Movies have relied on strong visual effects for well over 40 years, and with every technological advancement, VFX studios are constantly pressured into making bigger and better effects.
Today’s Hollywood is constantly searching for the cheapest way to make the best- looking effects. While this sounds like progress, it has unintentionally created some unforeseen problems for the Visual Effects studios.
The way the system works is slightly flawed. Studios have to bid for projects like contractors, but are often only given a base amount of money for the project.
If a studio has to re-render a massive simulation because the director decides he wants more smoke in the shot, then that’s hours and hours of extra work for the VFX artists. The VFX studio then has to come up with a way to pay the artists for those extra hours still based on their fixed bid, with no additional compensation from the movie producer. Big problem for the artist who relies on a regular paycheck. This is one of the big issues that caused Rhythm and Hues to file bankruptcy and temporarily close their doors shortly after their stunning work on Life of Pi.
While it is clear that this problem exists in Hollywood, it is difficult to see a grand-scale solution in the way the VFX studios have to operate in order to meet the growing demands of quality and speed. So what is a small-scale, effective way that these studios can save time and money?
Incorporating state-of-the-art, versatile stock footage from ActionVFX. Whether you need to knock out a pre-vis or quickly render mass amounts of smoke, our plethora of 4K elements can help bridge the gap between quality and deadlines.To give you an example of how powerful stock footage can be, consider the render time of a massive effects shot for a Hollywood movie: 15-20 hours for one frame.
Now obviously they have render farms that take care of that and cuts the time way down through the use of multiple machines rendering the same sequence, but add the render time to the amount of time it took the artist to create the shot, and it is easy to see the weeks pile upon each other as the artist desperately attempts to complete a shot before the movie deadline.
Consider now the average time it takes to composite stock footage in with your shot. A couple of minutes to an hour or two, depending on how much roto-scoping and color grading is involved.
This is a resource that is and will be part of the future, and for good reason! I’m not at all suggesting that CGI will be abolished. Computer generated imagery will always be an enormous part of the movie and VFX industry.
However, if studios can figure out areas of a shot that can utilize pre-shot stock elements, then more time can be spent on the areas of a scene that require more flexibility and control. In other words, let stock footage do what stock is good at, and let the computer do what it is good at. This will enable studios to save hours of time and stay on track with their deadlines and still create top-of-the-line effects that look fantastic.
The VFX industry is constantly changing and producing more impressive imagery. Staying on top of the latest and greatest technologies is hugely important to the success of an artist or studio, but there will always be a place for stock footage to assist in the process.
This is where we at ActionVFX can help. Our ever-growing library of assets is the perfect aid for studios who need to produce high-quality visuals that meet producers’ expectations and dazzle audiences.
First time here? ActionVFX creates action stock footage for VFX and filmmaking. (We also have some great free stuff!)
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