Inception the movie is one of the most mind bending movies in are life time using dreams and different dimensions Christopher Nolan used little computer-generated imagery, preferring practical effects whenever possible. Nolan said, "It's always very important to me to do as much as possible in-camera, and then, if necessary, computer graphics are very useful to build on or enhance what you have achieved physically."Paul Franklin visual effects supervisor built a small mountain fortress set and then blew it up for the film. For the fight scene that takes place in zero gravity, he used CGI effects to subtly bend elements like physics, space and time." By creating real models of the cityscapes and the water flowing through the buildings made the special effects have more depth and look more realistic.
I really want to get to know After Effects, so naturally I got really distracted by watching videos of a bunch of cool plugins that you can create. I think opening titles can really be great to watch even if you do something simple with them, and I always seem to be become extremely uninterested when the text or opening titles to a movie or project are simple. Here is a cool template I found that I thought were really cool:
Going off of that, I have always been real interested in the plugins side of what After Effects can do, so I looked into some tutorials that would be a challenge yet still be entertaining. There is such a wide array of effects to use on a movie, but given the weather, I figured this tutorial looked appropriate:
First off, I'd just like to point out how incredible of a show the Walking Dead is... if you haven't started watching it, you're doing yourself a disservice. It is an incredible story of survival from the viewpoints of many diverse characters. Nearly every episode someone is faced with an incredibly difficult situation or mind crippling decision. It causes you to think about life and humanity, and what those high-concepts truly mean. I just finished season 2 and the finale was nothing short of a masterpiece. It begins with everyone's life in jeopardy as a horde of Walkers (the shows pet name for zombies) breaks through the defenses of the farm which the survivors have taken refuge in. From that point; the onslaught begins. The survivors desperately hold down their position, using cars as their cavalry and the farm as their castle. During these gruesome scenes it is easy to see that After Effects was used to simulate the gunshots and the bloody display of projectile brains. Beyond the makeup and acting ability, it seemed relatively simple to replicate using the tools we've learned (i.e. motion tracking, masking, and utilizing layers). The effects were incredibly realistic and made for some really brutal and horrific shots. During the course of the episode, many beloved characters are lost, either to the zombies or separated from the group, and the feeling of desperation skyrockets for the viewer. To add to the drama, some of the characters begin to change their dispositions; from friendly, heroic and righteous to borderline evil. The show definitely makes use of filters through After Effects. In several scenes they use fire to destroy zombies, and in another they sit around a campfire and and discuss their plans. In both scenes you can tell that the actors are not actually in front of fires, but rather they are using filters in After Effects to give the viewer the impression that it is night, and they use special lighting and glow effects to enhance the illusion. In reality, fires would cause too much brightness and would ruin the shot due to the intensity of the light. The closing shot of the episode reveals a fortress in the distance, foreshadowing the plot of the next season. It too appears to have been created using After Effects by superimposing it onto the final frames of the shot; leaving us viewers with a wild cliffhanger. I am incredibly excited to begin the next season, and follow it each week. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, the first two seasons are on Netflix and I highly recommend them to anyone who claims to be an avid fan of sci-fi, drama, action, or horror.
So I thought this summer for the most part was pretty disappointing when it came to new movies. I was looking forward to Prometheus for a very long time and Scott's return to the sci-fi genre. Turns out the movie was mediocre, but the special effects were amazing. The very beginning sequence shows an alien called an Engineer drinking some black soup which disintegrates his body. His DNA is the building blocks for life on Earth. This sequence is just stunning. Check it out.
It's really interesting to see that the visual effects artists went into so much detail as to create a skeleton for the character, even though only the skin is shown. The coolest part about this video is the explanation of the practical effects for the DNA being destroyed. The artists physically made the DNA out of silicon and shot it, which opens my mind for so many possibilities in visual effects. Pretty cool stuff.
I have always found it fascinating how special effects have progressed throughout history. It's fascinating that these artists can trick the mind of a person into truly believing that what in front of them on the screen is "real." I came across some behind the scenes of the sci-fi film Moon (2009) the other day that really intrigued me. Here's the link: http://www.modelminiatures.co.uk/moonbase.htm . "Moon" takes place, you guessed it, on the Moon in a base. In order to create the actual base, the filmmakers choose to build a physical miniature instead of using digital effects. The detail and the effort put into the base amazes me and I believe it really works.
You can see that there are other computer generated graphics in this clip, so it's interesting to see that both physical and virtual elements are used to create this film. I would think it's be pretty neat to film a miniature then animate it in after effects. You could add some unique textures or some exaggerated movement. If you haven't seen Moon, I highly recommend it. A really well done sci-fi film.
This is another one of those awesome "created entirely in CG" clips. I love the absence of any live footage and can't fathom how much work goes into stuff like this...not to mention render time for such complex stuff even on nice hardware!
This one is definitely sci-fi themed but the shot that blows my mind is the reel to reel recorder. It just looks infallibly real, as if it were simply a well-lit live shot.
One thing I'd like to play with is depth of field, like in the shot that seems to be of a keyhole-looking object. Are there any good plugins that create nice, realistic depth of field blur like that? Also, this seems to be yet another really high-end film out of Spain.
