Doctor Strange: The Magic of CGI

 

Credit: youtube FilmIsNow Movie Bloopers & Extras

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) has made the impossible possible in movies, from creating fictional creatures and locations, to replicas of animals or location. Recent spell-binding samples of this digital wizardry are often found in superhero blockbuster Dr Strange, the newest instalment from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. within the movie, surgeon turned sorcerer Stephen Strange learns the mystic arts and travels to other shape-shifting dimensions, so plenty of CGI was needed. The person guilty of the digital effects was CG supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot, who led a team of over 120 people at creative studio Framestore to deliver 350 separate shots for the movie. 

“We have modellers, animators, lighters, riggers, plenty of different departments, and as CG supervisor I connect all of them together in order that we are able to deliver images to the VFX supervisor for artistic comment,” explains Wajsbrot. 

Wajsbrot and his team worked on the project for a year, creating 20 different effects. “It was a large challenge for us because it had been the primary Dr Strange movie, so we had to figure out how everything was speculated to look,” says Wajsbrot. “It’s also such a magical movie, so all of the consequences are very subjective. We had to create a visible language that’s visiting be reused in Dr Strange 2 and in Avengers.” 

Astral projection was one among the foremost complex effects to make. this can be when Dr Strange exists within the astral plane, becoming semi-transparent and ready to fly through objects. “It required plenty of detail to create the effect subtle, so you'll be able to see the presence of the character, but also convey that it’s not the traditional Strange, he's now in his astral form,” says Wajsbrot. Work to form the effect began on set, with motion capture and aerial stunts wont to record Benedict Cumberbatch’s facial expressions and movements then apply them to a virtual puppet of Dr Strange. the subsequent challenge was lighting the shot. “When they're in astral mode, the characters are alleged to be emitting light,” explains Wajsbrot. “This meant we had to model the entire room, which was a hospital operating theater for that scene, in an out of this world amount of detail, and track each prop to light it from the character.”

Because of advances in technology, Alexis and his team were able to create these incredible never-before-seen effects in stunning detail, but he believes there's still room for improvement. “On Dr Strange we animated cool and complex effects that we weren't ready to do some years back. Now the challenge is to try and do them faster and faster still as better.”