Great movies are defined by great stories and increasingly, great storytelling is being empowered by digital technology. Autodesk media and entertainment team and software played a starring role in t
he creation of path breaking visual effects in the blockbuster movie, Gravity which won the Oscar award in the Best Visual Effects Category. In fact, this is the 19th consecutive year, ever since VFX was included as an award category at the Oscars that an user of Autodesk technology emerged as the winner.
Hollywood movies have always been known for their spectacular VFX but what is less known is the stellar role that Indian VFX artists and production studios play in the creation of such cinematic masterpieces. Major portions of VFX in movies like Life of Pi, Skyfall, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Avatar and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King have been created in Indian animation studios. The latest to enter this bandwagon is Gravity. The well-known studio in India, Prime Focus was behind the 3D stereoscopic effects that are seen in Gravity.
For Gravity, even before a single frame of footage was shot, the movie makers used 3D software – Autodesk Maya for pre-visualization. It created replicas of the set, actors and props, put them together and essentially a mini-movie was made. This was used as a base to create the illusion that the actors were in space the whole time.
Autodesk software’s Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, Flame and Smoke have been clear favourites by film makers in India. Recently Red Chillies VFX studio also used Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya software to create the awe-inspiring VFX in Krrish3 and Chennai Express. As the latest FICCI – KPMG report states, the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry has grown by 11.8 per cent in 2013, vis-ŕ-vis 2012, and touched Rs 918 billion. It is expected to touch Rs 1785.8 billion by 2018, with a CAGR of 14.2 per cent. This outsourcing of creative projects in visual effects by Hollywood studios is not only opening up job opportunities for thousands of people but also allowing the animation and VFX industry in India to grow at an exponential rate. The Indian production studios are now betting big on VFX as film makers can be more creative with the freedom to conceptualize something which is not possible in reality.
Underlining Autodesk’s leadership role in media and entertainment industries, all five nominees for Best Visual Effects category at the 2014 Academy Awards —Gravity, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Iron Man 3, The Lone Ranger and Star Trek Into Darkness—used Autodesk software to bring their stories to life. Together, these five movies contained over 7,000 computer generated visual effects shots, created by thousands of artists working at 42 visual effects studios in 10 countries, a testament to the power of technology, not only to create what has never been seen before, but to bringing great talent, from around the world, together toward a single creative goal. To watch trailers and breakdown reels from many of the Oscar nominated movies, please visit the Autodesk YouTube channel Academy Award playlist.