Interview with Makuta VFX Regarding the Production of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion

As we all know, the Indian epic blockbuster ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ made great success in 2015, it earned great reputation worldwide and set a record in Indian film industry. That’s the reason why so many people looking forward to the release of the Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, it absolutely does not let us down, which even broke the record again by earning $120 million during the first week, making it the highest grossing Indian film all around the world ever. Here comes the thunderous applause to Makuta VFX who produced it and Fox Renderfarm who rendered it.

And we are so honorable to have the chance to interview Peter Draper who comes from Makuta VFX regarding the production of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion.

Fox Renderfarm: Hi Peter, May I ask what’s your biggest issue during Baahubali 1 and 2 productions?

Peter Draper: The biggest issues we had were the sheer size of the data assets that we had to work with. The environments that we needed to create were huge and kept on growing due to additional angles that needed to be achieved; from the original model designed for Baahubali 1, additional augmentation was needed to enhance angles for the second film which greatly increased the geometry and texture sizes, thus the memory overheads for not only our workstations but also the rendering aspects.

Fox Renderfarm: So what's your biggest challenge during your rendering phase before using Fox Renderfarm?

Peter Draper: Primarily the sheer size of the data assets that needed to be output in the short amount of time that we had to deal with within the production cycle. The post work, especially in the latter stages of the film’s production cycle, required some amendments and re-rendering which we didn’t have the scope to be able to do internally on our own farm, especially with the render times we were achieving in-house.

Fox Renderfarm: OK, I see, so how did Fox Renderfarm help you on Rendering? What do you feel about us and the cooperation between both companies?

Peter Draper: Fox initially approached us with an end-to-end solution for rendering, complete with back-end support. As our entire render pipeline revolved around externally referenced files and proxies due to the sheer amount of geometry, therefore we needed a mirror setting up on each node. Coupled with constant monitoring of our jobs, we needed complete back-end support to ensure that the job was maintained. Fox were on call 24/7 and helped us achieve our deadlines to the quality that was required by the client. Data transfer was fast, along with our own high-speed connection, it was like having our own tech support and farm extension!

Fox Renderfarm: We are so glad to hear that. While we've just got an international market development awards recently, as a business partner of Fox Renderfarm, what do you think about it?

Peter Draper: Congratulations! Very much deserved! Hopefully many more to come.

Fox Renderfarm: Thanks so much for your really kind words. Since Baahubali made so much success, what do you think about your company's advantage for animation and VFX production?

Peter Draper: In our short life of seven years, we’ve managed to establish ourselves as one of the highest regarded studios in India through the quality of the work that we produce and the team of artists that we have. We don’t compromise on quality and love to have the ability to work with some of the best directors, art directors and directors of photography in the industry. We absorb creativity so we look not only for the same in the talent that we hire, but also the people we work for and with.

Fox Renderfarm: That’s great. We sincerely hope Makuta VFX will produce more and more awesome films in the near future and keep work with Fox Renderfarm. Thanks so much for your time.