Oscars 2023: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ had computer-generated images, which contradicts the team’s words

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released a summary video revealing the special effects of the five films nominated in this category, which are “All Quiet Front”, “The Batman”, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, “Top Gun”: Maverick’ and ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’. The big surprise in the video is the sequel to “Top Gun”. Idols of the air’ for a curious reason: contradicts the words of the team, who stated that the film had only made use of “practical” visual effects.that are based on physical 3D models or prototypes in front of the camera, instead of being computer-generated images (CGI).

It was assumed that in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ everything was the work of the actors themselves in the scenarios shown, which was easier to believe when Tom Cruise starred in them, used to amaze his followers with his reckless stunts. In an interview with Men’s Journal (via The Healthy Journal), actor Miles Teller said: “There is no color scheme in a ‘Top Gun’ movie. [Maverick]’. Every shot, every stunt, is the result of the work, the real sweat, that we all put into”. However, the video from the academy shows that’s not entirely true.

Academy releases VFX Bake-Off roundup video showcasing 5 nominees, including ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Look at @beforesmaghttps://t.co/VaeFLkmkGW pic.twitter.com/2w3VuoM5ck

? magazine before and after (@beforesmag) February 23, 2023

While it’s true that the actors had to learn to actually fly, a lot of things were built around them on the computer. Visual effects were used to digitally replace and add elements, from bullets to entire planes, including the one brought in by Tom Cruise. a CGI artist points on Twitter it seems so “they kept the movement of the camera, the environment and the actors in the close-up shots (which is already a lot) and in others, in addition to changing the shots, they also added digital stunt doubles”.

Oh look, there was no CG at all on Top Gun: Maverick? Because to say it’s all done “practical” sounds better. https://t.co/UMizr4OlPx

? dasNeves.vfx (@dasNeves_vfx) February 23, 2023

“Oh look, there was no CGI at all in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Because to say it was all ‘pretty much’ done sounds so much better”

This has generated a lot of flak from the Twitter community, as fans feel fooled into being led to believe they haven’t created a single aircraft in post-production. john draisey3D video game artist, predicts why the ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ team wouldn’t tell the whole truth: “Why ‘computer-generated imagery’ sounds bad and ‘practical’ sounds so good!”. He’s not the only one pointing to the same thing, a problem with the prestige of special effects methods. However, other users point out that the visual effects are so believable that they appear to have been filmed as such.

the rest of the movies

At the Oscars gala we will see which technical team will win the statuette, but to prepare the cheering it is very nice to watch the video, which highlights some details of each one. These are five very different films, although they all include fast-paced action moments. In “All Quiet Front,” special effects supervisor Frank Petzold highlights a sequence where the tanks first appear, preceded by a cloud of yellow smoke. “When you see a big cloud of smoke approaching, you know there is something wrong behind it”. This helps to increase the fear of the protagonist, who, like the rest of the German soldiers, had never seen a tank.

In “Batman”, “The filmmakers saw Gotham as a character [más] of the film”says one of the supervisors, Dam Lemmon. To create that “archetypal city on the verge of decline”, the team took inspiration from areas in various cities, including Liverpool, Chicago, Manhattan and Brooklyn, as can be seen in the video. As for the chase sequence, the high-performance vehicles they designed were very important. “Each Batmobile was custom built to perform a specific task, so not all of them matched the design specs”reveals Lemmon, who comments that they then had to add the reflection of the car and the flames on the wet ground.

When you think of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, water immediately comes to mind. “50% or more of our sets had some sort of water system. So it wasn’t completely submerged, but water was involved pretty much all the time”says Geoffrey Baumann. Craig Hammack sums up what they did “everything that was possible [hacer] that was [también] Safe”. For the underwater scenes, each character moved differently, each suit had its own weight, and it was essential to take this into account. To do this, they made sure to digitally incorporate the “weight” they had while floating.

Speaking of water, Joe Letteri, Oscar winner for the special effects of ‘Titanic’, admits that recording the most emotional scene of “Avatar: The Sense of Water” was difficult, but they managed to develop a mechanism (which they didn’t expect to work) but which allows them to have a mesh of each frame of the characters and the water.

We’ll have to wait until dawn From March 12 to 13 to attend the night of the Oscars and find out which of the five films gets the nodAlthough one thing is clear: each of them deserves it.