34 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY VISUAL EFFECTS

SHAPING
THE BOUNDS
OF REALITY

As the high-end computing resources needed to generate eye-

popping on-screen effects become more available the VFX industry
is playing an ever bigger part in shaping the cinematic experience.
By Aasha Bodhani

THIS YEAR’S 86th Academy Awards and communications technology have action shot. VFX can involve the integration
honoured some of the strongest contenders facilitated many of these achievements. of live-action visuals and generated imagery
in the Best Visual Effects category, including VFX has been a crucial part of movie to create convincingly realistic-looking
THE PICTURE DESK/KOBAL, REX FEATURES

‘Iron Man 3’, ‘The Lone Ranger’, ‘Star Trek magic since cinema’s earliest days and has environments that would be expensive,
Into Darkness’, and the winner, science always played a part in pushing the hazardous, impractical or impossible to
fiction thriller ‘Gravity’, directed by capabilities of the technologies that otherwise commit to film or video. It also
Alfonso Cuarón. The film also went on to underpin it. VFX is often confused with other minimises the risk to actors performing a
win six accolades from the Visual Effects aspects of onscreen image processing, such dangerous stunt.
Society. The award was a major accolade as digital animation and computer-generated Filmmakers may also turn to VFX to
for the film’s visual effects supervisor, Tim imagery (CGI), and the techniques overlap create virtual locations and backdrops:
Webber, but also for the creative studio that and complement each other to a great extent. instead of trekking to real places or waiting
generated the film’s visual effects (VFX), According to the Visual Effects Society, for specific climatic phenomena to occur,
UK company Framestore. It also highlighted standard definition of VFX would cover the visuals effects can be created relatively
the leading position UK VFX studios now processes by which imagery is created and/ simply with the aid of computers. Ambiance
occupy, and how advances in information or manipulated outside the context of a live can be added to actors performing in front of

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 35

Hollywood blockbuster
‘Gravity’ won the Best
Visual Effects category in
2014’s Academy Awards

a green screen studio. The cost savings from transformation into Logan was only possible Blu-ray releases of a VFX-heavy title. To
avoiding location shooting can prove because of computer-aided effects. date, DVD and Blu-ray sales of ‘Gravity’ have
considerable, and has been another boost to Market analyst PWC reckons the value of reportedly reached a combined total value of
the VFX industry in the straitened the VFX industry (worldwide) will grow from more than $45m (according to research
economies since 2008. This investment has $90.9bn in 2014 to $110.1bn in 2018, as revealed website the-numbers.com).
enabled VFX specialists to invest in the ICT in its ‘Global entertainment and media Another driving factor is that VFX
technology required which, in turn, has had outlook’ report. Plus, according to movie technology has become much more
a knock-on effect for the ICT industry. reporting service Box Office Mojo, in 2013 accessible to filmmakers with the
VFX is also a creative enabler. A director’s alone blockbuster movies renown for using availability of inexpensive software that
vision may not match the physical tools visual effects generated millions in profit. runs on non-specialist computer operating
available to create the film – for instance, the ‘Frozen’ and ‘Iron Man 3’, for instance, have systems and computer hardware. Although
materials to make extravagant costumes may both grossed over $1.2bn to date. impressive results can be achieved by using
be costly or impossible to make. This was the With the development of high-definition modest desktop devices, for state-of-the-art
case in comic-strip-inspired film ‘X-Men’ and 3D home cinema, VFX can also play an VFX typical to major movies very powerful
where the character Mystique’s important part in sales of the DVD and workstation and graphics processing >

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36 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY VISUAL EFFECTS
WINNERS
2004 2005 2006 2007
ACADEMY Spider-Man 2 King Kong Pirates of the The Golden
2008
The Curious Case
AWARD – Dir: Sam Raimi Dir: Peter
Jackson
Caribbean: Dead
Man’s Chest
Compass
Dir: Chris Weitz
of Benjamin Button
Dir: David Fincher
BEST VISUAL Dir: Gore Verbinski

EFFECTS
(2004-2013)
< compute power is required, and these innovation in regard to VFXs, with and Sandra Bullock – at times appeared
processes generate massive data sets competing productions seeking to out-do in face only, with their spacesuit-enclosed
requiring terabytes of storage capacity. each other in terms of their visual bodies being computer-generated.
The availability of high-performance achievements. Its range of genres, from London-based visual effects company,
computing (HPC) resources and big data fantasy adventures like the ‘Hobbit’ and the Framestore used a team of 400 VFX experts
storage resources – both of which can now ‘Harry Potter’ series, through to come-alive to create the vastness of space, the Earth,
more-affordably be accessed through the comic hero outings like ‘Iron Man’ and 30 million stars, the space shuttles, Hubble
cloud – have also played a part in making ‘Spiderman’, also provide new scope for Telescope, the International Space Station,
VFX more viable for a range of cinematic over-the-top VFX that make a tangible fragments of debris and the space suits.
and televisual productions. contribution to box-office revenues. “There was a stage initially where it was
Alongside this are advances being driven Visual effects have always been used in going to be made with actors in real space
by audience demand. With mainstream films, but filmmakers now have more suits,” recalls Framestore’s visual effects
movies, it’s long been argued that VFX can technology to play around with. It is supervisor Tim Webber. “They would have
make or break a blockbuster, especially impossible to imagine how a Hollywood been hung-up on wires on partial sets, and we
where films are targeting the more blockbuster would look without its visual would have extended it and put it in the
socially-active 16-24 age range. VFX is often effects – films with iconic moments and background. In the end considerably more of
the compelling feature that audience surroundings such as ‘Avatar’ and its fantasy [the end result] is computer-generated than
members will be most thrilled by, and have world, ‘Harry Potter’ and his magic, ‘Star real.”
come to play a key part in word-of-mouth Wars’ set in space and ‘Titanic’ with its Visual effects are about recreating reality,
marketing. sinking ship were all completed with the use and another reality is that this aspect of
The movie business is not the only sector of VFX. movie-making has become a vital part in the
dependent on visual effects, of course: production process to the point where it is
television shows, advertisements, music VFX award-winners unusual for a film not to employ VFX. While
videos and even low-budget documentaries ‘Gravity’’s Oscar success has generated huge they have been embedded in films, the effects
are regular users of VFX. Much of this work interest in VFX, and its potential to help themselves have become increasingly
is outsourced to specialist third-party guarantee healthy box office takings – the sophisticated and more realistic, to the point
service providers. film has generated a worldwide gross of that even industry insiders cannot always
However, it’s mainstream movies that $716,392,705 (at time of writing) on a $100m easily distinguish between the real and the
make the biggest demands on the technology budget. The use of VFX has also attracted computer-generated.
– and spend the biggest budgets – to exploit much media coverage, which helped the “The industry has changed out of all
the use of visual effects. From Hollywood to production marketing and advertising. recognition,” says Alex Williams, co-leader
Borehamwood, the entertainment movie ‘Gravity’ was unusual in that for much of BA in Animation at Bucks New
industry is in a perpetual state of of the action, its stars – George Clooney University’s Design, Media and Management

‘Gravity’’s entire production was

created by London-based visual
effects company Framestone.
It used 400 experts to create
everything from the spacesuits to
the 30 million stars.

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 37

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Avatar Dir: James Inception Hugo Life of Pi Gravity
Cameron Dir: Christopher Dir: Martin Scorsese Dir: Ang Lee Dir: Alfonso
Nolan Cuarón

¶7KHER[RIÀFHVXJJHVWV Martin Scorsese’s

blockbuster hit
WKDW9);KHDY\ÀOPVDUH ‘Hugo’ was not only
heavily influenced
increasingly popular and by VFX, but it also
they all require state-of- celebrated the life
and work of the
the-art disciplines’ cinematic visual
effects pioneer,
John-Paul Smith, Georges Méliès
Imagineer Systems

faculty. “When I started we were still

animating with pencil and paper. Back in
1987, my first job was on ‘Who Framed Roger
Rabbit?’ working as an in-betweener, which
involved putting the in-between drawings
between the animator’s main drawings.
“Nowadays computers give you this for
free. The process has been automated,
meaning there are huge efficiencies with
digital animation, and almost all major
commercial work done now is created
digitally, one way or another. Saying this,
computers give you nothing for free – you will
start with a blank canvas or a blank screen.”

Behind the scenes

Imagineer Systems develops software
specifically designed for visual effects
for post-production video and film. Its
tracking software, Mocha, follows pixel
patterns through difficult conditions, such
as objects which go off screen, objects
which are partially obscured, and out of
focus footage. Mocha has been employed
to create both movies and television
series, such as ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’,
‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Walking Dead’.
“The box office suggests that VFX-heavy
films are increasingly popular and they all
require state-of-the-art disciplines, such as
VFX, 3D animation, and motion capture,”
says John-Paul Smith, CEO at Imagineer
Systems. “The trend has also continued into
television, with episodic shows like ‘Game of
Thrones’ or ‘Walking Dead’ producing
high-quality visual effects content.”
He adds: “Our software was originally
developed for Microsoft Windows, Linux and
Silicon Graphics’ Irix operating system,
which required enterprise-standard
computers. Also at this time, emulsion film
was being used for [origination] production,
and then scanned to digital files for visual
effects. Nowadays computers are obviously
faster, to the point where our software can
perform motion-tracking tasks in
high-resolution on off-the-shelf laptops,
running on Apple Mac OSX- and Linux-based
platforms.
“There are huge budget constraints
forcing our clients to deliver high-quality
visual effects at an aggressive budget,”
reports Smith. “This, and the competitive
nature of the software industry, have brought
a trend in much lower prices for actual
software.”
The company’s core technology is its
‘Planar Motion Tracking’, an algorithm
which tracks patterns of pixels over moving
sequences. This data is used by visual effect
artists to insert elements into a scene – for
instance, the ‘moving paintings’ seen in the >

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38 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY VISUAL EFFECTS

There’s more online...

Digital animation: moving stories
bit.ly/eandt-digital-animation
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Fix it in post-production
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< ‘Harry Potter’ films – or replace a James Cameron’s movie accounts for Providers, Exponential-e’s DaaS-GPU is
background to follow any camera motion. 17.28GB of stored data. delivered on its secure, cloud-ready 100Gi.
Each new production calls for a new “Many of the facilities we now work with The huge amounts of processing
twist on established VFX, and pushes have locations around the world and have power previously needed to render
its capabilities further, Smith adds: built efficient digital communications animated and motion content meant
“This trend will continue as we see ‘pipelines’ for the sharing of large files,” says that artists, designers and developers
next-generation filmmakers [showcasing] Smith. “Shared storage is certainly used, and were tied to a physical desktop, says
incredibly high-quality animation and security is a huge concern for film studios.” Jellyfish Pictures CTO Jeremy Smith.
VFX using software such as Mocha Pro, “We are fundamentally reliant on creative
Adobe After Effects or HitFilm. Where Into the cloud and innovative technology delivery,” Smith
3D animation, effects and cameras were Cloud computing technology is also says. “Scaling in the picture industry, at
once expensive tools, the availability providing an alternative way for disparate speed with security and privacy centre stage,
combined with the free learning tutorials production teams to work on a common is inherently difficult. The DaaS-GPU
now enables young students the ability project. UK-based VFX company Jellyfish solution means that we can be responsive and
to get started in the industry.” Pictures – behind productions such need not worry about scaling-up compute
Major mainstream movie productions are as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘The Whale’, ‘Jonah’, resources to meet the requirements of new
increasingly the result of global ‘Line of Duty’ and ‘The Secret Service’, projects.”
collaborations featuring teams of has begun to use the cloud to enable Mainstream movie audiences are now apt
contributing specialist companies. In terms its staff to produce animation and to rate a feature film’s visual content as
of VFX collaboration, very large data sets motion graphics from any location. highly as its other attributes, such as its
such as a typically VFX-heavy production The company recently partnered with storyline, emotional engagement, acting
would be a whopping Petabyte. By way of cloud company Exponential-e to launch quality and cinematography. Of course,
comparison, according to Data Centre desktop-as-a-service for graphic processing depending on the genre, for instance
Knowledge, for its last month of 2009 movie units (DaaS-GPU). Built using NVIDIA’s action-packed, horror or science-fiction, the
‘Avatar’’s production, some 40,000 processors GRID Technology for high-performance expectations for convincing-looking visual
were handling data at 7.5Gb/s running graphics-accelerated computing power and effects will be higher. CGI no longer has to
24-hours a day. Each minute of a final copy of VMware Horizon DaaS Platform for Service look realistic – it has to look real. *

‘Life of Pi’ focuses on an

Indian boy, a boat and a tiger.
The crew built the largest
wave pool in film history –
250ft long, 100ft wide and
9ft deep – and combined it
with visual effects to create a
‘real-life’ tsunami.

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