This video shows the making of
Terminator Salvation, breaking down several scenes to show how each element was made and how they were combined into the final result. Each example shows the final result, then it shows how the layers were built up.
I was most interested in how the actors interacted with the virtual elements that made up the final result. An example of this is the mechanical parts of some characters. I assumed from the final result that it was make-up that create those parts. But once the compositing breakdown began, I discovered that it was entirely created in the compositing phase.
The use of photographs in 2.5D layering to create the background was one technique used here that was described in the iLecture this week. I'm also fairly certain that much of the movie was create using green-screen.
This video gave me an understanding of how much work is done on movies during the compositing phase, and how careful use of compositing can enhance a movie far beyond what could have been achieved in real life.
This is a commercial for a brand of yogurt that comes with berries and chocolate shavings to be stirred in once the product is opened. It uses this as a selling point, making the berries and chocolate look fresh and whole, unlike yogurts that come premixed.
I chose this video because it uses 3D animation for most of the elements, such as the berries, the chocolate flakes and, during parts of the video, the yogurt itself. This is different from the techniques used in
Terminator Salvation, my previous video. I was interested to see that almost nothing in the video is real. The advertisement for the yogurt is entirely created using 3D animation and does not rely on the qualities of the real yogurt.
This video used both 3D animation and 2D layers to create the final result, utilizing many photographs in the process. These are all techniques that were mentioned in this week's iLecture.
The
Ehrmann Yogurt Commercial gives me an idea of the realism that can be achieved with 3D animation, plus some techniques that are used by advertisers to make products more desirable, while not relying on the actual product.
This is a breakdown of the special effects and compositing techniques used in the movie
Pacific Rim. Rather than show a clip multiple times with different layers visible, this breakdown turns on and off layers without pausing, which made it a little hard sometimes to see what is happening.
I chose this video because it uses quite a lot of visual effects due to the subject. After all, we don't really have enormous robots.
I was surprised when watching this video to discover how little of the Jaegers was faked. While some moving parts were done using animation and photographs, much of the inside of the Jaegers seemed to be physically there.
Pacific Rim utilized green-screen along with some 3D animation and other special effects.
This video showed me how the balance between what is real and what is added during compositing can be changed, depending on the subject of the film and what techniques are being used.
Mezzo "Leap" Visual Effects Breakdown | Compositing Supervisor from
marc dominic rienzo on
Vimeo.
This video shows the breakdown of the techniques and effects used to create a scene of several people running and leaping through an ideal and beautiful area. Unlike some of the other videos I looked at, this video does not pause and reveal the work that went into segments of the video, but divides the video into three sections, each showing a different stage of production.
I chose this video partially because it was interesting to see how special effects and green-screening can be used for more than film making, and partly because it relies entirely upon these techniques.
What I found interesting about this video was how much of what I saw was faked using compositing. There was very little aside from the actors that existed before the compositing process began. I knew that green-screen is a powerful tool, but I had not realized before how effective it can be when combined with animation and photography to create a virtual world that appears real.
Mezzo "Leap" Visual Effects Breakdown showed me how powerful green-screen can be, and how it can be combined with other techniques.
Mirror Mirror - VFX Breakdown from
Rodeo FX on
Vimeo.
This is a visual effects breakdown of the movie Mirror Mirror, a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale. It shows several scenes of the movie, including some aerial shots that were entirely built using special effects and some green-screened scenes.
Because this movie is set in a fantasy world, most of the film required special effects, which means that it is an interesting example of how special effects can be used. I was particularly interested in the aerial shots of the world, because, unlike most of the breakdowns in videos that I've seen during this exercise, it is entirely virtual.
As I said, this movie uses a combination of special effects to create the world, and some green-screened shots, primarily used in indoor situations. Some parts of the buildings were probably real, but everything outside seemed to have been created using special effects.
This video showed me how special effects can be used alone to create a believable, if somewhat fantastical, world. It also showed me how green-screening can be used to keep the appearance of the movie consistent when combining special effects scenes with portions using actors and props.
