No box-office success of a movie cannot ignore the special effects done by computers. And yet, few people are those who see the intervention of the “digital artist”. This is why movies like “Godzilla” or “Titanic” seem so real and more and more scenes are born out of a computer.
In “Jurassic Park” the game, Steven Spielberg offers various models of monsters that players could move, the fights being held only on the computer and the moves of some characters being played ONLY by it. In Godzilla movie scenes, the viewers watch 90% of the time a computer generated reptile and the rest a miniature model, which, by computer, acts as a natural reptile.
On average, the major studios invest about 50 million U.S. dollars in a cinema production. About a third of that amount goes on the visual effects. The art is to implement them so well that viewers will not notice anything technical effects and methods used. The first major project of Weigert, the man who founded the company Dreamscape Imagery at Hoolywood, was to manage VFX for “Independence Day”. Weigert with his team developed a logistics program for visual effects, which was then applied to productions like “Alien Resurection” “Volcano” and “Godzilla”.
Special optical effects have been replaced in the last ten years with digital processing. Even those who work with fire, who must take part in scenes with explosions, begin to feel increasingly more left aside by these competitive digital effects.
The best example for the performance of computers in movies is “Spawn”. The story has scenes with inflammatory changes of situation, extensive digital effects, that have as a consequence an increasingly complex and futuristic reality. For “Spawn“, there were applied for the first time all the digital effects, which were developed in the last eight years. The hero wears, for example, a suit that fits him like a second skin on the body. The armour was generated by a computer and is composed of trillions of neural connections that instantly turn thoughts into action. Another noteworthy aspect is the clothes aspect, that can take any form and are digitally created, you can zoom the suit, make it appear or disappear instantly.
The task of the film productions using digital processing does not involve spectacular effects, but retouching: removing disturbing elements in the image, color correction, light, or combining images created by computer and real scenes.
In a similar way, the producer must smooth the image if sudden camera movements are present, frame by frame. Such processes are regular in everyday work for visual effects specialists, making corrections and enhancements that viewers do not notice.
The visuals have a great influence not only on film, but also for aesthetics. They modify the whole production process and thus it is needed a know-how and an equipment as specific as the special effects. If Working with computer tricks depends on both the cost and effort required for alternatives. After the storyboard is ready, the director should determine whether a computer generated model would be more cost effective than building a model in miniature. As for the filming of such model they need a lot of light, a big team (incredible) and a studio. VFX productions, instead, need a computer to recreate the environment and one or two designers. Then the actors play their part. Most of the time, the actors do not come across special effects designers.
Various live-action scenes are filmed in front of a green wall background. For explosions, however, are used as before, the real models, because the result is more natural. The digital explosions only apply where there is no available model or on the scenes from outer space.
Space shuttles, strange creatures and unusual objects do not find a place in the form of miniature models of the Hollywood films. More often they appear as computer graphics. Only when filming close-ups, in which the focus is on detail and resolution, they turn to miniature models. When shooting panoramas, the specialists use the computer version, because it can be potentially better resized.
Planning and realizing visual effects will be better in years, but it will always remain the risk that the viewer will observe those interventions. 90% of the visual effects are not perfect, but they are usually seen only by professionals.
