Week 1 – What are the current trends? & Trend of the lens

What are the current trends?

As an introduction to the module we were asked to discuss what we thought the current trends of VFX were.

The main ones we highlighted were:

• Virtual Production
• 3D scanning/reality capture
• Photogrammetry
• CGI (much more prevalent now than historically)
• Motion capture

When discussing why these methods and tools are popular two main topics came up. The first was economical, now a lot of the industry has made the initial investment to use these technologies it’s easy and cost effective to continue to use these techniques. The second was because audiences are increasingly looking for more and more realistic media, and that can sometimes only be achieved by using 3D scanning or motion capture, as well as those a set up like virtual production also brings more realism as it provides accurate lighting and reflections.

We were then introduced to the topics we would be covering in the module with this week focusing on ‘The Age of The Image’ trend of the lens.

This asks us to look at film and photography before visual effects are added. To study the raw image or movie that the visual effects will be added to. This is because base images actually hold a lot of visual data that we need to be aware of as VFX professionals in order to add to it in and informed and cohesive way. Additionally we looked at the history of photography and found photographic techniques that have greatly influence media today.

Lens impact on cinematography practices

The way the images are shot has a major impact on the tone and mood of the shot, scene and overall movie. All of these examples aid in providing the viewer with the intended emotion whether that be a cozy Christmas mood of Home Alone or air of suspense and drama in Casino Royale. This highlights that even before VFX, cameras and lens’ play a big role in creating the scene.

Howard Edgerton

Among the early photography pioneers we learnt about in this class was Howard Edgerton. He developed a technique using a strobe light where he would direct the strobe at a very fast moving object/scene/liquid which would give the effect of time slowing down. This means that the final shot would be a snapshot of time unable to be seen by the naked eye. These images were unlike anything else previously created at the time and unlocked a range of time that we could not see. His most famous picture is “Milk Drop Coronet” taken in 1957 which shows what happens when a drop of milk dropped from a pipette hits a hard surface, it bounces up and forms a crown like shape with each tentacle spawning a little sphere on it’s top. I have put this example along with a few others below.

With Edgerton’s work being so profound for it’s time it therefore has contributed to inspiring many images and movie sequences we see today. Below example of his work, I have included some from movies take inspiration from him. I found it quite hard to come up with original ideas for this so a couple were also discussed in class

It is really interesting to see how such an early technique has had such an impact on film and how this technique is still very prevalent today.

Assignment 1 01

Week 1 Written Post – What I think James Fox means by “The Age of the Image”

I think “The age of the image” is a statement of how much power images have in today’s culture. Images are all around us, we are consumed by them. Images that have different forms and different intentions. Some images are transparent in meaning, they convey a fact. Others, such as advertisements and curated Instagram posts are made specifically to make us desire things or make us envious of things that we do not have. Images can be aspirational however they can also fuel political and internal debates within us.

Due to the saturation of images in our culture they have become a main way for us to gather information. We share our lives through pictures, capturing memories and proving our existence to the world and ourselves by documenting our personal moments in history. We now feel an almost compulsion to document important moments in our lives rather than prioritising experiencing the real world in front of us. The good that comes out of this is the connection we can form through photography, the way it can be used as a medium for

self-expression and a way to change people’s perception of the world for the better such as Marlene Dietrich’s work or the comic book movement pioneered by Jewish immigrants fleeing from Nazi Germany.

The digital age of photography however does come with some downsides, reality can be lost due to image manipulation meaning many images now cannot be trusted and there is an argument to be made that our brains aren’t intelligent enough to know what is real and what’s not, put in the wrong hands this power can be harmful or used with malicious intent. Similarly, the volume and quality of images now can mean that people may choose the virtual replication of a destination or environment rather than partake in the equivalent real-life experience. The power of images can shape our daily lives and beliefs.

‘A New Reality‘ (2020) Age of the Image, Series 1, episodes 1-4. BBC 4, Television, 24 February, 21:00

Week 2 – The Photographic Truth-Claim

This week we are looking at illusion and how audiences are often fooled by images and whether or not images can be trusted

Plato’s Cave and The divided line

The principle of Plato’s cave is that people don’t always se reality as it is. This comes from the idea of prisoners in a cave, in the cave there was no natural light, the only things the prisoners could see were the shad

ows of things created through the fire. As these were the only depictions that the prisoners could see, they believed these shadows were real forms. On accident one of the prisoners found a way out of the cave and saw these shadows in their true form, in sunlight with colour and movement. After making this discovery, he tried to return to the cave to explain the truth to his fellow prisoners,

however they became angry with him and didn’t believe or want to know the truth.

This leads on to a further philosophy of Plato’s

called ‘The divided line’. This line describes where Plato thought the line was between knowledge and opinion when it comes to seeing an image. He claims that the opinion world is formed from things we haven’t truly seen in reality. To gain knowledge and a perception of true reality we must see the true forms and geometry of something.

Below is a simple image showcasing the divided line and how it relates to Plato’s cave

 

Where might the allegory of the cave manifest in Cinema and VFX?

• In narrative
  • Examples of this are The Matric, Inception and The Truman Show. The idea of being in a different reality is rooted in the narrative of these films
• Virtual reality
  • This new technology immerses the player in reality making them believe they are in a different reality to the one they are in in real life
• Compositing
  • This is an art form in VFX which can change images entirely, faking or manipulating imagery
• Simulation
  • An art form of creating things that are very much not real however they most often aim to feel real to the audience. This also covers things like 3D models.

Semiotics and the photographic truth claim

Semiotics are a way of interpreting the world around us through images and signs.

There are 3 different types of signs:

• Icons
  • Icons are images that have a physical resemblance to something
• Indexs
  • Indexes are images that show evidence of something that has happened
• Symbols
  • A symbol is something that cannot be naturally inferred and must be learned culturally

It is argued that photographs are both iconic and indexical. That is, they both look like something and infer that something has taken place. However Tom Gunning describes them as being more than indices and instead an entirely new art form.

Assignment 1 02

The Photographic Truth Claim – Looking at Tom Gunning’s paper

The photographic truth claim is the debate on whether pictures tell the truth. Having read Tom Gunning’s paper entitled ‘What’s the point of an index? Or, Faking Photographs’ these are my thoughts.

Images have been being manipulated since before photography was primarily digital, even in the analogue age some images were made to tell a lie, a story. Today, there is worry that this medium is so popular, we may lose sight of what is real. A truth claim is normally based on a combination of an image’s iconicity (how recognisable it is) and its indexicality (how it provides evidence). To start with the fundamentals, the apparatus itself cannot tell a truth or a lie. In the analogue age and now in the digital, photographs themselves have always simply been photographs, it’s what artists choose to do with them that gives them meaning or a message. Some images such as the ones in politics and journalism are somewhat regulated to make sure they are truthful. However, in a lot of other industries and in society at large image fakery is widespread and normalised. It is important to not however that manipulated pictures, could not exist without their truthful counterparts. To be able to enjoy and appreciate a doctored image we must first acknowledge and understand the subject in its truthful form. A lot of the time our enjoyment of a photograph comes from knowing that it is playing with our known reality. The threat of deceit has always been an aspect of photographic practice, if all photographs were fake there would be no allure there. I think the same can be said for visual effects work, we are making fake images however they are there to entertain and provide escapism for audiences we are not trying to deceive in a malicious way.

Gunning, T. (2017)  PLENARY SESSION II. Digital Aestethics. What’s the Point of an Index? or, Faking Photographs . Nordicom Review, Vol.25 (Issue 1-2), pp. 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0268

How this relates to my work in VFX

I think this is very useful for my VFX work as I am learning how to recognise elements of photography and also learning where VFX sits

in the landscape of media and how it can be defined as image trickery.

Week 3 – Faking photographs: Image Manipulation and computer collage

This week we looked at image manipulation and computer collage, we looked at this from a range of perspectives thinking about whether it is always meant to deceive or be harmful and also the techniques that created this phenomenon.

We had already seen one example of image manipulation in James Fox’s documentary. He touched on Frank Hurley’s photograph of World War One that was actually a compilation of multiple images and therefore not true to life. The interesting this about Hurley’s work though is that even though the image is fake the meaning and emotional response we draw from the image is true to what the war felt like. This therefore implies that fake images can even have the potential to be more accurate than real ones.

After looking at Hurley we were then tasked with finding more example of images that were manipulated in the analogue age, pre dating Photoshop. Images of this kind were fascinating at the time as in a lot of cases they were so far removed from reality and easily known to be fake

Many images like these will have been made by cutting and splicing a selection of images together much like Frank Hurley’s work. Some are made using double exposure.

Digital faked photographs

We then moved on to looking at faked photos using digital tools, one of the most famous examples being the Cottingley Fairies, taken in 1917. These images were for a long a time thought to prove the existence of fairies. When in actual fact the fairies were no more than paper cutouts. These photos do have a certain whimsical charm though and I feel like the audience may want to choose to believe in a picture like that as it appeals to our childlike selves.

 

Modern image manipulation using photoshop

Moving into more modern examples, here are some famous examples I have found that are more recent and explore the extent of image trickery to redefine meaning or perception that wasn’t captured in the original.

Strauss, D.L. (2011). Doctored Photos – The Art of the Altered Image. [online] Time. Available at: https://time.com/3778075/doctored-photos-the-art-of-the-altered-image/.

Assignment 1 03

VFX Compositing – what is it and how does it work?

Week 4 – Photorealism

This week we learnt about photorealism and the art of making things look like they were captured by a camera. This involves using techniques such as virtual cameras and adding effects to replicate things seen by lens’ such as lens flares motion blur, rack focus etc. We learnt that this was popularised by painters, they would take photographs and then recreate them in their own medium, this required a lot of skill as an artist and it was of upmost importance that the viewer know that it was painter and not a photograph.

Photorealism is used a lot in films and media to bring audiences closer to their perceived reality of a shot. For example in The Crown TV series the Aberfan disaster was recreated using simulations and compositing. This was a tough scene for VFX artists to replicate and was done using many references and also the liberty to dramatise the scene through narrative choice. This is an example of photorealism by compositing but there is also photorealism made by CGI elements exclusively. This can be seen in a production like Disney’s recent live action remake of The Lion King, the vast majority of shots there were exclusively made in CGI but effects were applied to make it look as though it was an in camera.

In a TED talk given by Wren Weichman of Corridor Digital he talks about the realism of human faces in media and how there is a scale of readability of human faces in VFX which links to the scale of emotional response and realism. This was interesting to me as it made me notice that audiences can enjoy resonating with characters that aren’t especially realistic however there is a point of realism where the audience will dislike the character due to it being close but not quite close enough to the true form to be believable.

TED (2019)  Why most visual effects suck—but some don’t?  Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/wren_weichman_why_most_visual_effects_suck_but_some_don_t (Accessed: 20 October 2018)

This is a screenshot from Avatar where although this landscape doesn’t exist in the real world it is made to look real due to the light reflections and points of focus in the shot. This is artificially made however made to look like it could have been shot using a camera.

This is a screenshot of the ‘Be Our Guest scene in the recent remake of Beauty and the Beast. This shows how much was made digitally and composited into this scene versus what was actual there in front of the actress playing Belle.

In the movie Logan a CGI rendered version of Hugh Jackman’s face was used, this shows the power and accuracy of CGI and just how far the technology and computing power has come.

Assignment 1 04

Photorealism

Photorealism describes the effect making a piece of media look like it was taken by a camera. Originally invented through painting, the art of photorealism is to capture exactly what a lens would see but through a different medium.

In film photorealism often comes in two categories, computer generated scenes and composited scenes. In both cases effects can be applied to make a shot look more photoreal, this involves replicating elements that are apparent in lens based photography such as motion blur, vignettes, rack focus among many others. In the text ‘Special effects: new histories/theories/contexts’ by Flueckiger , B. writes ‘Like grain, scratches and dust are directly associated with the materiality of the film stock: as markers of it’s repeated use, they communicate the age of the material’ (2015, pp. 81). The most important aspect of this I feel is reference material. Having good quality references directly impacts the accuracy of the result. Alongside this is the use of virtual cameras in software like Maya to duplicate traditional camera effects in a digital environment.

A good example of CGI photorealism is Disney’s live action remake of The Lion King. Everything besides potentially one early shot was CGI. This movie is a technical marvel as it brought animals to our cinema screens digitally in a very realistic way. To do this they made models of each of the animals,  making sure to accurately capture there unique appearance and attributes as are found in the real world and then transpose them into animated rigs in Maya, those rigs are then textured, and brought to life by animators, allowing us to control a digital version of these animals. Having this level of detail and photorealism hadn’t been seen before this movie however it proves that photorealism is attainable now. Even if it requires a lot of attention to detail and it is relatively easy to get wrong, as if the audiences immersion breaks, the viewer will lose believability which will impact how the shot resonates

Flueckiger , B. (2015)  ‘Photorealism, Nostalgia and Style. Material Properties of Film in Digital Effects’, North et al. Special effects: new histories/theories/contexts. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 78-98.

Week 5 – Capture

• Reality capture
• Motion Capture

This week we looked at capture sometimes known as acquisition and how it is used in visual effects.

There are different types of capture, there is motion capture, which captures movement data of a subject whether that be the whole body or sometimes facial capture and there is also reality capture which captures object data, primarily static data that represents dimensions of an object or scene.

Types of reality capture are 3D scanning, LIDAR, photogrammetry, depth scanning and structured light scanning. These techniques are used mainly to gain realistic data or environments or objects for virtual sets or production planning

Where does capture fall in terms of semiotics?

Capture is indexical because it represents something, if you have captured a person walking that data of the walk represents the walk but it does not include the individual performing the action therefore it is indexical but not iconic. Sometimes capture can also be iconic as well as indexical but mostly it is just the latter.

Motion capture is indexical however keyframe animation is iconic as it is the thing that it represents.

Disney animation

Animation at Disney started with hand drawn cell animation where every frame was photographed. All movement of the characters was made from the artists’ imagination

Disney then moved to collecting reference data to base their movement and characters from which represents the beginnings of motion capture. Having crafted the 12 principles of animation from just their drawings, by tracing and studying real life movements the animators were able to see the principles they had written about in real life. However, when using reference precisely they found that sometimes the movements felt too real and so they didn’t fit the scene therefore artistic license was used. They changed their technique so that instead of directly copying the actions of the actors they would instead interpret them and apply them to cartoon characters in the style of that animated character. This helped Disney maintain their famous style and appeal often characterised by the principles such as exaggeration.

On the other side of this you have films like The Lion King (2019) where director Jon Favreau wanted the film to look like a wildlife documentary, this meant they were as faithful a they could be to the animals’ real life counterparts in order to create a photorealistic movie.

A good way to show an example of the change in style is to look at the original Jungle Book movie released in 1967 vs the live action remake that came out in 2016

This shows how the characters have been updated to look a lot more realistic however I feel that this has taken away some of the charm of the original movie and additional think it doesn’t particularly aid the storytelling, it is however a brilliant showcase of new technologies and there capabilities for photo realism

Mowgli (2018)

In Mowgli (2018) the director Andy Serkis went in another direction when it came to motion capture. He wanted the animals in the movie to resemble the human actors playing them. This meant that the faces of the animals werent realistic for the animal they were referencing nor were they accurate to humans. Reading reviews, this broke immersion for some audience members.

Assignment 1 05

Comparing motion capture to key frame animation

When animating a character, productions will have a choice as to what technique they use to portray character movement. Two examples are motion capture and key frame animation. These techniques oppose each other quite a lot. As described in a paper Allison, T. (2011) “Motion capture forms a record of movement without movement. To restore movement, the mo-cap data must be applied to a 3D digital puppet.” That is to say that motion capture is purely data captured by a piece of software that is then applied to a character in a program like Maya. This I think proves that motion capture is indexical as it resembles something that was taken from somewhere else. Motion capture is very useful when productions where the goal is to make things true to life and photorealistic, such as the in The Lion King (2019).

Keyframe animation is used more often in animated productions and is made more organically by the artists. In animation, footage of real-life actors and animals is often used as reference but will not be directly copied to the cartoon characters. This is talked about in the book by Johnson, O. and Thomas, F. (1981) “whenever we stayed too close to the photostats, or directly copied even a tiny piece of human action, the results looked very strange. The moves appeared real enough, but the figure lost the illusion of life”. They denoted that it was their job to take the actions being portrayed and translate them onto their animated characters. Often these animated characters were more expressive and more exaggerated than the real-life reference and this added to their charm and appeal whilst also continuing to fit with the aesthetic of the Disney movie. Animation studio Pixar, take this a step further and do not use any motion capture in or for reference for their movies. This is because they do not want to interrupt the charm and aesthetic that their studio is known for. They feel bringing in a technology like motion capture would diminish the hand crafted, hand animated feel of their movies.

Allison, T. (2011) ‘More than a Man in a Monkey Suit: Andy Serkis, Motion Capture, and Digital Realism’, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Iss P. 325–341

Johnson, O. and Thomas, F. (1981) The Illusion of Life. New York: Disney Editions.

Week 6 – LiDAR and Reality Capture

As a follow up from last week, this week we focused on reality capture

Reality capture refers to the capture of object data. Besides very recent developments this typically involves the recording of data from static objects/environments.

The main aspect of reality capture we are discussing is 3D scanning and LiDAR. However as well as LiDAR there are also technologies such as depth scanning and photogrammetry.

There are some very recent developments in reality capture that were mentioned to use such as advancements in scanning movement, scanning glass or reflective surfaces and even generating scans from minimal data sets like a small series of photographs. These newer ways of using 3D scanning have come from the emergence of LiDAR scanners being made accessible on modern mobile phones. Although not as the same quality level as the high tech, higher quality scanners that companies like ScanLABs use, the accessibility of the technology is what has forged big strides in development and differing applications. It is however worth noting that a caveat to most of these newer systems is that they are relying on artificial intelligence to generate content and be the computer behind the scenes. Although this is an interesting application which may be predicting the future all of these are still in the early stages of development.

This scan (above) of a house layout taken by a phone shows the limitations of the technology at the moment, this isn’t a very clean or precise scan like the result you would get from a professional grade scanner however it is impressive to see that from a mainstream pocket sized device

Similar to last week where we discussed the differences between motion capture and keyframe animation a similar argument applies here in terms of how the data is used. As the results of LiDAR are so accurate it is up to the maker of the finished piece to decide how to use the data. Either the data could be used raw and the product would be true to life and polished, an exact digital replica. Or the final result could use that data as a reference. For example if an animation company was wanting to model an interior house environment they could use a scan as reference material to get an accurate depiction of the proportions and measurements of the house yet they would still be able to use their own artistic license to fit the model into the context of the scene or production. It is all about deciding how import the preservation of all the accurate measurements and detail actually is, rather than just using it as a guide line to inform the work.

These two pictures showcase professional grade lidar scans with the first one illustrating how they work. The laser rotates and emits beams of light, when a beam hits a surface it projects back into the sensors, transferring data of the point it has found it’s position and where it is in relation to surrounding points. In conjunction with other data points a point cloud is generated, resulting in a precise digital replication of the environment/object.

The origins of LiDAR scanning are interesting to think about as it lends itself from the invention of perspective and its introduction in art. 3D scanning ultimately relies on data collected about a points position in relation to other points which in turns gives us data about the perspective we are viewing it from. The principle took a long time for us to define and master however it is the foundation for this form of scanning and many true to life art forms today.

Assignment 1 06 – Case Study of ScanLAB Projects

ScanLAB Projects are an innovative company within the LIDAR space. Formed in 2010, their mission is to “digitise the world, transforming temporary moments and spaces into compelling permanent experiences, images and film” (ScanLAB Projects). One project they have worked on was a BBC documentary titled “Rome’s Invisible City”, for this they scanned never before seen underground areas of Rome that were integral to the city’s infrastructure and its historical significance.

ScanLABs work is changing what we can see and how we can interact with environments/objects that have been scanned. The scans of underground Rome allowed us to see areas of the city that hadn’t yet been explored it was only made possible when scanning could pick up the data. This technology is particularly transformational in the education sector, yet also has uses in archiving, architectural visualisation, and entertainment.

The technology works by the scanner emitting a laser beam at a consistent rate while also rotating rapidly. When the laser finds a surface, that beam bounces back to the sensor carrying data of its position with it. This enables point data to be collected of where in the physical world the laser meets the surface. All of these points combined generate a point cloud, making an exact digital replica of the real life subject. A scanner that was highlighted in an presentation by a member of ScanLABs could measure a million points per second while a scan of a room was created in 7 to 8 minutes, containing a data set of approximately half a billion individual measurements. (WIRED UK (2015))

This technology is incredibly precise and allows up to keep a faithful digital replication of a physical environment, the limitations of it are that it has a set scope and area that it can scan and as well as this the equipment itself can leave gaps in the recorded data. Expense is another factor to consider however this technology is being very accessible, with much lower grade versions becoming standard on modern smartphones now.

ScanLAB Projects Available at: https://scanlabprojects.co.uk/about/ (Accessed: 7^th November 2023).

WIRED UK (2015) How ScanLAB Projects Creates 3D Laser Ghosts of Earth’s Hidden Spaces | WIRED. 2 Nov 2015. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGTSHwYjLXo&t=1s (Accessed: 7^th November 2023).

Week 7 – More on reality capture and mimesis

This week we looked at more reality capture with a focus on mimesis and hyperrealism

We leant about Factom Arte and their Veronica machine. This is a scanner that is able to scan bust with a large amount of detail.

One of the questions that this technology poses is, is this advancement taking away the need for artists? For example should a traditional sculptor still be employed if an accurate scan of human head can be made in a matter of seconds, as well as 3D printed?

We also learnt about the concept of mimesis. Mimesis is the process of imitation or mimicry through which artists portray and interpret the world. It comes from the idea of mirroring reality and making a faithful copy. Due to the nature of this technique mimesis can only be used on pre existing things.

An interesting way to think about mimesis is to question whether photography is a mimetic medium considering that the output is 2D and therefore flat. Scanning gets closer to being mimetic because it captures 3D data. When a 3D scan is printed, that brings the result even closer to being mimetic due to it resulting in a physical replication of the original subject

Another term we learnt about was verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is the art of capturing an image  that is truthful to the experience of the human eye. This means that it may not be as faithful as mimesis but it will be more recognisable to the audience. Visual effects lends itself a lot more to verisimilitude than mimesis as we often do not want or require exact replicas but rather data that holds a good sense of reality that we can place into media

The Digital Michelangelo Project

This project used 3D scanners to scan some of the artist’s work. They decided to use this technology as it’s none invasive and wouldn’t damage the statue like making a traditional mold would. They wanted to make a faithful 3D replica of the statues.

This project used a depth scanner

Week 8 – Simulacra and simulation

What is a simulation?

Simulation are mainly based off a real life experience and are constructed using a set of rules to make them as true to life as possible

Google maps.

Making a map a basic simulation as it is a replica of real world data. Maps are an exact duplicate of reality in a different form

Are we seeing things through simulation before the real life version

Simulations allow us to see places that we have not been to. For example in the filming of The Crown, the show was briefly set in Australia however the show was never actually shot in Australia, the environment created digitally. Creating a version of the ‘real’ Australia.

Video game worlds

In video games such a Marvel’s Spiderman, the city of New York is replicated as the world map. This is not New York itself but an accurate simulation of the environment based on data collected/photographs of the city.

Simulacra

The idea that we can visualise something from a more vague idea of it, for example a cartoon drawing of an island will make us visualise an island that exists in real life. Again this is something that doesn’t exist but the image is conjured by a vague representation.

Phases of the images

This principle explains the phases images go through when going from an accurate reflection of reality to something very disconnected

Stage 3 correlates well with visual effects, as we are recreating reality with reference. A company that does this extremely well is Framestore with their work on TV shows such as The Crown which requires a lot of historical accuracy in terms of its digitally created assets for compositing and bringing the show to life.

As mentioned before Framestore made it seem like the show was shot in Australia whereas in reality that sequence was shot in the UK but the backgrounds where made by Framestore and depicted Australia, these were composited in so effectively that audiences were led to believe the characters really were in Australia.

Another example from the same production is this Stag. This stag was made entirely digitally and therefore it does not exist in the real world however it was so seamlessly integrated and meticulously made that again audiences had complete belief that it was there in real life during filming

Quote from VFX Supervisor Andrew Scrase at Framestore –

“The role of the extensive environmental VFX work that’s gone into The Crown is exactly that; environmental. It has to establish a scene and make way for the drama and the performances; the things that really make the series what it is,’ added Standish Millennas. ‘This isn’t a fantasy or sci-fi series where the VFX is there to be admired. As soon as it’s noticeable, we’ve not done our job. And I’m pleased to say I don’t think there’s any point in the series where the real and the digital are distinguishable.”

Framestore (no date) The Crown Season 4 Netflix. Available at: https://www.framestore.com/work/crown-season-4?language=en (Accessed: 20th November 2023).

I really like how Andrew Scrase is talking about visual effects here as it explains the two categories VFX falls under, either wanting to make something new to the audience and therefore spectacular and visible or wanting to create invisible effects to support scenes and appear invisible with seamless integrations with other element in the scene.

Week 9 – Virtual Production

This week we focused on our last topic for the module which was virtual production.

We watched a video made by The Pulse at Unreal. Titled virtual production: The transition to real time film making.

This was a really interesting discussion on how virtual productions fits in the current landscape of film making.

These were my key takeaways

• The virtual production set should fit the production
  • This came from a demonstration of the virtual production used on a film called Run (2020), LED screens here were used dynamically for the train windows rather than being in a volumetric type space as is more standardised
• Planning is the most important aspect
  • As the timeline differs from traditional production, these processes need to have a clear plan to be adaptable to virtual production
• Using the same assets in previs as you do in virtual production
  • This means you can get close to a result earlier on in the project
• Lighting needs to be talked about a lot earlier as it’s being transposed to LED walls
• A new way of making film
  • Film moving from chemical to digital to virtual
• Age of converging technologies
  • These technologies are only just intersecting but they will continue to more in the future
• Decentralisation of the entire crew
  • Results can be seen my higher members of the team quicker and work flows between different departments change due to the timeline shift

Assignment 02 Question

For my essay I will focus on the relationship between keyframe animation and motion capture. I will look at the history of motion capture and the evolution of Disney animation, as well as more modern techniques with motion capture and now the latter in influencing the landscape of animation now, is it making keyframe animation redundant

Resources I would like to examine for research

• More than a Man in a Monkey Suit:
  Andy Serkis, Motion Capture, and Digital Realism by Tanine Allison
• The Illusion of Life Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Oli Johnston
• The Interchangeability of VFX and Live Action and Its Implications for Realism by Gabriel F. Giralt

Presentation slides

Weeks 10 & 11

In these weeks I worked on my essay, researching the topic, finding sources, writing outlines and preparing my presentation to present in Week 11. After giving my presentation I feel okay about my essay. I think there are elements of the brief that I wasn’t as clear on given the feedback I received, such as the need to narrow down the question and delve deeper into the topic. I have tried to take this feedback on board since presenting however because I already had the essay done before presenting I had to balance the old with the new.