VFX Of The Movie The Revenant

The Revenant is a 2015 American semi-biographical western film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu is based in part on Michael Punke’s 2002 novel of the same name, describing frontiersman Hugh Glass’s experiences in 1823. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter. The visual effects for The Revenant were produced primarily by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Other companies, such as Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Cinesite, also created visual effects for the film.

The film took home three trophies during the annual Visual Effects Society Awards on Feb including best animated performance for the CG bear and best compositing for the bear attack. Director Alejandro G. Inarritu has declined to discuss exactly how he shot the bear attack, preferring to keep it a mystery — as he did last year when he chose not to describe how Birdman had been made to look as if shot in a single take. (Only after the movie won four Oscars did its VFX team admit how much CG work was involved in stitching separate shots together.)

But this year, with Revenant — which had grossed $235.3 million worldwide as of Jan. 28 — nominated for a visual effects Oscar, the Inarritu-imposed code of silence hasn’t been as absolute. Says the film’s VFX supervisor, Rich McBride of lead effects house Industrial Light & Magic, “It was very much a VFX movie that we don’t want peo­ple to think of as a VFX movie.”

“For us, the VFX team, we wanted to keep Leo visible and also keep it kind of messy, so once we had the camera work there, we positioned our stuntman in a way that he was grabbing and pulling in all the right places where we thought the bites were going to be. And keeping him at a distance where there would be a little less paint work in getting him in and out of the scene and having our bear on top of him. Ultimately, the paint work was extensive because of how close we were to the action”, said the VFX artist.

The most interesting part of the attack was the quiet or stillness that occurred in between the vicious moments. The anticipation of what was going to happen next made it scarier.”When Leo got involved, he added a whole other beat where you’re getting more sympathy for the bear,” McBride continued. If you wish to know the secret to these stunning shots then start looking for visual effects courses which will suit your needs.