12 centre spread centre spread 13 OCTOBER 13-19, 2019 OCTOBER 13-19, 2019 CGIng is Believing How VFX was used to transform Spencer Wilding into the extraterrestrial mobster Luca Brasi in Men in Black: International De-ageing of actors in films has now become so common that in the new Ang Lee film Gemini Man, a 51-year-old Will Smith is pitted against a much younger version of himself. With new breakthroughs in visual effects (VFX) and computer-generated imagery (CGI), today's Hollywood movies have entered mind-bending territories :: Sourabh Gupta Young to Younger Well, fi lm stars consider themselves forever young. Now technology is making them younger. Cute But Virtual How is it Done: it's digital make-up that reduces the effects of age using a 3-D scan of the face. In other words, a 3-D mask is overlaid on the actor’s face to make her look wrinkle-free. Jurassic Park is Jurassic era now. The CGI technique reaping box-offi ce rewards is the trend of deploying “virtual produc- tion” on fi lming animals or what looks like animals. In the 2019 reboot of The Lion King, there were life-like lions and hyenas fi ghting it out in the African savannah. How is it Done: The technique uses live-ac- ROBERT DE NIRO & WILL SMITH, JOHNNY DEPP, Pirates NICOLE KIDMAN, SHAH RUKH KHAN, ARNOLD ROBERT DOWNEY Jr, tion production but in a virtual reality space. AL PACINO, The Irishman Gemini Man of the Caribbean 5 Aquaman Fan SCHWARZENEGGER, Avengers: Endgame Every frame is digitally Terminator Genisys rendered (nothing is what it really is) and key-frame animated. The same tech- nique was used to create AQUAMAN a fl ying baby elephant in Dumbo and Made-up The actors never went underwater. They shot in dry environments and later CGI experts took a fl uffy Pokémon in the characters underwater. This meant making Detective Pikachu. Universe their hair and clothes sway in digitally simulated versions. Usually, action-packed DETECTIVE PIKACHU DUMBO movies have smooth visual effects. Entire sequences are computer- generated or the scenes JOHN WICK 3 are digitally enhanced Every scene was augmented to give a visceral Fantasy Makers feel, including CGI glass shattering in a gory sword Hollywood’s top CGI & VFX companies fi ght, a gunfi ght inside a pool and a horse scene with a CGI-enhanced chase through the streets of New York. Lola Visual Effects Works The Curious Case of Benjamin Moving Picture Company Button, Ant-Man And The Wasp Works & Captain America Lion King & Godzilla: King of the Monsters AD ASTRA To show moonscape and low gravity, the animators Scanline VFX Method Studios used live action footage, shot on a sound stage against black screen and in deserts and augmented them all. Works Works Game of Thrones, Men in Black International, Black Panther Spiderman: Far from Home Sources: cartoonbrew.com, animationboss.net, methodstudios.com, moving-picture.com, scanlinevfx.com, lolavfx.com.