Visual effects are more than just a series of can't-believe-your-eyes stunts, such as wormholes or giant plane crashes or tall trees who can talk. As blockbusters have taken over the box office, the signature spectacles they promise have become increasingly popular, and elaborate, too.
Visual effects now help generate the kind of buzz that sustains success. But creating award-worthy effects typically requires a large team on each production: “If you ever watch the end credits of a big feature film, you’ll notice once it hits visual effects, it kind of goes on for days,” said Victor Scalise, the independent visual effects supervisor for AMC’s smash hit “The Walking Dead.”
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“You’re talking about a small army,” Scalise said.
He provided a visual effects supervisor’s perspective on why three of the 2015 nominees for the Oscar for Best Visual Effects — including winner “Interstellar” — stood out.
"Guardians of the Galaxy": An almost unknown entry (a talking raccoon?) in Marvel's interconnected and highly popular film series, "Guardians" boasted several action-packed sequences that required heavy digital work and two completely computer-generated characters: tree-like Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel; and Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper, a genetically-modified raccoon.
To make Groot and Rocket feel real, the visual effects team, which included SCAD alumni, had to constantly reference the concept art, stand-in performances and voice characterizations.
Challenges came when Groot and Rocket interacted with characters played by real actors, such as star Chris Pratt. It’s harder to interact in a scene with a character that is not actually there, so the visual effects team utilized stand-in performers who wore a Groot-like mask, for example, to give the actors a reference point and an eye line while filming.
"Because you’re not questioning the fur, the eyes and all of those things while you’re watching, that means the visual effects team did a phenomenal job,” Scalise said.
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier": Marvel's "Captain America" sequel called for heavy visual effects with all of the action scenes filled with fighting and explosions. One scene in particular, when a massive helicarrier crashes into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, was created with nearly all 3-D digital animation.
The only live action was Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, running in a green-screen studio before being placed in the 3-D set. Scalise said the visual effects team accomplished their job because the effects were so seamless he didn’t even think about how they created it.
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“As a visual effects supervisor and watching as an audience member, I tend to want to enjoy a movie and not try to critique, ‘Was that digital? Was that practical?’” Scalise said. “As I watched it in the theater, I wasn’t doing that. I was just enjoying the movie.”
"Interstellar": The visual effects Oscar went to Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic, and for good reason.
“You can have science-fiction space movies, and then you can have realistic space movies,” Scalise said.
The visual effects team worked with physicist Kip Thorne to create what many viewers called the most realistic black hole ever displayed on screen.
The visual effect required developing a computer code that traced beams of light as they are bent and warped by the immense gravity of a black hole, according to Double Negative Visual Effects' website.The team utilized a process called "gravitational lensing" to portray the black hole.
“Doing their research and basing it off reality as much as possible is what really is so awesome about the visual effects in ‘Interstellar,’” Scalise said.
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