Draper said it was difficult to bring imagination into reality and it took the visual effects team six months of research.
Baahubali, the blockbuster film by S S Rajamouli, was the cynosure of all eyes during the second day of ‘Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017’ as the film’s visual effects team member Pete Draper narrated his experience.
“It was only during the post production phase that we realised that the movie was going to be really huge,” he said to a packed crowd at the conference. Draper was associated with Rajamouli on the VFX and was responsible for about 1,45,000 unedited frames — roughly 100 minutes in a 150-minute film along with R C Kamalakannan as VFX supervisor.
“For a film like Baahubali, it was difficult to convert assets on VFX as they build very large scale buildings. We only had 18 months to do the whole thing,” he said. Bengaluru GAFX is a three-day conference organised by the Department of IT and BT, government of Karnataka in association with ABAI, a non-profit organisation committed to developing the animation, VFX and gaming industry in India.
Co-founder and VFX supervisor at Makuta VFX, Draper said the sword of “Baahubali” was a VR (virtual reality) experience. “They even used minicams for the VR. It became a very good marketing tool and showcased Baahubali from a unique angle,” he said.
He also said it was difficult to bring imagination into reality and it took the visual effects team six months of research. “We used 24 cameras with different camera angles. There were certain effects in the movie which were simple but were actually tricky to pull off,” he said.
“Artificial intelligence (AI) will make a serious impact on animation, games and visual effects industry. 3D scanning is getting more fidelity as it can read the topology of a face and map it onto another artiste, like virtual impersonation. Here, you will be able to change faces without having to do it manually,” he said. Interacting with DH, Ankit Mehta from Digital Notions Motion Graphics, said Draper’s talk was very informative on how VFX effects can enliven a film. “Bengaluru GAFX Conference 2017 gives us an opportunity to interact with talent from across the globe and understand new technology and tools in the industry,” said Mehta.