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I think it is two elements, Skyfall being on fire and then the separate shot of Silva walking away (can't risk getting an actor burnt) which are then merged, real elements just digitally put together. In the old days it would have been optical composites.
The Skyfall that was blown up was a minature. When we see Silva walking away, he's walking away from a light rig which was designed to look like the light from a fire. It is then digitally composited with a miniature of Skyfall lodge on fire and then fog is added for atmosphere and also to hide the lack of detail because it is a model.
http://www.artofvfx.com/SKYFALL/SKYFALL_MPC_VFX_04B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/SKYFALL/SKYFALL_MPC_VFX_04A.jpg
http://www.arri.com/uploads/pics/b_SKYFALL_10.jpg
The first time that I saw SF was in Imax and the only parts that looked fake were the motorcycle chase from the PTS (mostly the masks) and the shot of Craig holding on to the bottom of the elevator in Shanghai. Things that people complained about as looking embarrassingly fake - such as the helicopters above Silva's island - looked fine to me.
I saw SF again this weekend in non-Imax format and was amazed at how real everything looked. I knew about a lot more of the SFX shots (such as those listed above) yet everything looked completely real. An outstanding job by the VFX team!
I expect there filming a real komodo dragon and at this in the computer like the scorpions with Die Another Day.
Thank the lord these things weren't used in the days of Connery or even Dalton. We don't really need outrageous sequences to make a good Bond film or provide more plaudits for any Bond involved, but like it or not, that's the way we've headed now
I would actually disagree with you about Skyfall, seeing as the finale of Skyfall used just as much practical effects as they used CGI, composite effects have been around for decades.
As for your main point though, I agree. However the only Bond film that has gone way overboard on CGI has been Die Another Day, so I think Bond is still doing pretty well to do as many things for real as possible.
BUT a new CGI has developed since then: The 'Realistic CGI effects'. Thanks to CGI, we were able to blow up a big part of the MI6 building at Vauxhall Cross. It was one of those moments that created an unexpected shock. At least, for me it did. A terrorist attack never looked so real and never gave me so mmuch goosebumps.
Without CGI, a realistic scene like that could not have been made. Allthough I love miniatures from the late Derek Meddings and John Richardson for the Bond films, I do think CGI can do it much better now.
Some other CGI effects from the Daniel Craig Bond films: The entire Skyfleet Airplane in 'Casino Royale' was CGI. At first I never realized that. And not to mention the komodo dragons in 'Skyfall', which looked....so real! Watch some documentaries about these extraordinary reptiles on youtube. The motoric moves of these fantastic animals.....simply marvellous CGI work.
And then we had the entire island off the coast of Macau. When you saw it at the horizon on Silva's ship the 'Chimera', I couldn't tell if it was real or CGI. Astonishing!
I also think the 'Visual Effects' category for awards is slightly going to change. You have CGI visuals that can marvel you, like in 'Avatar' and 'Life Of Pi' (Also with 'Life Of Pi' the animals looked so bloody real! I was kinda shocked it was CGI!), but also CGI visuals that make things look more realistic, that are actually necessary to make a film look more realistic!
I really hope the Academy Awards look into the latter field of CGI effects as well. And I do recommend EON Productions to make special documentary style movies about the CGI Visual Effects process of their Bond films for the 'For Your Consideration Screening Audience'. It is actually vital, because these CGI effects are not here to marvel us with beauty. They actually hide that beauty to make a movie more realistic.
PS: I just saw the examples in the opening post of this topic. I. Am. Amazed. I....never thought that this was CGI!!!! Bond breathing in the cold air.....I am amazed how these little CGI touch-ups are so good. 'Skyfall' deserves an Oscar for this category as well. As long as EON starts creating these special documentaries for the 'For Your Consideration Screening Audience'.
They also showed parts of the car chase on ice from DAD, it still looks horribly fake (the added effects that is). Btw, I absolutely loved the modelwork with the 750IL in TND.
Realistic CGI effects have come so far, but the way it was used in Skyfall felt similar to Mission Impossible 4, very stylised and used a lot as if it looked fantastic, but really it looked quite cartoonish. In MI4 I spose it was deliberately a bit over the top because of Brad Bird's background, but scenes like the helicopters over the island and the dragon stuck out like a sore thumb in Skyfall.
Why would it not have blown up in real life? Yeah I do admire the effects work on the building explosion in TWINE, I felt it was extremely well done.
And not at one stage in MI4 did I feel the effects were cartoonish, could you maybe give some examples of where you thought they were this way?
I fully disagree. The question should be: How can you make a terrorist attack more realistic. If I compare the explosion of the weapons factory in the opening sequence of 'GoldenEye'....or the explosion of Blofeld's volcano in 'You Only Lve Twice' with the terrorist attack on the MI6 building in 'Skyfall', I choose the latter.
For me personally, miniatures (GoldenEye) or cross-edited videos (You Only Live Twice) can't beat the current mixture of CGI with miniatures (Skyfall). I think it's that combination that works also.
Nope. It was Derek Meddings miniatures work.
Sorry, you're right hehe:
The Kremlin explosion. What I meant about the MI6 explosion was that, however realistic you try and make the explosion, ultimately the majority of the audience is aware that the real life MI6 building hasn't been blown up. When I see that scene, I see an FX sequence; when I see the TWINE scene, I see it a real, tangible effect. I would have preferred a minature composited into the sequence. A less spectacular result probably, but better IMO.
I find this.....a bit of a bullocks argument. Sorry, but I DO think the MI6 building blow-up in 'Skyfall' was oozing realism. Especially combined with the cameo's of CNN's Wolf Blitzer and the BBC News. Please remember, the James Bond world IS an alternative mirror world of our own world. But that doesn't mean it's less realistic...or that it suddenly looks 'fake' because of the 'terrible CGI because people know the real building is still there'.
The fact is: For me it worked. This is the reality of the post-Brosnan films if you ask me. A slightly more fantastic version of Julian Assange -Silva-, a WikiLeaks-like security breach vs. cyber attack, and a terrorist attack: For me it worked.
I also think, once the film is very good, once you're drawn into a great plot, the CGI -masterfully crafted or bad executed- does not really bother me. The only bad CGI that bothers me is the stuff we saw in 'DAD'. By the way, since 'Skyfall' the Bond franchise is updated to 'The Dark Knight'-like standards. Which means that even realistic 2D IMAX action films will get a CGI-treatment too. I actually welcome it. As long as it is executed as we saw in 'Skyfall'.
One other example of GOOD CGI in my example: Silva's 'jawdropping' moment. Okay, if you take that moment out of perspective, out of the storyline, like most Bond fans are doing, it is indeed not real. We can see it, and we know Javier Bardem's face isn't like that in real life. But again, that moment could not have existed without CGI. And taking into account the storyline, that moment really WORKED for me. Even my mum got chills "Ughh, don't wanna look!". Then CGI works at that very moment.
Indeed ;-). By the way, do people realize that CGI was also very important for the overall cinematography executed by Roger Deakins? The glowing orange colors when Skyfall Lodge is completely burnt.....that could have only happened with help of CGI. So when Roger Deakins does win an Oscar for his work, I think he will most certainly thank the visual effects department too.