The actors, who were in charge of Clark, and the funding, which was in charge of Alexander, were quite successful, which also gave Levy a lot of psychological comfort. At the same time, Bob also gave Levy good news, basically the part of the script he needs to be responsible for has also been produced, and the rest of the things are only the scenes and special effects that Levy needs to be responsible for.

And this part is also the most troublesome. Special effects work is extremely important in film shooting, whether the special effects of a science fiction film are very good or not basically determines whether the movie is good enough. In the future that Levy knows, it is becoming more and more difficult for blockbusters without special effects to satisfy the audience, and this part is the top priority of science fiction films.

And for this movie, the most important thing is naturally the simulation of a large number of shape shots in front. This is the best that Levy could hope for.

In the novel, Wang Miao, one of the protagonists, experienced various eras of the development of the three-body civilization through playing games, and these eras are also equivalent to a process of astronomical progress and the process of explaining the three-body civilization. And for this part, Levy's script has also changed.

In the original novel, the several eras that the characters have experienced are basically all Chinese eras. From King Wen of Zhou, to Mozi, to Qin Shi Huang, they are all Chinese figures, and although there are those in the Middle Ages and the last United Nations period, the proportion of Western civilization is somewhat small in comparison. Since we are going to shoot a film facing the world, we can't just consider the stories of Chinese, and it is naturally not good to do so.

Therefore, Levi wanted to change the period of King Wen of Zhou in the first paragraph to ancient Egypt - if we talk about the earliest astronomy, the ancient Egyptians were also quite accomplished, and, in the story, this period is also the era of science, witchcraft, and theology. The background of ancient Egypt is actually more acceptable than that of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Then, after spending time in ancient Egypt, Levy chose the ancient Greek period for the second period. Astronomy in this period also made some achievements, and, in the story, this story, it is about the era when science began to shake off the shackles of theology and began to know how to make astronomical models, and the astronomers of ancient Greece did make geometric models.

And the next few paragraphs. He wasn't going to make any more changes. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, Ancient China, the United Nations - this order is the order he needs.

After all, the Middle Ages represented the first celestial model, while the ancient Chinese was talking about the human computer. But it has entered the deduction, and the final United Nations is a symptom of the demise of the three-body problem, these aspects. It can't be changed.

Strictly speaking, of course, there are still some small mistakes here: the era of Qin Shi Huang and the period of the Industrial Revolution of the Fourth Civilization are 108,000 miles apart. But. Levy decided to leave him alone. If it is really strictly rehearsed according to the great powers of the Industrial Revolution, then it will have to go to the United Kingdom. Labor in Britain is not so cheap, and there are not enough manpower and material resources to support Levy to carry out human computer simulation.

So, it's better to let this question go.

And these are arranged in order, and the rest is to hand over to the special effects department to make special effects. The three-day volley that destroyed the world, the extremely cold era of the three flying stars, and the three-day alignment that created anti-gravity all need to be simulated.

From lighting, to costumes, to character modeling, scene settings, these things have to be simulated little by little to make special effects possible.

These things also need to be started early.

In terms of special effects, when Levy was ready to start filming the movie, a lot of storyboards began to be prepared. All the materials he needed were prepared before the start of filming, including materials, hair, textures, backgrounds, costumes and shapes of the characters, which had to be drawn on the drawings first, and then miniatures needed to be made, and then handed over to the special effects staff to do.

When a movie is presented to people, it is often a picture that has been basically completed. Even if it is a relatively bad movie, the special effects look very fake, but in the eyes of people, after all, it is still a mature work, and it is difficult for people to know how much thought has been put into these special effects. However, in fact, there are many steps involved in the production of a special effect. And in these steps, materials are needed. These materials had to be prepared well in advance, because only with them could the special effects crew be able to produce the footage of the film. If you don't prepare these things early, you will be blind when the time comes to shoot the movie.

Generally speaking, the shots under the special effects need to be divided in detail, a shot needs to be built according to the character first, and then handed over to the animation, the animation adds animation to each character, and adds those animation shots that cannot be completed by performance, and builds the preliminary end. Then, the lighting and material department will add the lighting and materials that should be there to make a more suitable scene, and finally, hand it over to the rendering department for rendering, and after a few steps, the special effects lens of a movie will be completed.

It seems like a simple special effect, but in fact, it requires the concerted efforts of multiple departments.

This job is simple but not easy to do, the character model and animation in the front are relatively easy to say, but in the lighting and rendering in the back, it is very difficult to make a sense of realism. After all, the special effects are fake, and as long as the fake things are done the slightest mistake, they are not real enough. Therefore, the amount of engineering required in this process is also very large.

The model must be delicate, not delicate enough, not serious enough, the character modeling will be fake. The animation must be realistic, otherwise, it will definitely be complained that it is a five-cent special effect. The lighting perspective must also be matched, which requires the preparation of metal reflective balls at the shooting site to guess the on-site light, and to spread out and restore it in the animation scene. And the material must match the situation of the item - in some martial arts dramas, the weapon is made of plastic, which is not allowed in the blockbuster.

With so much work, it's only natural that you need a special effects supervisor to manage it. Theoretically, each of these steps would have to be reviewed by the VFX Supervisor.

And Levi also appointed Liu Lulu to be in charge of these, and asked her to take people to make special effects.

"I can take care of the special effects production, but I have to talk about it first. If you push us to do it faster, or if you keep denying our results, I can't guarantee that we'll do a good job. ”

Regarding Levy's appointment, Liu Lulu also directly put forward her own views. To this, Levy just nodded, even if it agreed.

"I understand these truths, and I will support you."

In fact, these truths are understood by individuals: Hollywood has been making movies all year round. Who doesn't know that special effects can be made better if they take a longer time to produce and play more freely? It's just that, for the sake of saving money, or for the reason of hoping to catch up with the schedule, these directors are very accustomed to squeezing special effects personnel: after all, special effects personnel do not have a union of their own, which oppresses them. They don't have a place to reason.

However, Levy was not prepared to do this, he wanted better movies, and this was not conducive to the birth of good movies. Therefore. Not only did he not intend to squeeze the special effects crew, but he was also willing to take the initiative to reduce the burden on the special effects crews - for example, he chose ancient Egypt and ancient Greece for the film, because of these two backgrounds. In Hollywood, it's all used to it, people have ready-made groups and furs, and they can use ready-made ones. As for New York, where the headquarters of the United Nations is located...... This place has been destroyed in Hollywood how many times a year. There's really no shortage of background groups.

Moreover, not only that, when Levy was filming the movie, he also told his crew that in some places where special effects can be used, try not to use special effects.

For example, although there is green screen technology, many of the pictures can be combined by post-fusion, but in many places, Levy still chooses to use real props. Although it is possible to change the appearance of a person by capturing images, Levy chooses to make real clothes.

"Technology is indeed conducive to making movies, but sometimes, it is better not to use it." In this regard, Levy also expressed his opinion, "No matter how close the special effects work is to reality, it is not real after all. Also, leaving too much work to the special effects artist can also put too much pressure on the special effects artist. ”

What Levy said is actually a future trend of film development that he knows very well.

One of the most objectionable topics to the future protests of Hollywood's special effects artists is the misuse of special effects. In many cases, some things don't have to be shown with special effects, but directors must require this for the sake of shooting convenience, which causes some unnecessary trouble.

To put it simply, in the movie Black Swan, even the tattoos of the characters are made with special effects. This kind of work, which should have been the work of a makeup artist, or can be solved with some props, can all be pressed on the special effects staff, which undoubtedly increases the pressure on the special effects workers.

It's a set of tattoo stickers, or a makeup artist's work that can be done in two hours, but you have to spend two weeks doing it for the special effects crew, which is simply not treating the special effects crew as a human being, and you don't need to use it in vain.

Levy didn't want his special effects to be used in unnecessary places, so he chose to use props to simulate some scenes that could be simulated with props. And where special effects are really needed, use special effects to simulate, which can also make the special effects work better.

There must be a big difference between a shot doing a week and a shot doing a month. This relieves the burden on the special effects artists, so they can make better special effects.

The more you value it, the more you need to reduce the pressure.

Fortunately, the three-body problem in this first part did not require many special effects. The alien world is a part, the later part of the ship is a place, and the rest of the place is basically gone.

With plenty of time, they can definitely get the special effects of the movie ready. (To be continued......)