The hardships and tragedies of the VFX staff who won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in “The Life of Pi: 227 Days Away”

“Life of Pi/227 days adrift with a tiger” synopsis

Pai Patel was born in Pondicherry, India in the early 1960s, and grew up interacting with animals at his father's zoo. However, the year Pi turned 16, his life changed completely. When her parents decide to immigrate to Montreal, Canada, the family and their animals head to Canada on a cargo ship, but the ship sinks in a sudden storm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Pi was the only one who survived by clinging to the lifeboat. However, a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker was hiding on the boat... A small boat, some emergency food, and a tiger. Will the tiger take the boy's life or give him hope? And thus begins Pi and a tiger's unimaginable 227-day drifting life.

Ang Lee's ``The Life of Pi: 227 Days Away'', which was released in 2012, became a hot topic for its fantastical and beautiful 3D images and moving story, and won 11 Academy Awards in 2012. The film was nominated for and won in four categories, including Best Director.

What became a particular hot topic was the reality of the Bengal tiger ``Richard Parker'', which was drawn mostly with CG, and of course won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. However, at the award ceremony venue, the VFX staff were subjected to humiliating treatment.

“Life of Pi/227 days adrift with a tiger” preview

Index

• Participation by Bill Westenhofer
• Rhythm & Hughes Studio, which mainly worked on VFX
• CG expressions of animals
• CG representation of the sea
• Tragedy after the movie was completed

Participation by Bill Westenhofer

Fox 2000 Pictures is now choosing the most important filming technique for the tiger. The VFX supervisor is Bill Westenho, who successfully created photorealistic CG animals in films such as The Chronicles of Narnia: Chapter 1: The Lion and the Witch (2005) and The Golden Compass (2007). I chose fur. This was because the insurance company would not allow the boy to co-star with a real Bengal tiger in a small space, so it was necessary to use CG to represent the animals.

As a result of Westenhofer's estimation, it was determined that 690 VFX cuts would be required for 1 hour and 26 minutes of the total length of 2 hours and 7 minutes.

Rhythm & Hughes Studio, which mainly worked on VFX