Beyond the frame
We’ve all experienced it at the theatre. Heart racing, popcorn forgotten, eyes glued to the screen, and you whisper to yourself,
“Wait! How is this even possible?”
Iron Man soaring through the skies, Baahubali lifting a Shivling with seemingly godlike strength or the astounding underwater world of Avatar: The Way of Water; all so realistic, you don’t know what is and isn’t real. So, what is the secret behind the movie magic?
It’s not expensive cameras, big budgets or clever light setups.
It’s the marvelous, often hidden, part of the filmmaking industry called Animation & Visual Effects (VFX). It is the power of transforming green screens into galaxies, wireframes into warriors and drawings into creatures that exist in our imaginations, the technology giving us the ability to create the universe of modern cinema at our fingertips.
And here’s the best part. If you are finishing 12th grade or you are a graduate and not sure what to do next, that world is not beyond your reach.
You don’t just have to watch the magic - you can be part of the magic.
So, What Exactly Is Animation and VFX?
Let’s go into some detail.
- Animation is the creation of an animated universe of characters, objects, and environments - producing movement, reactions and emotions in the same way that human beings do.
- VFX (Visual Effects) is the study of producing imagery after the filming process is complete. It blends the physical world with the world of imagination to deliver a product that cannot be captured by the camera alone.
From flying vehicles in the Fast & Furious series to animals in Avatar to epic fight scenes in RRR, it is the amazing collective of education that includes BSc Animation, Graphics and VFX.
How Are Directors Using VFX in Modern Cinema?
No longer are we in the world of shooting everything on elaborate sets. Nowadays, directors work heavily with green screens, motion capture, 3D modelling, digital compositing, and VFX to make things a reality.
For example:
- With Marvel’s Avengers, most of the battle scenes, suits, and even locations were digitally rendered.
- With Baahubali, the kingdom was built predominantly by VFX. Through the use of real sets with