After Studio head of production Kunal Rasal
Mumbai-based After Studio has just come out of its busiest schedule in days. Having done the VFX for two big-budget south movies, RGG2 and Spyder simultaneously, After had a lot on its plate but has successfully delivered the shots, and with elan, for the visuals are eye-catching and something that’ll leave you bewildered at the sight of it.
But pulling it all off was no easy by any means, as head of production Kunal Rasal explains the massive team of artists required to put it together. He says, “We had a combined total of 150 artists working simultaneously on RGG2 as well as Spyder as both movies had a concurrent release dates, 14 and 23 October 2017 respectively.”
“We did it in a timespan of about a month,” he further added.
The Nagarjuna-starrer Raju Gari Gadhi 2 is a horror mystery that revolves around a resort which is haunted by a ghost. And After Studio delivered as many as seven visual effects shots – the water sequences, a girl disintegrating into dust, the girl fading in thin air in front of the beach, the room transformation of a library to a house, footsteps on water effects, the paint sequence and the Tulsi shot. “Most of our VFX sequences in RGG 2 involved water simulation. So just to produce an apt look and feel of it, it took us 20 to 25 days. We did a total of 89 shots of water,” he stated.
In fact, that was reportedly the most challenging aspect of working in RGG2 VFX! “It involved a lot of things such as bubbles rising out of water, followed by a whiff of smoke, then the waterblast scene and then finally a person emerging out of it. As a result of all these small elements being executed, it was relatively more challenging than the rest.”
It isn’t easy sometimes to execute the director’s vision of the special effects, especially when asked to make modifications till the time perfection is reached. After Studio too had to contend with several changes as asked by the director as he says, “He asked us for seven to eight turnarounds and so we had to make seven to eight changes in the animation. Sometimes he wanted a little brighter, sometimes a little transparent, sometimes he asked to make it quite blur. So we have worked on a shot for at least 10 to 15 times.”
“There weren’t any creative differences as such, though, as the director would only come up some newer addition every now and then. And that took us some time.”
But how were these challenges handled? “It was handed well! It was only during the floods this year that we faced problems and asked for extra days. But otherwise, we’ve finished everything abiding by the timelines provided.”
Spyder, starring Mahesh Babu, is a crime-thriller with futuristic gadgets and mass destruction. The VFX are gripping and came with its own fare share of difficulties. FX supervisor Deepanshu Haldar recalls, “The set was very small and we needed to extend it so as to show the complete ruins. It was difficult to add debris, the rods sneaking out and many other elements of the scene that were scattered around. Also challenging was to bring about the effects of debris falling.”
He further adds, “The after-blast scene had to look natural, so we did a few reconfigurations; increased the track, added electrical sparks, added smoke and dust to bring realism to the ruins.”
“We also did the extension of the sea, we added cruise, eagle and that too was very complicated to incorporate into the scene as we had to time its flight right and also take care of the movement of its wings. The resort which the movie portrays is actually a populated area, but we have made it look like an empty one and instead added trees.”
On the technologies used to bring about the effects, he says, “We do not normally stick to any one particular technology as it depends on the requirements. There are certain software specialised for only specific type of effects, so they come into play when we are dealing such a scene.”
“The artists in our team have all sorts of software and use them according to its requirements. Such as the water simulation would need one type of software whereas those involving dust or snow would require some other. The skillset might be different, but the artists would be the same,” he continued.
Whilst the cinema-goers continue to deliberate about the wonderment of the special effects in both movies, After Studio is already pre-occupied new projects. Rasal comments, “We are currently working on a south Indian movie for which we are creating the whole city through CGI, whilst also worked on the tall buildings and showed an aerial view of the city. We have also created a CGI plane.”
“In Bollywood, we are currently working on a Kunal Kohli-film which involves some CGI effects too,” he concludes.
The post After Studio reveals the magic behind the stunning VFX of ‘RGG2’ and ‘Spyder’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.
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