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From stop-motion and green screens to CGI and
motion-capture, VFX have come a long way. But good
old fashioned prosthetics and practical effects still rule.
Words Scott Hocking
Arecent visit to the Weta Workshop in
Wellington got me to thinking about
special effects – as it would – and how
far we’ve come since a rocket was fired into
the eye of our celestial neighbour in Georges
Méliés’ A Trip to the Moon (1902).
King Kong (1933) and Ray Harryhausen’s
stop-motion creations (as well as his
Dynamation process) were the next step,
followed by the groundbreaking achievements
of Kubrick’s 2001 and Lucas’s Star Wars . Then
Industrial Light and Magic changed the game
forever with CGI (T2 and Jurassic
Park ), and the aforementioned
Weta perfected motion-capture
technology (The Lord of the
Rings).
So what’s next? CGI
has pretty much lost its
‘wow’ factor through
overkill, but every now and
then a blockbuster comes
along that makes you sit
up in your cinema seat in
excitement, because you know
you’ve just seen the next level in
the evolution of VFX.
I had that feeling watching Avatar and then
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, both of which
advanced MoCap from the Gollum days. Then
Warcraft came along last year – the movie
wasn’t great but the Orcs were! I’m sure War
for the Planet of the Apes this month will ramp
it up another notch, too.
But while sentient monkeys and fantasy
creatures have become photorealistic, the
creation of lifelike human beings hasn’t. They
still look like video game characters, with that
creepy, waxy animated mannequin look. The
CGI recreations of Peter Cushing and youthful
Princess Leia in Rogue One were better, but
you could still see through the illusion (the
whole “Uncanny Valley” debate on resurrecting
deceased actors is another article entirely).
Which brings me back to what the next big
quantum leap in VFX might be. When I put this
question to Weta Workshop’s Rob Gillies, he
cited 3D printers and CNC milling technology
as revolutionising the manufacturing process.
The key word there is ‘manufacturing’ – Weta
Workshop are the industry benchmark when
it comes to creating practical effects, with the
Weta Digital division the icing on the physical
cake.
We might be living in a digital world, but
nothing beats the real and tangible. If you’re
old enough to have first seen Star
Wars in 1977, before Lucas
tinkered with it, you’ll agree
that the model Falcon and
Star Destroyers can’t be
beaten. The same goes
for monsters and gore
effects – prosthetics
beat pixels every time.
Watch John Carpenter’s
The Thing if you don’t
believe me.
It’s comforting to know
that companies like Weta and
their peers continue to champion
practical effects, and I’ll let Lucasfilm’s
production designer Doug Chiang have
the final say on the subject: “I see the
whole industry swinging back in terms of a
technology pendulum. Because computer
graphics allow you to create anything, there
was a tendency to overindulge yourself. What
we’ve discovered now is it’s better to show
restraint. CGI, after all, is just a tool. Whether
you’re using plywood and paint or pixels,
ultimately it has to be informed by the story
and has to service the film itself. For me, the
fine balance is to open it up enough so that it
feels real, grounding it in reality. That’s why we
try and build as much as possible, but knowing
at the end we do have the license to expand it
in post-production.”
052 AUGUST 2017
visit OPINION
PIECE
MIND
The
VISUAL
EFFECTS
(R)EVOLUTION
1991
1977
1968
1963
1933
2001-03
2011
1993
2009
We might be
living in a digital
world, but nothing beats
the real and tangible.
Watch John Carpenter's
The Thing if you don't
believe me.
OF
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