FICCI FRAMES 2011: VFX keynotes by Michael Fink : Bollywood News

Since the dawn of films, visual effects have been a crucial ingredient for the storytelling process, VFX can embellish, stylize and even make the impossible... possible, all thanks to people like Visual Effects extraordinaire, Michael Fink.

The VFX genius has had a visually amazing animated film career, spanning over three decades with over 33 films to his credit. He has dabbled in films such as Robocop 2, Braveheart, Batman Returns, and to his latest accord Tropic Thunder. Michael has been felicitated with Best VFX Oscar and a BAFTA Awards for his seamless contribution with VFX for The Golden Compass.

This year the California state university business graduate has been invited by FICCI FRAMES, to hold a seminar on 3D and VFX along with English VFX stalwart Charles Darby. Michael began his presentation at FICCI by educating the audience in on the history of this tedious craft.

An audio-visual presentation was displayed to the audience on the VFX in films right from the 20s, when an unappreciated artist Charles Bower, shot a stop motion film called Egged on. Michael pointed out that, the brilliantly forsaken artist shot the entire film frame by frame to augment the stop motion animation in the film.

The presentation then drifted upon Art, where paintings by artists like Ramsay and Picasso, have been instrumental in inspiring visual effects in films that we see today. Michael highlights this with an example on, how he was inspired by a particular painting by Ramsay which helped him in executing a particular challenging sequence for the Golden Compass. The intricate painting made him understand how light scatters and reacts to objects differently.

The session also included an interesting detailed behind the scenes VFX making by Prime Focus for some of the biggest chartbuster films that we've seen in the last two years such as Avatar, The Golden Compass, G.I Joe amongst others. The session concluded with an animated question and answer session.