CGfrog News – July 29th, 2013 – NEW DELHI, India
Visual Computing Labs (VCL), the VFX and animation arm of Tata Elxsi, a global design company and a part of the $ 100 billion Tata group is proud to announce its association with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the chartbuster biographical film based on the life of former Indian athlete Milkha Singh.
Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the much awaited film starring Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor was released across the country on 12th July ’13.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has extensively leveraged VCL’s VFX expertise. Given Rakeysh’s penchant for 100% accuracy in his depiction of a scene, VCL played a vital role in transforming the director’s vision into historic moments on the big screen. One of the key challenges was to take the viewer’s back to the historic races. This was not an easy task as most of the iconic stadiums have been modernized drastically over the last few decades. The only option was to re-create the stadiums using CGI. VCL’s talented team of artists went through a lot of refernce material and original stock footage to create the environment realistically.
Another important element that helped make the race sequences look realistic was to add crowds to the stadiums. Given the dynamic camera movement the film required the team decided that creating CGI crowds in CGI stadiums would allow complete freedom to the director and DOP to use their camera at will. VCL used its expertise in creating realistic crowds using the state of the art crowd generating software, Massive. Subtle but important details like the correct costumes and attires had to be studied. Unlike today’s matches the crowd reactions in the stadiums in the 1960’s Olympics was somewhat restrained and the animators had to keep reviewing stock footage to correctly factor in the appropriate gestures for cheering, applauding etc.
The flashback to the nightmare sequence was another key talking point of the film as it formed an important part of the narrative. This sequence relied on a different creative look which was developed over various discussions and iterations between the director and VCL’s creative team.
To deliver this scale of work in a short period of time VCL created a very efficient pipeline enabling minimal retakes and overheads. A team of 50 artists delivered over 150 VFX shots covering three important races of Rome, Tokyo and Commonwealth within a time span of 2 months.
Mr. S. Nagarajan, COO, Tata Elxsi – VCL, said “We are extremely pleased to have been associated with this prestigious biopic and to have provided different kinds of visual effects the audience will love.”
“Considering it is a biopic, a very crucial part of our work was dependent upon capturing a particular time in history which demanded seamless integration of cutting edge VFX solutions with original shots.
Our immensely talented team of VFX artists has played a vital role in translating the director’s vision to the final film. The experience of working on this project has been enriching for all of us at VCL and we are glad about the appreciation the film has received so far” Mr. Pankaj Khandpur, Creative Director, Tata Elxsi – VCL.
About Tata Elxsi – Visual Computing Labs (VCL):
Tata Elxsi is a design company that blends technology, creativity and engineering to help customers transform ideas into world-class products and solutions. A part of the $ 100 billion Tata group, Tata Elxsi addresses the communications, consumer products, defence, healthcare, media & entertainment, semiconductor and transportation sectors. This is supported by a talent pool of over 4000+ employees and a network of design studios, development centres and offices worldwide. Key services include embedded product design, industrial design, animation & visual effects and systems integration.
Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elxsi, is a revolutionary Animation and Visual Effects studio having a state of the art facility in Mumbai. It provides its services to the motion picture, television commercial and games animation markets globally.
Led by some of the most accomplished talent and highly trained artists, VCL is able to offer its clients a unique package of high-end and cost-effective service options supported by the field’s leading software and top of the line technologies.
VCL has worked with leading international studios like FOX, Disney, Sony and Columbia Pictures, Industrial Light & Magic, MGM, on some of their features including Jack the Giant Slayer, Gullivers Travels, The Darkest Hour, Terminator 4, Ironman, Indiana Jones, Spiderman 3, Into the blue, Ghostrider, XXX 2 etc. VCL continues to execute visual effects for a number of Bollywood films like Ek Tha Tiger, Ra-One, New York, Prince, Rab Ne Bana DI Jodi, Drona, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Jodhaa Akbar, Taare Zameen Par, Dhoom 2, Rang De Basanti and many more…
VCL has worked on India’s first fully 3D animated mainstream Bollywood feature films “Roadside Romeo”, co-produced by Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney, and “Arjun –The Warrior Prince” produced by UTV Motion Pictures/Walt Disney Pictures.
VCL has also worked on numerous television commercials for leading brands like Bisleri Mountain Water, Videocon Innovation Labs, Panasonic Eco Navi, Samsung Mobile, Sony, Toyota Corolla Altis, Chevrolet, Honda, Elf Moto, MSN, Nissin, Reebok, Lux, Kelloggs, Pillsbury, Coke, Colgate, Pepsi, Thumbs Up, Wrigley, Cheetos, Pillsbusy, to name a few.
Some of the key accolades presented to VCL include the IIFA Award 2013 for delivering stellar VFX for Ek Tha Tiger, Golden Lotus and a Silver Lotus at the 56th National awards for exemplary Animation and Visual Effects in feature films, the 2010-11 INFOCOM-ASSOCHAM EME AWARDS, FICCI BAF Awards for the year 2010 and 2012 and the 10th Indian Telly Awards 2010.
Source : Tata Elxsi
Link : Content
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