At the beginning of 2020 and with the Oscars focusing our attention on the best visual effects of 2019, we expanded the network and asked: "What were the best visual effects sequences of the past decade?" We have an informal survey on visual effects performed supervisors, artists, software researchers, Greenscreen employees and practitioners to find out which sequences have had a real impact in the past decade.
The criterion was simple: we weren't looking for the best film or even the best film with visual effects, but the best sequence in each film. While the Oscars reward the contribution of the entire film, and even the VES awards focus on a film or TV show as a whole, sometimes it's just a sequence or even a single shot that we respond to that we inspire and take that we remember.
To put it bluntly, this is not a competition, but a celebration of the innovation, imagination and dedication of artists around the world for the recording they are working on. A VFX artist can control the script, marketing, and most of the time not even editing, but he can create the next 120 pictures he works on in the best 5 seconds of his career's screen.
Skinny Steve: Lola VFX
ILM's Todd Vaziri highlighted a few examples that we were sure to love:
- "Skinny Steve" in "Captain America" (2011). Almost nine years later, I think Captain America's skinny Steve sequences still blow my mind. The actual execution of the visual effects work (distortion of real photography to make an extremely tall and athletic Chris Evans look like a 90-pound weakling in the first half of the film) is top notch and shows no seams. But the overall outrageous boldness of the idea and design that embark on this journey still inspires me. And it starts with the casting of the film. Chris Evans, who was already an accomplished actor, was not a well-known superstar on his film debut, so there was no reason for the audience to not fully accept this young, light, underweight soldier with many hearts. This makes the ultimate transition to Chris Evans' real body all the more dramatic and powerful. The Skinny Steve sequences were also filmed in the usual way, with only occasional subtle frame hints added to highlight his smaller stature. For me, this is as important and groundbreaking as some of Forrest Gump's (1994) works; Similar to the conversion of Gary Sinise to Lt. Post-war Dan with legs removed, Skinny Steve's work serves a strong narrative purpose without drawing excessive attention to himself.
Original plate with Chris Evans
Last shot by Lola VFX
There is no doubt that the compositing work to reach Skinny Steve was stunning and almost unbelievably good. In addition, these recordings hold up very well 9 years later.
For more information, see our 2011 case study on How to Make an American Sissy. This is also the most read story from Greenscreen Marvel (MCU) over the past decade.
Matt Wallin, co-moderator of the VFXshow, agreed to the comments on Skinny Steve, adding: “Lola's work on this project, her aging work and the effectiveness of these visual storytelling effects have brought other lines of technological development to raise the bar continue to play with even greater fidelity, new software and hardware in other studios in films like this year's Gemini Man and the Irish ”.
Matt Wallin highlighted a second sequence
- "The second sequence that I just loved and that doesn't seem to get out of my head was the last confrontation in Alex Garland's film destruction (2018). While it wasn't technically groundbreaking visual effects, it was profoundly effective at story and character levels in a way that I found deeply satisfying and fascinating. The Almondbulb "Alien" confrontation The first fascinating moment was in the bowels of the lighthouse. I think it was made in Houdini, and its wavy shape, color, and lighting created a memorable raw alien shape that I hadn't seen in a movie before. The following symmetrical dance and fight between the protagonist and the doppelganger was such an innovative application of performance recording, in which the music brought history and subject together without dialogue. For me, it embodies innovative visual effects that serve to tell a story in a way that would otherwise not have been possible. Not my favorite film of the decade, but by far one of my favorite sequences. "
Destruction: DNeg
Matt also mentioned remarkably
- Black Swan (2010) "The Mirrors and the Ending Sequence";; Ex Machina (2014) "to the Ava"; You (2013) "those Outdoor environments of a future LA"; Mindhunter (2017) "So many fantastic Period environments"; and Blade Runner 2049, "everything about it ”.
- Life of Pi: shipwreck with tiger. “Rhythm and Hues have broken new ground Character and environmental work about the film and paved the way for more astonishing work by filmmakers and studios in subsequent films such as the Planet of the Apes Trilogy, The Jungle Book and The Lion King. Animals can be animated and rendered with pitch-perfect realism. "
It's hard to think of the Oscar-winning Life of Pi without thinking about the fate of Rhythm and Hues, but it's also important to remember how unbelievable the animation with visual effects is in producing key character accomplishments this film was. As Matt mentioned, Life of Pi was the grandfather of so many great animation performances that would follow.
Life of Pi: rhythm & colors
Several people pointed out the importance of the jungle book (2016). The film was both important and visually stunning. Three artists at MPC commented on the jungle book separately.
- “For me, one of the best VFX sequences of the decade is that Lazy river sequence from the jungle book. It offers an amazing photo-realistic full-CG environment consisting of dense and varied foliage, as well as a highly detailed water simulation that looked beautiful and had to interact with a complex fur simulation while seamlessly integrating a practically shot Mowgli session onto Baloo's chest, ”commented Oliver Winwood, CG Supervisor.
- "I would say that Wildebeest sequence in the jungle book. I was really impressed with this sequence – the animation, the environment, and the FX work that I thought was excellent, and really exceeded the limits of what MPC had been doing up to that point, ”said Lisa Gonzalez, Asset Supervisor .
- "The Jungle Book comes to mind immediately, but maybe not for the sequences you expect. The one I keep coming back to is Mowgli leaves the wolf pack. The interaction between Mowgli and Raksha looks great and, above all, feels emotionally real, ”explained Oliver Dale, Animation Lead.
The jungle book not only impressed in terms of animation, interaction and rendering, but also led to an incredible increase in interest in exploring larger visual effects on the set and the current era of virtual production, which is exploding worldwide. The film was set to win an Oscar for Adam Valdez, Dan Lemmon, Robert Legato and Andrew R. Jones in early 2017. Director Jon Favreau, who is already a major force in filmmaking, would continue to expand the VFX universe with artistic successor The Lion King, who was nominated for an Oscar this year.
We spoke to Rob Legato, the visual effects supervisor, about how they brought the world of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book to life for fxpodcast # 302. (We also spoke to Rob about the Lion King, which was released last week).
MPC's work on terminator genesis (2015)
MPC had a remarkable decade from a digital Arnie to the world of The Martian (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (2018), which has been mentioned several times for its in-depth graphics. As you can imagine, MPC's work on The Jungle Book and The Lion King was very well represented by several people around the world. Daniele Bigi from ILM commented:
- The Lion King's Environs (2019), "Probably the most photorealistic environments created in a full CG animation film."
Bigi also highlighted the work of another UK company:
- The space station in gravity (2013), Framestore continued to lead the industry to take full advantage of a path tracing rendering system and to use Arnold to deliver all of the VFX footage in the film. The space station in Gravity was the most realistic representation of a space station in a movie.
Gravity: vfx is anything but down to earth
<iframe title = ""Severity: vfx that is anything but down to earth "- Greenscreen" class = "wp-embedded-content" sandbox = "allow-scripts" security = "restricted" style = "position: absolut; clip: rect (1px, 1px, 1px, 1px ); "src =" https://www.Greenscreen.com/fxfeatured/gravity/embed/#?secret=88KX1Gkbnt "data-secret =" 88KX1Gkbnt "width =" 600 "height =" 338 "frameborder =" 0 " marginwidth = "0" marginheight = "0" scrolling = "no">
Much like the impact of Life of Pi on the evolution of digital animals, Skinny Steve was a cornerstone in the evolution of digital people and led to an era of de-aging effect sequences. However, one could argue that Lola's successful deconstruction work is Weta Digital's incredible job in creating it digital Paul Walker (Furious 7, 2015) also led directly to the area where Gemini Man and The Irishman could be made.
This work, led by Joe Letteri, Martin Hill and Daniel Barrett, was a leap over everything that had previously happened in realism. When we spoke to him about the story, Dr. Paul Debevec points out that
- When Paul Walker tragically went through half of the main photography, the entire film – and the entire franchise – was discontinued. When it turned out that his family would support the end of his role using digital technology, an unprecedented effort began to create a photo-realistic digital version of an actor that had to overlap with his real self. Using scans from Paul's younger brothers Caleb and Cody, Weta Digital created the most detailed and credible digital human actor ever shot. In the last film, he contributed to over 300 recordings. Given the studio's concern not to detract from the audience's delight in Paul's final performance, little mention has been made of the extensive digital character work the film had done almost a year after its release. As a result, Furious 7 wasn't even shortlisted by the Academy for Best Visual Effects for 2015. However, thanks to technological advances, Weta has continued to create breakthrough photo-realistic digital characters in films such as Central Intelligence and Gemini Man.
The most breathtaking effect of Furious 7: Paul Walker
<iframe title = ""Angry 7s most breathtaking effect: Paul Walker "- Greenscreen" class = "wp-embedded-content" sandbox = "allow-scripts" security = "restricted" style = "position: absolut; clip: rect (1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); "src =" https://www.Greenscreen.com/fxfeatured/furious-7s-most-stunning-effect-paul-walker/embed/#?secret=GrYFrlmPzV "data-secret =" GrYFrlmPzV "width =" 600 " height = "338" frameborder = "0" marginwidth = "0" marginheight = "0" scrolling = "no">
Another important digital human sequence was the pioneering work ILM did with the creation of a digital Grand Moff Tarkin for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). This film is part of the ongoing effort to solve digital people that we've explored in our 2017 story: ILM's award-winning pipeline for Human Human Sci-Tech and a video we made with our media partner WIRED Magazine
ILM has created so many stunning visual effects in Star Wars films alone that it is hard to imagine that they had time for anything else. However, think of the many great ILM sequences in so many films of the past decade, like the Avengers films with the Hulk (and many other Marvel films), the incredible animations in the films Transformers, Bumblebee and Pacific Rim as well as the great ones cinematic VFX moments in films such as Unbroken (2014), Lucy (2014), Ready Player One (2018) and six minutes of screen time by the now notorious mother Grizzly, who beat The Revenant (2015).
Monkey spectacle
Dr. Pogo: Weta Digital
Beyond the world of digital people, Weta Digital has become known as the world's leading expert for primates and digital monkeys in films. Her work in this area continues today, from Dr. Pogo in the Umbrella Academy (2019) to the Mandrills in Jumanji: The Next Level. However, the groundbreaking work that touched most of the people we spoke to was their signature in the films of Planet of the Apes. What is remarkable about this work is the quality of the spectacle that the fully digital monkeys present. The level of subtext in Dawn of Planet of Apes when Koba confronts people is remarkable. At that time Dan Lemmon was discussing with us about the change from “malicious and threatening Koba to this silly kind of circus monkey performance. You see Koba's decision, you see how he gets involved and does an action – and it's a multi-faceted feat. "However, this was just one of the remarkable pieces of nonverbal action in this film, as Nic Lambert, VFX supervisor Boundary Visual Effects, commented:
- "A moment that stays with me is when Maurice meets teenager Alexander at dawn on the planet of the apes. I still can't believe it's not a real orangutan. Karin Konoval's acting as Maurice is perfect. It is an emotional moment that could have been ruined by anything but flawless visual effects. In this sequence, Weta set new standards in photo-realistic digital character work. From the movement detection on site to the progress in realignment and improvement of the performance of the actor to the amazing texture and fur work. Joe Letteri, Christoph Salzmann, Paul Story and their crews have done groundbreaking work. "
Unusual perspectives for the audience
Visual effects have the power to show the impossible and to show it from a perspective or angle that is both brilliant and tells the story in a new way. Patrick Tubach from ILM called such a sequence that Kitchen scene from X-Men Days of Future Past (2014) by Rising Sun Pictures VFX.
- “One of my favorite and perhaps less well known but unforgettable VFX moments is the kitchen scene from the X-Men Days of Future Past, where time is slowed down and Quicksilver runs across the room and rearranges the balls to get them out of one get out difficult situation with some security guards. This is a fantastic example of the open use of VFX to delight the audience. It's not the first or last moment in VFX history, but there was great style and execution in this scene. "
Max effects
There was a film that was consistently mentioned, but without isolating a single shot or scene for praise, and it was Mad Max Fury Road (2015). The film lost to Ex Machina at the Oscars this year, but the work of Andrew Jackson, Dan Oliver, Andy Williams, and Tom Wood has been mentioned repeatedly by people we spoke to for this story. Simon Robinson, co-founder of the foundry, summed it up well: from the stilt people to the environmental work and the storm sequence:
- "Mad Max Fury Road – it's the only film in which I still freeze still pictures to admire them. It was breathtaking and extraordinarily beautiful."
This was a point that so broad a spectrum of people from all over the world agreed.
A graphic story: the visual effects of Mad Max: Fury Road
<iframe title = "" A graphic story: the visual effects of Mad Max: Fury Street"- Greenscreen" class = "wp-embedded-content" sandbox = "allow-scripts" security = "restricted" style = "position: absolute; clip: rect (1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src = "https : //www.Greenscreen.com/fxfeatured/a-graphic-tale-the-visual-effects-of-mad-max-fury-road / embedded / #? secret = Bh09H5SJs1 "data-secret =" Bh09H5SJs1 "width = "600" height = "338" frameborder = "0" marginwidth = "0" marginheight = "0" scrolling = "no">
Emotional blow
While we expected senior visual effects supervisors to point out innovative, state-of-the-art technical excellence, Kevin Baillie, creative director and senior VFX supervisor at Method Studios, surprised us and himself when he thought about this question:
- “The past 10 years have been filled with an astonishing number of visual effects sequences – maybe as many as in all decades before. However, in the sea of technically brilliant scenes of this decade, I feel that those who stood out share an important quality with each of the best VFX scenes in history: they made me feel something. Even better, they made me feel something I wasn't expecting. For me, the best example of a VFX scene in this decade was when I felt like I was something surprisingly visceral … and I can't believe I'm saying this … a Marvel superhero film! This particular scene was not an epic battle or a massive flight through a fantastic environment. It was the subdued, somber moment of Avenger: Infinity War when Thanos was executing his master plan and we saw half of the life of the universe turn to dust. The effect itself felt so naturalistic, although it was fantastic. His silence spoke volumes. His subtlety showed us everything and focused on the characters' performances in their last ash-gray moments. When Spider-Man asks for his life and slowly disappears in Tony Stark's armsI cried, I don't shit you And that makes it worthy in my books to take first place in my list of the "best decades". "
2010 and beyond
It's incredible to remember how much brilliant visual effects work has been done in the past decade and how almost all films now need visual effects, from hardcore effects that help with hair and makeup, to rigs removal , Stunt digits and sky replacement, extensions, reframing, relighting, UI screen compositions – the list goes on. Indeed, the premise of this article can be questioned, as some would say that the best visual effects are those that the audience has never seen, but that the audience only enjoyed as part of the storytelling without being aware of the late night that One hundred to be aware of. plus revision, the new code that needed to be written, or the inventive shader that was developed.
Matt Wallin summarized the visual effects that we all enjoyed in the 2010s and that exploded the realm of opportunity for filmmakers. “The breadth and depth of the work that has been done worldwide in the past ten years has been phenomenal. We have seen breakthrough developments in photo realism in various disciplines that have been seamlessly integrated into film and television work on a large scale. As we approach 2020, things seem to be just beginning. "
Like!! Great article post.Really thank you! Really Cool.