PRODUCTION. THE PERIPHERAL
BEFORE
AFTER
EYE IN THE SKY FutureWorks was drafted in to work on 260 VFX shots for the eight-part series
BEFORE
“Tricking the human eye is always the most intricate part of visual effects”
than they were in Star Trek and the original Star Wars trilogy. However, the director wanted a different aesthetic. “Turning objects or people invisible is not new to visual effects, but the final look we developed is unique,” explains Shankar. “We brainstormed creative solutions and went through numerous rounds of iterations with the VFX supervisor, settling on that blue heat-shimmer effect. Once we pinned down the direction, we moved on to development and implementation.” The challenge didn’t end there. Shankar adds that while the cars were cloaked, the team had to balance between actually making the objects invisible, so the audience could suspend their disbelief, while still denoting their presence in subtle ways. Good examples for that are the collision scenes, where the outline of the
car flashes up for a few seconds at the moment of impact, then immediately fades into the background. “Tricking the human eye is always the most intricate part of visual effects, so we wanted to make sure we got it right,” says Shankar. UNDER SUPERVISION “When it came to creative VFX solutions and developing the look and feel of the cloaking technique, we worked most closely with Jay Worth, VFX
AFTER
TOMORROW, TODAY Bringing the technology of the future to life was the task at hand for the Mumbai-based VFX house
Did you know? Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are executive producers on the series
62. DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
Powered by FlippingBook