Excited to see this posted here, I'm the author of the Cycles for Max plugin mentioned in the article. I was delighted when I first heard it was used in RRR. https://cyclesformax.net
I saw it in imax at the insistence of an acquaintance. While watching I kept thinking: "ok, so this is the results when you have a massive budget, access to lots of designers and top-of-the-line tools".
I'm totally thunderstruck to learn it was all done in Blender pipeline. Bravo for making this possible.
Obviously that is highly subjective. I really liked it, as did my 16 year old son. Although, being British, it was weird to see my countrymen as the cartoon baddies[1]. It is completely over the top and fantastical. But that is part of the appeal. I thought it made a very refreshing change from hollywood movies.
[1] Not without reason. Read up on the depradations of the East India company
It’s highly enjoyable though it is also very nationalist propaganda in parts, which foreigners won’t pick up on. For the most part it never becomes an issue because the brunt of the movie is fighting colonialism and therefore quite appropriate and incredibly good. The end credit scene is the only part that I’d consider problematic from a messaging standpoint as it takes a hard line on who they celebrate and isn’t sub…
I did wonder about the Indian politics in the film. I did pick up a few bits here and there, but probably missed a lot. Care to say a bit more about that? If not, I understand.
I enjoyed it. In fact it might be the best Indian movie I've seen in terms of just being interesting all the way through. I'm curious what if any serious Indian movies there are. Are they common or rare? Pretty much every Indian movie I've seen is full of amazing and fun nonsense in one form or another. Not that I've seen more than 10 or 15 Indian movies, just curious what the mix is of serious drama vs, break into d…
I'm not very attuned to modern Indian cinema, but Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy is excellent, as is Charulata. For non fiction, Mira Nair's "So Far from Home" and Roberto Rossellini's "India: Matri Bhumi" are also captivating watches.
Satyajit Ray's entire catalog is delightful, and timeless. The Indian new wave parallel cinema movement that held such promise back then has bemoaningly since declined to a disappointing one or two entries every couple years. Distributors and studios being conservative and reluctant to change from the "bollywood doctrine" held the indian film industry hostage in a state of arrested development for the past few decades. It's kind of why I'm thankful for the rise of streaming services, they're enabling younger indie directors to break free and be bold again. It's a very hopeful time for indian cinema.
Who cares if they used Blender or Maya. As an Indian (and a South Indian at that), I must say I’m embarrassed at the level of attention this movie is getting for its over the top use of cringey special effects. There are so many other worthwhile Indian films to watch and enjoy.
Who cares if they used Blender or Maya. As an Indian (and a South Indian at that), I must say I’m embarrassed at the level of attention this movie is getting for its over the top use of cringey special effects. There are so many other worthwhile Indian films to watch and enjoy.
Who cares if they used Blender or Maya. As an Indian (and a South Indian at that), I must say I’m embarrassed at the level of attention this movie is getting for its over the top use of cringey special effects. There are so many other worthwhile Indian films to watch and enjoy.
Title is misleading. It was made primarily in Blender but not entirely in it. From the article > Blender was used in our entire pipeline aside from the FX department Houdini was likely used for FX work since Blender isn’t quite competitive with it yet. Additionally, this is about a single studio’s pipeline and not reflective of all the total work involved.
Speaking of Houdini, https://github.com/setzer22/blackjack is an excellent open source alternative that loses a ton of cruft and is scriptable in Lua. I highly recommend checking it out if this is your kind of thing