We all believe that we know what Vfx Looks – or at least how bad VFX looks. We can often feel when computer -generated images collide with the visual language for a filmThe world and is too plastic-y or textureless, when that world is suddenly too dark or crumbling to an unclear mass of large-scale destruction porn. Especially with greater attention now on the punishment crunches and production sprints that are imposed on artists of visual effects and the advent of soulless AI slop, it has been a reaction to VFX as a useful tool, a desire to do everything practically – or at least one desire to say everything is done practically.
“The Legend of andi” stuck in this “VFX is for Marvel Movies (Desogatory)” discourse when the first trailer for A24 movie dropped. So many online comments accused the film of being AI-generated the director Isaiah Saxon Felt the need to comment on in a now-rained Twitter post that confirmed the titular O andin, a rare primat-like creature as a young girl (Helena Zengel) becomes friends with her father’s (Willem Dafoe) Crusade to kill them, were, in all close and medium -sized images, created by animatronic dolls and was performed by teams of skilled dolls.
But one of the refreshing things about ”The legend of and in“Is how it shows that good visual world building is never a matter of practical or CGI, but a mixture of both and of all departments that work together to achieve the appearance that the film needs. Some films want the scale and spectacle that requires remarkably VFX, and some digitally sculpted sky to better reflect the mood in an otherwise ground.
“The Legend of Ochi” is a fantasy adventure history and needed a mixture of both the real and the unpleasant – of primevala forests that extend beyond our sense of the horizon, of mysterious fog that sits over the mountains and hides and in human eyes, but also the kind of tactile fortress that would make us real. “I was hoping that a child could come to this movie and wonder if these were real animals. Was this a really undiscovered primat that they just hadn’t seen the BBC nature special on yet?” Saxon told Indiewire.
However, creating that illusion required 700 VFX images, mostly 3D animation on broader images and stunts. “I think CG and VFX have gained this tormented reputation a bit, largely because of the company’s companies and transfers on it. But really it is a tailor -made, boring craft and art that is full of passionate people, really brilliant people. At all effects houses in the world, you will find people who are so devoted to their hand.” “And the problem is more at the top – there are large corporate studios that do not create schedules that make sense.”
This is not a problem that “The Legend of andi”, with its budget of $ 10 million (of which $ 1 million was allocated for creature work) had to handle. Saxon told IndieWire that he spent a couple of years going to prepare the world and appearance of and in – “Much because it was just, how do you ask for money to make a first time a movie that is a fantasy adventure when no one wants to do it and that is not how the world works?” Saxon said. He also spent that time growing a team on both the puppet and the effects of and in and planning and testing and planning a little more.
“I spent years doing completely CG -animated work with my friends and taught me the software myself. So when it’s time to make a big 3D environment, it’s right in my controlhouse, and I will make myself part of the team,” Saxon Saxon. “(On larger movies) there is no proper shot planning and then there are the last minute notes and they can only continue to spend (their way through) their own ignorance of the process.”
Saxon put together “an indie team” for VFX on the film, led by supervisor Grant White. Part of their work together that Saxon quoted as the most crucial are also some of the most invisible works. By postponing a distant mountain in Romania, the director needed home for the mysterious Dasha (Emily Wilson) to feel suitably enigmatic and potentially dangerous. But the day of photography was light and sunny.
“It doesn’t feel right. So then you shoot as much as you can in the shade, and then in the mail, (white) took still photographs of when the dog rolled in when we do not postpone there, and then I have the same perspective, but I have it in different weather conditions. So I can start composing these elements in a matte painting that perfectly struggles with what we shot.” “At the top of half of the frame is fog that rolls over the hills, and the lower half is our living action plate.”
At the end of the day, both the 3D animation and the doll are narrative tools, and Saxon was happy to embrace both so that the audience can live in and in the world and not worry about how it became.
“People love to celebrate practical work, and I think we should celebrate all practical work in this movie,” Saxon said. “But if there is a stunt shot or a wide shot or there is something we couldn’t really do real, we naturally make a CG version of it. This movie has 700 VFX pictures. This is a VFX-driven movie.”
