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Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

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Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#61

Post by dsign »

paisawalla wrote: post #57
unmole wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> embarrassed Why are you embarassed?

Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in a major way. The embarrassment is for the comparably unsophisticated tastes, and I don't share the feeling but I can understand. It's like everyone discovering that your uncle is addicted to something cheap and insubstantial that only childr…

> Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do.

I'm taking your "believable American action scenes" with a big semi full of salt.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#62

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

pen2l wrote: post #41
jwitthuhn wrote: post #31

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.

i have a designer friend who, after years of me prodding him to try blender recently said "i should give blender a try". this is the same guy who lives on adobe, and all that shizz...

"industry tools" he calls them. "why should i invest my time to learn a software when no one else in the industry is using them"...

glad the industry is changing behind the scenes to a point people like my friend would have to put blender in their workflow and maybe, just maybe one day work entirely off of FOSS tools.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#63

Post by tomcam »

pen2l wrote: post #41
jwitthuhn wrote: post #31

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.

Same. The movie was very fun and it was plainly obvious to me that they had a giant budget for crowds, visual effects, etc. Gobsmacked that this was an all-Blender operation.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#64

Post by capableweb »

dboon wrote: post #50
dagmx wrote: post #30

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

blackjack seems like a great (initial version of a) tool for doing procedural modelling, just like geometry nodes in Blender.

However, it seems the similarities with Houdini stops there. While Houdini might be famous for the procedural nature of the tool, where it really shines is the physics, simulation and effects department. Which blackjack seems to not have any features about at all.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#65

Post by tomcam »

paisawalla wrote: post #57
unmole wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> embarrassed Why are you embarassed?

Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in a major way. The embarrassment is for the comparably unsophisticated tastes, and I don't share the feeling but I can understand. It's like everyone discovering that your uncle is addicted to something cheap and insubstantial that only childr…

Some of us are very happy to pay for entertainment like that. I consider this exuberant style a worthwhile niche of its own, like wire work in Asian films.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#66

Post by ramesh31 »

paisawalla wrote: post #57
unmole wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> embarrassed Why are you embarassed?

Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in a major way. The embarrassment is for the comparably unsophisticated tastes, and I don't share the feeling but I can understand. It's like everyone discovering that your uncle is addicted to something cheap and insubstantial that only childr…

> Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in a major way.

This is precisely what Americans love about it though. Indian cinema comes from a completely different tradition than Hollywood, and it’s a breath of fresh air. Action movies should be more silly. It’s just entertainment.

A great analogy is to the Ugandan action films as well (go watch “Who Killed Captain Alex” right now if you haven’t). They are doing something completely new that breaks the Hollywood tropes. We really need more of this, because the American film industry has reached a creative dead end.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#67

Post by screye »

vipa123 wrote: post #5
andsoitis wrote: post #2

Ah, and I see you can watch RRR on Netflix.

Is it any good?

Probably the best Indian-as-indian-can-be movie that's released in a longtime. This is the highest grossing film of all time in Indian cinema, the Avengers Endgame / Jurrassic Park of India.

Pros

* Incredibly stylized and fresh (not derivative)

* great bro-drama

* arguably best dance scene EVER

* Not deeply cynical towards society like everything made today.

Cons:

* Long (but still somehow incredibly fast paced and dense, just a lot of arcs)

* over the top (but shamelessly so, and taken seriously)

______

RRR is a tectonic shift in how Indian cinema views itself. It is worth watching purely because of its place in the Movie movement zeitgeist.

IMO, This is the first Indian movie in 10 years that makes it to must watch territory for universal audiences (the last one being 3 idiots).

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#68

Post by aloknnikhil »

paisawalla wrote: post #57
unmole wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> embarrassed Why are you embarassed?

Indian action films typically don't strive for believable action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in a major way. The embarrassment is for the comparably unsophisticated tastes, and I don't share the feeling but I can understand. It's like everyone discovering that your uncle is addicted to something cheap and insubstantial that only childr…

Being over the top is a unique characteristic of the Indian Cinema. If I wanted to watch "believable action scenes", I'd go watch a documentary. I honestly don't get this idea of standardizing everything as the West does. It's a great idea for some. For art? Come on.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#69

Post by krama »

tandr wrote: post #48
krama wrote: post #46

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.

What would you recommend to watch instead?

Given the number of movies made and regions, and decades, I’d run out of breath. But I’d start here.

Malayalam Films : Known for their subtlety and craft in film making, and obsession with crime novels. Dhrishyam part 1 & 2 are like no movies I’ve seen in Hollywood.

Hindi Films: Or Bollywood movies, known for their big stars, great attention to set pieces of grand dance sequence s and decent romantic comedies / sports movies. Hard to pick one as nothing has shined recently. I’d give “Zindagi Na milega dubara” / “Chak dhe” a look. Again nothing spectacular recently unless you want to watch a classic from the seventies “Sholay”

Tamil movies : Gritty movies about inner city gangs / social upheaval or focus on stellar music/dance romantic comedies and major action blockbusters. From recent years I’d give “Vada Chennai”, or “Vikram Vedha” a chance for gritty urban movies. Or just the most recent action blockbuster “Vikram”. Which has a really good score.

Telugu movies (the original language for RRR) : I’d give “Pushpa” a look before watching CGI drenched RRR.

Re: Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster “RRR”

#70

Post by dagmx »

unmole wrote: post #52
dagmx wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 subtle about the directors political allegiances. I don't actually remember the end credit scene and I didn't pick up on any contemporary political references. Could you elaborate?

I updated my post with links for reading but it’s essentially subtle but insidious.

There’s a movement among the right to downplay the more equitable and peace friendly freedom fighters in favour of more radical ones, including ones with ties to the Axis powers.

Again, it barely takes away from the film since it’s just the final credits but it’s quite a clear signal of the directors outspoken political views

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