Creating Celluloid Fantasies

Chandni Chowk to China Flying Over Shanghai

It might have been a turkey at the box office, but this Akshay Kumar starrer
Kung Fu comedy that marked Warner Brothers entry into India had close to 1,500
computer-generated VFX shots, comprising almost 40% of the films length,
arguably the highest for any Indian film till date. According to Merzin Tavaria
of Prime Focus, unlike most Bollywood movies, CC2C involved VFX artists from the
very beginning, the special effect scenes being shot simultaneously with the
regular shooting of the film. VFX was deployed in hyper-real shots (realistic
looking but improbable shots) like Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone jumping
from a high rise building and floating over Shanghai city using an umbrella as a
parachute; the entire Shanghai skyline was built in 3D. Logistical difficulties
in shooting scenes like Akshay Kumar hanging from the Great Wall of China also
demanded the use of VFX. One of the more challenging VFX shots was the jetty
fight sequence, in which the main character unleashes a Kung Fu move called the
"Cosmic Kick". This causes a huge tidal wave to shoot up out of the water more
than 100 feet in the airall created by the Prime Focus CG experts.

RaazThe Mystery Continues Creating Evil with VFX

Mahesh Bhatts Raaz 2 was dubbed as Bollywoods most-expensive horror
filmpost-production studios Prime Focus and FutureWorks helped with extensive
VFX to bring out the movie theme of the evil within the human psyche and how
it manifests itself. There was a bull sequence in the movie where a group of
bulls attack Emraan and Kanganas car. With no permission forthcoming to shoot
with the animals, computers generated the bullsafter studying their complete
movements from head to tail, muscle reactions, walk cycles, running processes
and interaction with live objects. Maya was used for modeling and animating the
bull. The most thrilling sequence in Raaz 2 was the mirror sequence with Kangana.
The effect of her getting surprised by her ghost and gripping the audience was a
brainstorm. The VFX aspect of the sequence started where Kangana bends to pick
something up and her reflection remains in the mirror. Later, fog was added to
the glass created because of the steam coming from the hot water and after the
fog gathered, the water droplets were created to add realism to the mirror and
shots. Even the factory shown in the film was completely created on CG. That
involved a lot of matte painting, which is a painted representation of a
landscape, set, or distant location that allowed director Mohit Suri to create
the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive to build or
visit.

Paa The Aura of Auro

If you thought that prosthetics was all that went behind making Paa, think
again. As was the trend in Bollywood in 2009, Prime Focus delivered 664 VFX
shots and full DI for this sensitive Amitabh Bachchan starrer. There were close
to 400 shots in the film where the make-up needed to be digitally touched up
frame-by-frame to create a seamless look of Auros head matching the skin tone
of the prosthetic with the real skin tone. Extensive rotoscoping was carried out
followed by color correction to get the final seamless look. PIPs. The VFX team
designed the look for the various news channels including logos, ticker bands
and breaking news. They were then composited on to various screens across all
types of locations, mainly homes, offices and business establishments. The look
for various television screens like LCD panels, CRTs and older televisions were
kept in mind when the various looks were assigned. VFX was used to present the
three looks the film encompassedthe past, which revolves around Abhishek
Bacchans and Vidya Balans love story, for which a nice romantic feel was
given; the present, which had to be a little bleached and desaturated; and the
climax sequence, which was a highly emotional shot in the hospital, for which
the palette was set to cold and soft.

Tum Mile Benchmarking the Bollywood Deluge

Mukesh Bhatts Tum Mile takes a calamity that hit Mumbai during the 2005
monsoons and tries to recreate the horror that the July 26 deluge brought with
it. The protagonists were played by Emraan Hashmi and Soha and through their
eyes the film tries to convey what Mumbaikars went through. According to
Abhishek De of FutureWorks, it was important for the VFX to look as though they
were shot on real location on that rampageous day. The production team used a
hi-resolution still camera for shooting references and frames for creating the
matte paintings of the Mumbai skylines. By shooting in digital hi-resolution
format, they could capture a lot of actual life like details; to support the
hi-resolution matte paintings with the number of atmospheric and particle effect
layers, the studio then had to work on the latest Flame machines. The skyline
was recreated with atmospheric effects of looming clouds and lightning and for
tracking the studio used boujou, PF track, flaming tracker and a proprietary
photogrammetry toolset. Mumbais deluge story failed to move Mumbai or the rest
of India (probably the simultaneous release with 2012 affected it), but it
became the VFX benchmark for Bollywood disaster movies.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani Ghazab FX for Ajab Prem

This RanbirKatrina starrer had some extraordinary VFX executed by Prime
Focus. Sequences like the spinning effects, set extensions, chroma key shots,
the laddoo sequence, electrocution shots and water coming out of Ranbirs mouth
and ears blend seamlessly with the film and add a little more value to the feel
of the movie. The shot where Katrina holds Liliput in her hand was shot in two
different layers. Layer one was Katrina picking up a hanger, while the second
layer consisted of the actor rigged with wires flying in the air. Later, both
these layers were merged, the wire and hanger were cleaned-up and the background
was replaced with a matte painting. The scene where Ranbir-Katrinas gang
travels in Goa on a car, was actually shot in a studio against a chroma
background. In another shot, when the villains fell in a pool, Katrina puts an
electric wire in the pool and all of them get electric shocks. The VFX team
added CG sparks over the body of the actors which made the electrocution look
real.

Delhi 6 Merging Chandni Chowk with Times Square

Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehras Delhi-6 might have failed to woo the audience at
the box office, but the VFX work in the moviedone by a couple of Indian
studios, Prasad EFX of Chennai and Prana Studios of Mumbaiis really
commendable. The terrace shots of Delhi 6 were shot in the Jaipur sets. The
biggest challenge for Prasad EFX in was extending the genetic terraces, building
the geo landmarks of the area like the Jama Masjid, Red Fort and the Hindu
temple with their respective geographical positions. The VFX supervisor, Craig
Mumma, created a 360 degree Delhi geo environment in 3D with the Delhi terrace
photographs. Then the shots were tracked and geos were placed in their
respective positions. About 164 terrace extension shots were executed by EFX for
this film. Prana Studios worked on about 50-odd shots, primarily the New York
sequences. The inside Taj Mahal sequence was actually shot in green matte owing
to permission issues and was later composited with the actual Taj and
manipulated backgrounders. The entire cow birth sequence was shot in green
matte. The challenge involved 3D tracking of these shots, matching static BG
plates. The Prasad EFX team stitched the BGs in 3D, composited the environment
and matched them to the shots.

Aladin Genies Khwaish Creation

The story of Aladin is legendary and the characters of Genie and Jasmine
known worldwide. Film maker Sujoy Ghosh lets his imagination run wild and spins
a tale that ends up relating the past, present and future of these characters.
(over 1600 VFX shots), though it could not cause enough movement in the
turnstiles. The magic elements of the film are obviously important VFX shots but
the sets are made many times larger by the use of invisible work, difficult to
spot for lay viewers. The visuals created by Charles Darby are quite unique in
Bollywood. The flashback sequence is extremely well done too while reminding of
fall in the deep as evidenced in the Hollywood flick Journey To The Center Of
The Earth. Most of the film is shot against a green wall which makes Aladin
quite heavy on VFX with the imaginary world of Khwaish created by EyeQube
Studios giving a visual appeal to the film. The entire shot of Genie appearing
was generated in CG. The special moments includes a donkeys head replacing that
of Riteishs, his guitar turning into a frog and he being thrown in the air
either after turning into a balloon or due to electrocution.

De Dana Dan Creating the Flooding Hole

Visual effects were needed for a key scene in Priyadarshans De Dana Dan
where the main characters cause the flooding of an entire luxury hotel with
water surging through all levels of the tall modern structure. Since flooding a
real hotel was clearly not feasible, Red Chillies VFX decided to get their feet
wet with Houdini, using its fluid tools to add water without the fear of
drowning the production team. In the shot, the audience has a birds-eye vantage
point of the hotel, overlooking its modern triangular shaped atrium. According
to Harry Hingorani, VFX Production Director at Red Chillies, the top five floors
which are closest in view were set up with multiple water layers moving at
various speeds in order to make the shot look realistic. The layers included a
base water layer, a surface foam layer and then a layer for foam at the edges as
it meets with walls and objects floating in the water. The climactic flooding
sequence was graded using the latest version of Lustrethe softwares color-grading,
keying, tracking, and automated dust-busting tools greatly assisted the DI
project flow.

Blue Raising the Bar for Bollywood

The allegedly costliest ever Bollywood movie had little to show for itself
except for amazing underwater and marine sequences in the Bahamas (leaving aside
the amazingly toned body of Lara Dutta in a skimpy bikini), thanks again to more
than 1,200 shots that passed through VFX pipeline at Prime Focus. According to
VFX supervisor Reupal Rawal, this big budget visual effects wonder allowed a
great deal of latitude for aesthetic creativity in plenty of fabulous VFX shots.
For the underwater shark fight sequence, the VFX team studied the shark action
and a lot of textures and skin reaction to light. The shark was shot live along
with Akshay. However in one shot of the same scene Sanjay Dutt puts his hand in
the water and a shark emerges from the water almost biting his hand off. This
was achieved by generating a CG shark. The model and texture was painstakingly
detailed but the real challenge was to get the wet feel of the skin and have the
water rolling off the body of the shark. The bike actions (both in Bangkok and
Bahamas) too had a lot of conventional wirework and some dangerous stunts which
needed the help of compositing to achieve a convincing shot. But within all that
action there were a few 100% CG shots. One such sequence was of Zayed and the
goons riding bikes, landing on a running train and turning them.

Rajneesh De

rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in