By Gouri Shankar
As the demand for quality content continues to grow, so does the competition among studios and vendors to deliver the best possible visual experiences to their audiences. But it’s not all about creating the most bombastic, eye-popping visual spectacle for the big screen. The demand for VFX work continues to grow way beyond blockbuster visuals, with achieving realism in VFX being absolutely crucial for an increasing number of productions.
Jaadugar – Image courtesy of Netflix
Creating realistic VFX can be just as complex a task as delivering big, bold effects because it requires a deep understanding of how to trick the human eye into believing exactly what it sees. Anything that doesn’t appear to be authentic on-screen immediately distracts the viewer from the story. Audiences should be unaware of the VFX that they’re watching, and to accomplish that, we need to seamlessly incorporate the real with the digital. This takes a level of nuance and attention to detail unlike any other type of VFX.
Bringing Hyperrealism to the Screen
Integrating CGI with live-action footage is one of the most commonly used ways of blending the digital and physical worlds. Depending on the task, this can range from relatively straightforward sequences to incredibly complex shots. It can get especially challenging when simulating living beings — From motion and texture to lighting, it all has to be perfect, otherwise the scene falls flat.
Rana Naidu
This is illustrated by one particularly challenging sequence on Rana Naidu, Netflix India’s adaptation of the Showtime series Ray Donovan. A photorealistic CGI snake was coiled around a character’s neck, touching her hair and skin. Although a hallucination in the show, the snake had to look real. If it had been obviously fake, the scene wouldn’t have worked at all, diminishing not just the aesthetic of the show, but the story itself. Using advanced tools for look development — like Foundry’s Katana along with its features like Nuke Bridge — can really help nail a realistic render.
Recreating Impossible-to-Shoot Locations
Delivering a realistic look is also vital for scenes set at real-life locations, where certain shots would be dangerous or unfeasible. Visual effects were essential for a pivotal scene in the recent dark comedy film Darlings, which featured a tense showdown on a railway line, with the protagonist tied to the tracks.
The railway was recreated on-set against a greenscreen, using reference shots captured at the actual location to understand the lighting of a genuine railway track so that it could be mirrored by the VFX shots.
Darlings – Image courtesy of Red Chillies Entertainment
Advance planning was crucial for replicating the real-life version of those tracks on-set. The VFX team coordinated extensively with the direction, camera and lighting departments, while a previz made in Unreal Engine was used to work out how the final shot would look before filming began.
The key here was to maintain the suspension of disbelief throughout the entire scene so the audience would never doubt what they’re seeing is actually happening. In this case, the production was entirely reliant on VFX to maximize the emotional impact of the finale.
Making the Impossible Possible
But it’s not always about ultrarealism when retelling something that could actually happen. Sometimes it’s about making something nonexistent and fantastical look like it’s a possibility in the everyday world. On Amazon’s sci-fi drama The Peripheral, the story’s invisibility cloaking technology is a perfect example of something fictional made “real” through VFX.
The Peripheral – Image courtesy of Amazon Studios
Developing and executing this complex effect required a team of more than 60 2D and 3D artists. In order to create a smooth transition of the cars flickering in and out of existence, the team made different elements of the disappearing cars flicker and vanish at different rates, while the lighting department ensured that the time of day was accurately reflected in the shot. The effect was first developed in Blender and then finished in SideFX Houdini.
The Peripheral also made use of virtual production techniques, with digital environments projected on a large LED volume. Using virtual backgrounds gives actors a more convincing background to perform with, enabling them to react in a more natural way and give a more authentic performance.
While blockbuster effects are undoubtedly impressive and often complicated, it’s the subtle visual effects — indistinguishable from reality — that are often the most effective. More than just cinematics, they are often a crucial vehicle for storytelling, enabling filmmakers to bring stories to life and help audiences immerse themselves in the plot without doubting for a second what’s right in front of their eyes.
Gouri Shankar is a VFX supervisor at India’s FutureWorks. Since joining FutureWorks in 2010, he has spearheaded regional and international projects. His most recent credits include The Peripheral, The Fame Game and Lost in Space.
