Join us on a dive into the world of elements and simulation!
Learning VFX
VFX is all FX. Visual ones. That’s what the V, F, and the X stand for, obviously. BUT within the world of VFX, the F and X mean something very specific!
FX are any effects that rely on simulation - fire, smoke, explosions, blood splatter, cloth, etc. Stick a C on the front (CFX), and that’s creature FX. Any creature related thing that requires simulation - muscle tension, fat jiggle, saliva dripping from jaws.
FX departments tend be focused on using Houdini, and the artists are often technically minded (although you can do great FX in Blender, and even compositing software like Nuke and Fusion)
FX aren’t always FX…
HOWEVER - it’s also very common to create fire, smoke, blood splatter, by not simulating, and just using pre-filmed footage (we call it an “element”), and compositing it into your work. This is some of the easiest VFX work to do, and is often people’s entry into the world of VFX. Want to make an actor’s mug look like it has steam coming out of it? Film or download some steam (www.actionvfx.com is pretty popular, and they have a few free samples), overlay it onto your mug, and you’re done.
Because of the way VFX is structured, artists who do simulated FX generally have no knowledge of compositing software, and so can’t use elements, and compositors often have no knowledge of simulated effects.
My recommendation is of course to reach a point of comfort with both, so that you can pick and choose which is right for the task. So, here’s a list of pros and cons:
Simulated FX:
Pros:
- Very art directable. If you want the steaming coffee to turn into the shape of a dragon, good luck getting that from pre-filmed footage!
- Works great if you have a lot of CG people/objects, because CG is easy to make interact with CG.
- In-demand skill set. All films need FX artists!
Cons
- Fairly steep learning curve
- Can feel quite digital, because there’s no way to “steal” detail from the real world like you could with scanning an object, for example. FX are always 100% CG
- Computationally expensive. Often simulations are very computationally heavy, then there can be extra “caching” time, to turn those simulations into geometry, and then render times can be very slow. Which means turnaround time is slow, which means…
- Painful to iterate. If the effect doesn’t look good, you’ll only find out after it’s simulated. That could be hours, or even days!
Pre-filmed Elements:
Pros:
- Cheap and easy to use
- Very quick to iterate
- Can be made from scratch quite easily if you have a camera (and generally a black, rather than green screen)
Cons:
- Can feel cheap. That’s because…
- They don’t interact with their environment. For example, an explosion won’t cast light on the surrounding area. That is often faked in compositing, but it won’t cast shadows either, which are much harder to fake!
- Difficult to control. Especially if perspective or movement is an issue. Say you want a hosepipe that’s waving around spraying blood everywhere. You could film an element of fake blood spraying out of a hose, and try and warp/track it to follow the hose…but you’d be wasting your time. Do it in camera on the day, or do it as simulation!
Case Studies
The reason why the Shoot First process focuses on teaching all areas of VFX, is then you always have the option of picking whatever works best. Here’s a couple of examples
The Happy Middle
