Undertaking ‘First Man Won The Oscar Visual Effects, But, Where Is Its VFX? (1)’, many people may wonder why the wonderful travel outside the earth is so realistic. First Man DFX supervisor Tristan Myles said in an interview that director Damien is trying to balance the visual effects of each shot to avoid the appearance of a particular lens, or let the audience find it to be a CG lens at a glance. In order to let the audience immersively feel the width of the moon, landing on the moon, the surface effect seen at the moment of opening the hatch, all shot from top to bottom. The lunar area was shot in a quarry on the outskirts of Atlanta, especially like the "moon" surface. There are all kinds of rocks around, as well as craters. After shooting, you can remove some dust through the digital effects link, which will be more like the environment of the moon.CG production team has a major missionThe CG team produced a model of the aircraft for the film. For some wide-angle lenses, the team needed to design 3D assets that fill the lens content; the medium and close-up lenses used miniature models and full-size models. The post-effects team also needs to fill the lens with some CG content. One of the most important assets is the Genie target aircraft, which is orbiting the earth along the orbit and docking with the ATV. At the shooting scene, there is a model of the mating vertebral body. This model can't be controlled by the device. Only the manual position can be used to match the shooting needs. After the team gets the footage, it is projected onto the CG model to restore the real effect as much as possible. Many people will ask what the moon is made according to? Good question. In fact, NASA has a lunar orbit survey orbiter in reality. It can be simply understood as an aircraft that orbits a sphere along an orbit. It is used to detect and scan the surface of the moon and collect data. The special effects production team was fortunate enough to get these detailed data, based on which the real effect of the lunar surface was produced.Three little stories to understand before watchingThe film's story comes from James Hanson's non-fiction book, The First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong, which was first published in 2005. It is Armstrong's only official biography. This book tells the story of Armstrong's participation in the space program and shares the details of his personal life. The scriptwriter Josh Singer spent four years researching the script, and spent several months talking to former astronauts and NASA stakeholders, as well as communicating and understanding with Armstrong's family. Singer believes that "objectively and truthfully presenting facts is a huge responsibility."Ryan Gosling is the director's first choice. Although the two had worked together before, the first time they met was for First Man, far ahead of La La Land. In the director's mind, Ryan Gosling is the only actor who can do this role. Finally, let's take a look at some of the footage. This year's Oscar has no host, and it is also a peculiar way of organizing. The awarding process has also been simplified. Although it is not possible to win an award for each selected work, it can be nominated and is also recognized, congratulations to all the winner in the 91st Oscar Academy Awards.

The 91st Oscar Academy Awards are over. First Man beats Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, Ready Player One, Solo: A Star Wars Story for the Best Visual Effects Award. First Man is a documentary film about the life of American legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong, focusing on his process of becoming the first man in human history between 1961 and 1969. First Man's director is Damien Chazelle, who won the 89th Oscar for Best Director Award for La La Land. Neil Armstrong is stared by Ryan Gosling who was the Best Actor nominee with La La Land in Oscar. The visual effects supervisor, Paul Lambert（Blade Runner 2049）, who received the Oscar's Best Visual Effects last year.Visual effects are mainly done by the DNEG Vancouver team and more than 400 artists and technicians from India. If you just watch the movie, you can't see where the special effects are used. It's very real. Similar to Dunkirk directed by Nolan in 2017. Both are Invisible Effects. Where are the visual effects used? Today we will share with you some of the production stories behind. Redefine "camera shooting"In order to make the lens picture feel in the 1960s, the production team combined the previous technology with the modern new technology, in addition to using a huge LED screen as the background, the miniature landscape model and some Physical effects, precious NASA imagery resources and so on. The director's idea is to redefine "camera shooting" throughout the shooting and production. When visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert first met director Damien, the director showed him a full-featured notebook with all the story-lines, descriptions and effects of each scene. That is to say, the director has done a lot of preparation for how to shoot. His original idea was to circumvent the green or blue screen and get the real shot material from the "camera" as much as possible. For this purpose, the on-site shooting team built a 35-foot LED screen with a width of 60 feet to provide a wide visual view. Play on the screen for 90 minutes CG rendered earth background. The playback screen can be 360° flipped according to the specific requirements and actual conditions of the live shooting, for close-up or high-definition lens shooting. For example, the lens shown below, starring Ryan Gosling driving the X-15 to break the atmosphere, we see the reflection on his goggles, is the picture of the big screen. Using the LED screen as the background for shooting, you can create interactive lights and reflections on the character, and the rendering effect will look more realistic.They also used a miniature model when shooting. The team produced a number of different scale models for the LEM docking sequence. For example, there is a lens centered on the spacecraft. The model used is the following one, which is very real, but it seems to be S code. When it comes to some distant shots, it will use CG production. For close-ups that are close at hand, a full-size oversized model is used. For example, the Gemini capsule is the 80%-90% oversized model of the real size, and the big guy we show below. For more content, welcome to the arrival of First Man Won the ‘Oscar Visual Effects, But, Where is its VFX? (2)’.

For the creation of the environment, it can meet the requirements of the character living environment in the story, and also save the cost and time required for real shooting. The VFX effect shown in the picture was created by Brainstorm Digital, and everyone will not be unfamiliar with this team. In addition, there are some "invisible visual effects" lenses even in some visual effects movies. For example, the Avengers series, all the story shots in New York City were shot in front of the green screen. According to the director of the industrial light magic visual effects, if such a lens really wants to shoot in New York, it is really a little hard. Not only must the streets be blocked, but also the passers-by must be controlled; if you shoot, you have to use a helicopter, but you can't fly too low. So the Industrial Light and Magic team produced about 2,000 spherical images through more than 250,000 photos, reconstructed nearly 20 buildings in the huge New York City, and replaced the green screen with New York numbers using 3D modeling and camera projection. Scene extension effect. Needless to say, the effect is absolutely true. Scene extension is one of the most common types of technology in "invisible effects". It is often seen in the production of TV series, and the production budget designed by live shooting is not too expensive. The most typical example is Ugly Betty, who won the 64th US Golden Globe comedy series in 2007. I have seen the little friends of this drama do not know that there is no such thing, it involves a lot of scene extension effects. The episode effects were created by Stargate Studios. With the continuous advancement of technology, "invisible visual effects" have shown new uses. In the film Captain America: The First Avenger, the main character Steve Rogers needs to transform from a thin "little guy" into a muscular superhero, and Chris Evans, who plays the US team, is also the same. It is a handsome muscular man. The production team did a lot of conceptual script testing, and the filmmaker recalled that in the scene where Steve was born again, “the door opened, many viewers expressed surprises. “Hey? How does he have muscle?” 'How does the muscle add to it? Actually, muscle is not a special effect, and the thin Steve is a special effect." Therefore, under the efforts of the stuntman, meticulous preparation and digital synthesis, we have seen two different figures of the same person, and also added the weight of the story to the story as a “stealth special effect”. With the continuous improvement of production technology, the simple "changing head" can no longer meet the project requirements, and then there is a "reverse growth" production, which can make the actors in the film younger than the actual age. For example, in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Michael Douglas, who plays the role of a generation of ants, Dr. Hank Pim, with the help of visual effects and digital effects, the effect of "reverse growth" is very real. The same technique has been used in the TV series Westworld, which we have already shared in the previous article. The Swedish-based VFX team, the Important-Looking Pirates, gave Anthony Hopkins a "reverse growth" process. In the film Captain America: Civil War, the "reverse growth" technique that brought Robert Downey Jr. back to his 20s was the ultimate. Although it can't be called "invisible visual effects" in the true sense, the audience will certainly realize that these young looks are made through complex techniques, and indeed lead a new direction - digital human characters. As for the digital personas we have also introduced before, although there are many attempts that are not successful, they do exist. Through technology, people can create a realistic 3D face model, and sometimes it is true that it is true or false, but once it is moved, the problem comes. For example, Terminator Genisys. The young Schwarzenegger 3D model doesn't seem to have anything wrong, but it's a bit of a talk... because facial expressions are still very complicated to handle, and any subtle but unnatural change can be seen by the human eye. from. The most successful digital character is Rogue One: Princess Wilhelm Tarkin and Princess Leia in A Star Wars Story and Rachael in Blade Runner 2049. There is also the Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Caron in 2006. The newborn in the lens is completely digital, although you may not notice this, but it does allow the audience to feel the whole story more immersively, while avoiding the uncertain problems of using newborns. The development of “invisible visual effects” experienced simple element replacement, scene extension, and face changing. The reverse growth of actors or the reappearance of the screen of the deceased actor and the appearance of digital characters brought the film’s rendering effect. Unlimited possibilities, we are also very much looking forward to visual effects and non-visual effects technology to continue to develop.Photo From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KByPitOaG0U

When you talk about visual effects and CG production, the first thing that comes to mind is the cool masterpieces that are heavily invested, costly, and synthesized by computers. The world, characters, and monsters in those movies. The effect is realistic enough to make it stand out. To be honest, it's hard to find a movie or TV series that doesn't contain any VFX production. You may refute this point of view because there are a lot of visual effects that you might not notice. These parts may seem ordinary, but they are crucial to describing the story. We call it invisible effects. Today, let's take a look at its history & future. For the first time, the term invisible effects should appear in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. Even such a biographer/inspirational film contains 120 visual effects shots, which makes people have a new understanding of the Industrial Light & Magic, and sent the ILM to the Oscar. When we first watched Forrest Gump, we couldn't immediately detect all the visual effects shots. For example, the opening of the film, the lens followed by a feather fluttering, fell to the role of the foot. Needless to say, everyone knows that this lens is impossible to achieve by shooting alone. What is the real situation like? I took a feather and floated in front of the blue screen, made an animation, synthesized it onto the original material, and let the CG feather fall to the position of the real feather. It was then Tom Hanks to pick it up. An important episode in the Forrest Gump is that one of the protagonists, Deng Taylor, lost his legs, which is undoubtedly a special effect shot. First, wrap the actor's legs in blue cloth and wipe off your legs during production. There are also some elements that are added during post-production. For example, this piece of table, this part of the wall, is exactly where the actor's legs will meet. Another audience that is less likely to notice is the shot of Forest Gump playing table tennis. In fact, there was no table tennis in the whole process of the real shooting, and the actors and actresses were there to perform in the "cloud". As for table tennis, it is all about post-production and smashing, including the lens of Forest Gump's dedicated training, and finally, it shows a real and smooth effect. Nowadays, visual effects are also widely used for the production of a large number of people. In Forrest Gump is the use of digital synthesis, showing the effect of hundreds of people, quietly, but in fact, there are only more than 1,000 extras on the scene. These people took several shots in different places and then synthesized them into a scene. To say that Forrest Gump is a bit far from now, let's adjust it a little closer. For example, the film The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese in 2013, is also an example of the ultimate use of Invisible Effects. Let's take a look at the following visual effects analysis to fully understand it. In fact, it is a scene extension of the main screen. For more, coming soon...