"Because there is no direct correlation between the audience amazement and the price of the special effects, the one that looks wonderful may be the one that is easier to achieve and the cost is lower. Because special effects are not what they seem on the surface, he involves some specific work, such as models, lighting rendering, textures, animation, roto, TC, etc., and it is necessary to break down the director's requirements to know which one is cheaper. ”

"Essentially, the key to whether you look good or not is the artist's imagination."

"To give a simpler example, the same sky flight, missile launches, monster attacks, night is much cheaper than day. Because the details, light sources, and reflections are all simplified, and the rest of the parts don't need to be too exquisite. ”

"Of course, there are differences in the psychological feelings of the audience, but not too much. Why is the battle in the first part of "Iron Man" always at night? It's the same thing. ”

"The special effects of each film are negotiated separately between the producer and the special effects company, and the quotation of different companies is different, and there are hundreds of special effects companies in Los Angeles alone. Effects at about the same or slightly lower level, Japan and South Korea are one-third of the American offer. ”

"Of course, I'm not saying that "Titanic Movie" uses special effects from special effects companies in South Korea or even India, and the level of naturalness and realism in the movie can never be made by small companies in South Korea, Japan, India or even Los Angeles."

"In this case, why does "The Titanic Movie" only need to cost $200 million, which involves the more detailed part of the film's shooting."

"You know, it's impossible for every minute and every second of any film to be made with special effects, most of them are real shots, because good special effects are expensive. Unless it's an Indian 5 rupee effect, you can add it to your heart's content. It's about 8 cents, 5 jiao. ”

"Of course, the same is true of "The Titanic Movie", so how was it filmed without Leonardo's participation?"

"Don't forget, the technology of changing faces in real time still maintains natural and realistic, "Fast and Furious 7" has it, "Avatar" has it earlier, he is not a new thing."

"This technology, called the 'Facial Performance Capture Restoration System', has been used in movies for a long time. Companies may be called differently, but the principle is similar. Don't forget Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. ”

"And in recent years, technology has been advancing and costs have been decreasing. If you build a model of Leonardo DiCaprio's face and have it performed by other actors, it will probably cost less than what Leonardo DiCaprio would have paid. Of course, no regular film company can do this, and dare not do it. ”

"If there was no such thing as image rights, we would probably see Robert Downey Jr.'s face appear in a dozen movies at the same time. So, thank you for the image rights. ”

"If every actor in "The Titanic Movie" uses this technology, plus real shooting, will the cost be 200 million US dollars?"

"Of course not. Even if the cost of actual shooting is excluded, the cost of the face swap special effect alone is more than 200 million US dollars. Because a large part of the cost of this special effect lies in the creation of the actor's face model, after the face modeling, the longer it is used, the lower the cost will be diluted. And there are a lot of actors in "Titanic Movie", and the cost of modeling everyone is too exaggerated. ”

"To put it mildly, except for the leading actors, other actors are not worth the price of modeling."

"In fact, those actors who rarely appear in the scene, without building models, are more cost-effective to use traditional special effects. As for actors who only show one side, applying special effects to makeup is more cost-effective than any computer special effects. Even then, $200 million is not enough. ”

"But don't forget, the first protagonist in the film, the Japanese Abe, who is now locked in the Chinese actor Yun.Ning, doesn't need to use any special effects."

"Yun.Ning is performing with real faces, and he has the most time on camera, so minus the cost of that, it's about $200 million. After all, there are no explosions and no monsters in this film, except for changing faces, there are not many places where special effects are used, or very little, depending on the actual shooting situation. ”

"There is also the premise that the film must have been made in 2015 or 2014, an earlier year, because of the technical reasons, the cost is much higher than it is now. This still only refers to special effects, not including actual shooting, not including remuneration. ”

"Of course, I think the actors who can't show their faces, and Yun.Ning, who starred in movies for the first time, add up to a negligible salary."

"Some people who often care about movie news may still feel that the cost is more than that. All I can tell you is don't believe the producers' water injection propaganda, the audience loves special effects, and of course they tell you that I spent a lot of money on special effects. ”

"Also, don't believe the minute-by-minute and second-by-second numbers averaged by the highest price of special effects companies, every movie is talked about as a whole, and you will never say, I want ten minutes of special effects, you can give me a price. There is that, but it is not a movie, and the price per minute is pitiful, and the number of revisions is also prescribed. ”

"So is $200 million or more reasonable for a movie like this?"

"Of course it's not reasonable, who would be bored enough to spend $200 million to make a movie that can't be released and can't make a profit? Is it just to make everyone laugh! ”

"So now a more interesting question arises, do special effects really cost two hundred million dollars?"

"I think this is also what many people want to ask, why are special effects so expensive? Where is he? Why are cheap special effects so bad? ”

"In the simplest terms, visual effects are very expensive, expensive technology, expensive R&D, expensive artistic creation, and expensive manpower."

"Special effects companies and special effects companies are different, and companies that can grow long have started their own technical capital accumulation very early, or have their own unique technology. Pixar, for example, was founded by Ed. Catmull, the scientist who wrote the RenderMan software, a computer program that renders geometric descriptions submitted to computers into real-world images of photo collections. ”

"ILM, Lucas bought the rights to Renderman when Ed. Catmull was an employee of ILM. Later, ILM also hired Academy Award winner Ron Fedkiw as a consultant. Ron Fedkiw is an expert in aeronautical mechanics, a professor at Stanford, and a member of the editorial board of Computational Physics. He contributed to the field of graphics as a pioneer and innovator in fluid calculation programs that made fluid simulation possible and continuously optimized in films. ILM owns the rights to PhysBam, the fluid simulation software he wrote. ”

"Weta Digital, the most important asset, is the aspect that Crowd.simulation technology is best at, which is specifically designed to simulate the movement of tens of thousands of people and complex scenes, and the large-scale scene of tens of thousands of people moving at the same time that we saw in The Lord of the Rings is the digital human generated using this software. This technique was used earlier by Disney in "Mulan", and the scene of the shipwreck in "Titanic" simulated people falling into the water on the deck. ”

"When it comes to Disney, everyone knows a lot, but few people know that Disney spends a huge amount of money to maintain six mathematical academies in the world's top scientific research institutes."

"In order to realize the simulation of snow in Frozen, Disney specially invited UCLA's computational physics team to develop the Material.thod calculation program."

"There are many more that the public is not familiar with, such as Scanline.VFX, who participated in "2012" and "Iron Man 3", and is known in the industry as 'water masters', because they are very good at making water, fire and other fluid effects."

"Everyone understands that special effects are very expensive. In order to produce the best special effects to meet the director's ever-increasing demand for realism, the special effects company needs to raise a team of about 100 top scientists, engineers, programmers, not including more expensive consultants, invited scientists, etc., and this expenditure does not include more expensive consultants, invited scientists, etc......"

"Of course, there are also about 200 VFX artists who actually use these software to do special effects."

"In order to improve their competitiveness, special effects companies are constantly renovating their special effects production software."

"A film requires a lot of special effects work, which can easily over-expand the company's structure in a short period of time. However, after the production is completed, the special effects company may not be able to receive the contract for the next film. Even if you don't have a job, you still have to pay your salary. ”

"You think that's all there is to it, but of course it's not all, I have friends at Rhythm &Hues, the one that went out of business not long ago, the one that made the special effects of Life of Pi. R&H is the quintessential American company with a bright style, with large, open office space for pets to work, a sports and leisure area with a wide variety of buildings, and CG models and hand-drawn drawings throughout the building. ”

"I like companies like this, but how can they be competitive when they cost a company. I've visited companies in Japan and South Korea, and they all work in small cubicles, and if R&H had done the same, maybe it wouldn't have gone out of business. ”

PS: It's not water, a lot of homework. Seeing that there are comments that the movie is leaked and the book can be abandoned, I think there must be someone who has seen the explanation that there are too many abandoned books :)

But since he is a member of the Rational Party, a member of the Brain Hole Party, and a long-term member of the Refined Party to be precise, he likes to make the impossible possible, so let's explain it :)

It's been compressed as much as possible.