motion Graphics

One thing about motion graphics that is fascinating to me is how the initial drawings and ideas become the end product. After surfing the internet on things related to our class I stumbled upon this one which I found to be pretty interesting, although it is short I do think it's helpful for someone like me, with little experience in graphics, to see a general work flow from ideas to the final product. In this video the audience is shown in a non specific way how the artists idea's translate to the screen in the movie "Pacific Rim". Although this is not a tutorial or a breakdown of how the graphics were created, I think it gives good incite into how the artist has to prepare to combine what they are planning to create with what the director has envisioned and shot.

Recreating the World for Pacific Rim

I recently sat down to watch the 2013 film Pacific Rim. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, this movie follows the journey of small team of individuals as they attempt to stop Kaijus, colossal aliens, from terrorizing mankind. In order to combat these giant beasts, the humans built Jaegers, giant robots that are piloted by people. Although these robots are slowly being phased out by the government in favor of a protective wall around the Kaijus' portal, four a chosen to fend off the monsters until the wall is complete. Eventually, after some giant battles, the Jaegers use a bomb, blow up the portal, and save the day!

Although I thought plot of Pacific Rim was particularly strong for a science fiction movie, what really impressed me were the special effects. In my search to find out the techniques used for the film, I came across the above video. In particular, this video focuses on the special effects used in the climatic battle scene between a Kaijus and a Jaeger. Because these behemoths are the size of skyscrapers, the visual effects team had to recreate the entire world were this fight takes place, which is suppose to be Hong Kong. It was particularly eye-opening to hear of all the little details that had to be added to create a realistic scene, such as rain bouncing of the monsters and dust coming out from collapsed buildings. Although much of the battle sequence relies on computer-generated graphics, it was also interesting to see how the visual effects team used scaled down versions of buildings for several shots. Unfortunately, although I would like to see a sequel to Pacific Rim, that seems unlikely to happen given its financial disaster at the box office.

Considerations of the Green Sreen

The green screen is wonderful. It's used on rinky-dink YouTube videos and major motion pictures alike. The green screen, in all of its power, is a placeholder for any visual you can think of. But standing in front of a green screen and putting a galaxy behind you is not going to make the next Star Wars. Anyone can do that... and in order to create something impressive you'll have to get a little more creative then that. Today I want to take a quick tour around ways video effects have been created with and without the use of a green screen.

First off: The Great Gatsby. This movie went head-over-heals on the green screen. They saved millions of dollars with this strategy, although I'm not sure I fully liked it. Although it would have been incredibly more expensive I would have loved to see them create the real world of Gatsby and bring it to the screen. Check out this behind the scenes video, and realize how little of that movie really was practical.

(side note: god I'm in love with movie's soundtrack.)

Let's move just a couple months into the future with Pacific Rim. Obviously the bulk of this movie was made with visual effects, but they also incorporated many practical effects. Here is a video that details the filming inside the head of the giant robots the humans operate:

"It's like a giant theme park simulator" the director says. Giant simulator, indeed! That thing looks fun! Strap me in one of those, eh? Anyways, this is a good example of combining the practical and green screen effects to make a visually compelling piece.

My last example is a commercial that uses no green screen at all... which is what makes it so god damn impressive. First, check out the full commercial:

Impressive, right? I'm sure you're wondering how they did it. I know I was. The answer is a crap load of planning, measuring, and executing. Check out this behind the scenes video!