LONDON- What do you get when you put together a trio of singing and talking computer-generated lion, hyena and warthog? Why, the lastest Lion King, of course!
The 1000+ strong visual effects team behind the movie had quite an uphill challenge ahead of them while they took up the remake of the much-loved 1994 Disney’s “The Lion King” animation. They aimed to breathe life into the profoundly loved characters of Mufasa and Simba against the backdrop of a stunning African savannah.
“The Lion King” was the second-biggest grossing film last year and it bagged an Oscar nomination for its stunning visual effects. The photo-real digital imagery made the move look like somewhat of a wildlife documentary.
The team working on the Jon Favreau directed movie was a large medley of industry experts in computer animation, VR, gaming technology and live-action methods. MPC, a visual effects company owned by Technicolor collaborated with global studios to make Simba look like he was filmed in the African scene with real animals.
The biggest aim while breathing life into these characters is to ensure that they look and believe real. If they do not co-exist, it shall break the movie.
A lot of research went into understanding the movement of real animals, their musculature and behaviour of their skin. After that, it’s back to the drawing board to replicate these observations.
Animators need to hand animate different parts of the face to ensure that every subtle nuance is represented.
The work primarily took place in London, Bangalore and LA where the team worked on a VR set with gaming technology for scene direction.
As compared to using a game weapon, a camera was used and pointed at what needed to be filmed and this information went on the computer. The scenes were then carefully replicated to ensure realism.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.