Guess what we were doing at 5:30 am today morning? Watching the Oscar awards 2015 of course! And every time, the winner in an award category was to be announced we were leaping out of seats in joy. Here are the winners in the visual effects and animation category. It gives us great pleasure even thinking back to when we saw these marvels on screen for the first time.
Best Visual Effects
Winner: Interstellar, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, and Scott Fisher
There was no surprise here. After all, Interstellar changed the very way visual effects was approached in sci-fi movies for decades now. Nothing this realistic was attempted till date and the success was spectacular. Double Negative wrote a brand new software to put together the wormhole and then replicated the same for creating the black holes as light does not travel in straight lines in these environments. The science behind the entire process was so strong that Paul Franklin was able to use the research to submit a scientific papers backed by results. Not just that, Chris Nolan went a step ahead and changed the very way visual effects was approached in the movie. Normally treated as a post-production aspect, the green screen was a fixture when shooting a scene that requires visual effects. Nolan elimated the use of green screen entirely by turning the VFX into a pre-production aspect for this movie. He then put up large projection screens and mounted a camera on a crane. When the actors seemed awe struck by the visuals, it was because they were actually awe struck! With so many ground breaking changes in the making of the film, it is was obvious that the results would be spectacular. Interstellar most certainly deserved the win this year!
Best Animated Feature
Winner: Big Hero 6 by Disney’s Animation Studio
The Big Hero 6 went down as a marker in history of animation. The movie is inspired by a Marvel comic, is about a robotics prodigy who creates a team of Superhero’s to battle a masked villain. The movie may not have been as big a box office hit as Frozen or made Disney as much money on the revenue scale but the very huggable Baymax and the renderer that brought him to life hyperon will certainly never be forgotten. It took 200 hours and 2 years to build the rendered and it wasn’t even tested before the movie was put into production but the hallow and glowing results that it brought to Baymax was so appealing that Don Hall and Chris Williams took the risk of using it anyway. And the risk paid off. Not only was the movie loved but it has also won them an Oscar today beating the second part of How to Train Your Dragon.
Best Animated Short
Winner: Feast by Disney’s Animation Studio
Whoever brought tickets for the Big Hero 6 in 2014 was in for a treat with the animated short “Feast” being thrown in as a part of the deal. The short was made so show the love life of a man through the view of his dog and food. The 3D animation work along with the expressions of the adorable boston terrier as he connects his humans life and emotions to his dinners is certainly a fresh perspective at the whole scenario that has never been touched upon before. It was engaging, emotional and as accurate as possible. Feast not just won the Oscars but was also awards honours for 3D achievement at the 3D creative arts awards. Disney’s Animation Studio is trying to find its way to its roots with bringing animated shorts back to life and Feast was among their first steps towards it.
We say that the visual effects and animation studios behind these movies most definitely deserve all the credit, appreciation, and love they have received today. What do you say?
