VISUAL FX : TEACHING THE

IMPOSSIBLE

“WHEN YOU'RE IN SOMETHING AS SUCCESSFUL AS 'TRANSFORMERS,' YOU CAN'T USE IT AS A SALES PIECE FOR YOUR ABILITY AS AN ACTRESS BECAUSE IT'S ALL ABOUT VISUAL EFFECTS.”

MEGAN FOX

SACHIN BHATNAGAREDUCATOR | CODER& VP – NEW MEDIA @ FRAMEBOXX

State of the Industry

The Teaching Dilemma

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

AND THE ROAD AHEAD

LIST OF STUDIOS THAT HAVE SHUT DOWN OVER THE PAST 5 YEARS

• Rhythm & Hues• Digital Domain• ICO VFX• CIS – Hollywood• Kerner Optical

• Asylum VFX• Café FX• C.O.R.E Digital Pictures• Pacific Title & Art Studio• The Orphanage

Every Cloud has a silver lining !!!!!!

INTERNATIONAL MARKET TRENDS | MICRO & SMALL STUDIOS

• The demise of corporations has given opportunity to micro studios.

• A micro studio consists of a small but talented workforce.

• Instead of offloading visual effects work to a single large entity, the work is divided between multiple such studios.

• Work happens faster due to competition.

• It costs much less this way…

INTERNATIONAL MARKET TRENDS | OUTSOURCING

• Despite protests, work will travel to Asia

• The cost of doing visual effects work, atleast a major part of it in the west is amazingly high

• Countries like India have a huge English speaking population

• We’re economical

• Due to time zone differences, Asia works when the US sleeps = 24 hour work cycle

DOMESTIC MARKET TRENDS | CONSOLIDATE & GROW

• A lot of major production houses have shut shop in recent years. These include such names as Crest Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks.

• Consolidation is slowly pulling the industry out of recession.

• Consolidation ensures only the fittest survive.

• Consolidation ensures that the industry does not die.

DOMESTIC MARKET TRENDS | THE BIG PLAYERS

• India has done what no other country could – Create Humongous World Class Companies such as Prime Focus.

• Prime Focus is now the largest Media & Entertainment group in the world.

• Reliance & Prime Focus merged their film business recently.

• They have acquired several key studios in the world including Double Negative and are located in over 6 locations worldwide.

DOMESTIC MARKET TRENDS | CONTENT EXPLOSION• Indian films are continually raising the bar as far as domestic visual effects consumption goes.

• Experimentation in genres such as Science Fiction & Mythology may be elementary but it does push the demand for better visual effects.

• The Television Advertising Industry is way ahead when it comes to world class visual effects. This in itself is a huge contributor to the growth of the visual effects industry in India.

• Television shows such as mythology serials have matured in terms of their FX execution standards.

• The industry down south is far more expressive when it comes to Visual Effects.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The global visual effects industry is gradually correcting itself.

• Market dynamics have changed drastically, business models are evolving.

• The West cannot forgo outsourcing. Its just not viable for them.

• Outsourced work = Advantage Asia, particularly India.

• Consolidation has sized down the industry but scaled up the quality and seriousness.

• There ARE Jobs in this industry !

• The quality benchmarks for a candidate has gone up.

• The Government recently asked Doordarshan to start a Kids Animation Channel and promote Indian Animation IPs. This is a major step forward.

• Indian Films and TVCs are continually raising the visual effects quality bar.

Bottomline

The global visual effects industry has gone through flux, has been beaten, bashed up but like a phoenix, it is slowly rising back from the ashes.

THE SKILLS DILEMMAESSENTIAL SKILLS

Students lack the most fundamental skills !!

They are hell bent on Software & Tutorials !

Historical Facts & Knowledge

Camera & Cinematography

Fundamentals

Image & File Format

Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Compositing Essentials

Students Need to Work on

HISTORICAL FACTS & KNOWLEDGE• Students must absolutely know about the history of special / visual effects.

• Distinction between Special Effects & Visual Effects

• The role of pioneers like the Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès, Ray Harryhausen, John Dykstra and more.

• Students should read about companies such as Robert Abel & Associates, Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, Rhythm & Hues etc.

• Promote the role of research and reading amongst students.

CAMERA & CINEMATOGRAPHY FUNDAMENTALS• Evolution of Cameras

• Types of Cameras | From Handcranked Film Cameras to Digital Cine Cameras

• Lenses : Distortion, Aperture, Chromatic Aberration

• Frame Rate

• Shutter Speed – Motion Blur

• ISO and Noise / Grain

• Time Lapse Photography

IMAGE & FILE FORMAT FUNDAMENTALS• Pixel Aspect Ratio

• Frame Sizes

• Compression and Codecs

• Logarithmic File Formats such as CINEON & DPX

• OpenEXR | Critically Important

• Camera RAW Formats

• High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI)

COLOR FUNDAMENTALS• Bit Depth

• Integer vs Float Interpolation

• Understanding Brightness, Gain, Gamma mathematically

• Normalization

• Understanding Lookup Tables

• Visualizing Colors in 3D Space

COMPOSITING FUNDAMENTALS• Porter & Duff’s Equation | (FG * FGa) + (BG * (1-FGa))

• Understanding Mattes

• Camera Projection Mapping

• Using OpenEXR

• Using Layers & Channels from 3D

• Color Correction

• Pre-Multiplication | Pre-Div/Post-Multiply

Thank Youmailme@sachinbhatnagar.com | @sachinbee