With bulging red eyes, tiny winged structure and wiry hands that victoriously punch the air, the fly in SS Rajamouli’s Telugu film, Eegathat now releases in Hindi as Makkhi has become a rage among the masses. And Makuta VFX, the studio that has worked on films like V. V. Vinayak’s Badrinath, Rajamouli’s Magadheera and Maryada Ramana, is responsible for bringing this fly to life. This revenge story of a man reborn as a fly to avenge his death and protect his girlfriend has over 2000 shots of computer graphics and was one of the toughest projects that the studio has worked on, according to Pete Draper, co-founder, division head and chief technical director at the studio. “Originally the film was going to be relatively low-budget and it would take shorter time in post-production but as the script progressed, the amount of animation treatment in the film increased and became more complex. The budget of the film also went up to Rs.25-30 crore,” says Draper. Here’s a look at how the studio achieved the animation of Makkhi.
Bringing fly to life
According to Draper, the studio took the references for the fly’s anatomy from real life flies. “We froze a lot of flies, so they go into hibernation but it doesn’t kill them. We photographed them closely to understand their anatomy, structure, etc,” says Draper. After creating the initial rig of the fly, the team began to shoot the film with this design but it didn’t work. “The body animation and the wings were fine but the face looked hyper-real and the design aesthetics didn’t work,” reveals Draper and adds, “We needed to exaggerate the physical features. For instance, we integrated a little nose, added feelers, toned down the hair and made it a little more fluffy like a mane on the fly’s head. It took nine months to lock the design of the fly.”
Integrating live action with animation
As the fly had to be integrated into live action scenario, it was imperative for the animators to be present on the sets during the film’s shoot to get clarity on the fly’s body movements. “The director treated fly as another character and he directed it as he would direct other actors. So two animators would shadow the director and they would do walk-in animation for the shots. For instance, as soon as the shot was taken, it would be trimmed, the animators would block the animation and show it to the director. After that, the director would dictate how the fly would move, it’s expressions, etc. We also recorded his instructions that aided the animators while working in the studio.”
Software used for animation
The studio created a split pipeline where Autodesk 3ds Max was used for modelling and animation while Autodesk Maya, with its innovative tools, was used for character animation. “The animation process took around eight months with around 20 artists—in house and outsourced— working on the animation. We used a split pipeline and the rendering of hard surface animation was done using 3ds Max.”
Facing challenges
Many sequences in this film proved to be quite a challenge for the studio. Moreover, some of the sequences that the studio worked on for months didn’t even make it to the final edit. “There is a scene where the fly gets stuck in the chain of a bicycle and we spent three months of production to create a perfect bicycle using VFX but the scene didn’t make it to the final edit,” says Draper. Another sequence that proved to be challenging was a scene in the film where the fly is just born and it has to leave the trench. “We had to make the trench look like Grand Canyon in front of the fly. He is running along the wall as its wings are not fully developed and simultaneously, water droplets fall on him, he is thrown from one wall to the other. This was the most complex scene because it involved every single discipline,” says Draper. For this particular scene, the animation artists used painting work, fluid dynamics, high levels of geometry, dynamic effects, etc. “For an average sequence involving visual effects, you roughly work with about maximum 10 million polygons to create images. For this scene, it took five billion polygons due to the amount of detail in terms of trench walls, debris, foam, etc. That was absolutely astronomical!” exclaims Draper.
Changes in the Hindi version
Surprisingly, the studio’s work didn’t end with the release of the Telugu version. Post the Telugu and Tamil release, the animators made a couple of changes in the film to tailor it for the Hindi market. “We jazzed up the effects in certain scenes that we were unhappy with. Moreover, in the Telugu version, we have an Eega dance number where he does specific dance moves related to South stars. In the Hindi version, we have shown him pay homage to Bollywood stars. For instance, he is doing the famous Salman Khan dance move with a towel.”
courtsy : indianexpress
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Eega
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Makkhi
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Naan Ee
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SS Rajamouli