VFX Week 1: VFX Breakdown

During our first week doing VFX we started by looking at a VFX breakdown of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was so interesting to see how much time and effort actually went into create JUST ONE scene from the whole film; Mustafar. This scene, albeit very heavy special effects, is wonderfully done, and it is incredible how long it actually took and how many people it took to create just this one scene that lasted under a minute.

There were so many different departments involved in creating this scene as so much needed to be done just in preparation. To begin with they first have to storyboard the ideas, develop them into what George Lucas envisioned and then do the concept art to ensure they knew what the area was going to look fully and from all different angles. It is then quickly modeled in computer software so that they can get a 360 degree look at it and also simple animate blocks, which represent the characters to move around the area to show where they would be going. Then it goes to the actual modelers in the CG department who create it fully and then send it to be specially animated. While all this is happening behind the scenes actors are getting ready, fashion designers are creating numbers of different outfits as they get mucky and burnt throughout the minute of film and then it needs to be filmed so that the CG team can work around the camera footage; and filming adds another hundred or so people into the equation.

After completing the filming, while the CG team are working for a large amount of time to perfect the scene, artists and photographers are out taking footage of volcanoes erupting to be able to add to the CG to create real looking lava for the scene that will blow up and burn through everything. They then need lava flowing down into a river and this is not just CG but also real lava as well to make it look twice as good. Once the CG is complete everything is then put together and a final screening of that scene is held to ensure everything is correct and George Lucas is happy. Altogether it took just under 1000 staff to be able to create this 1 minute scene and each frame took ages to render out.