A piece of disappointment for Rajini fans, the minute long cameo of the real-superhero Rajinikanth aka Chitti of Robot was actually graphically created in the film Ra.One.
Highly placed sources reveal that Shah Rukh's talented VFX team had already created the replica and imaging of Rajinikanth. But, the South legend's flashing visit to SRK's studio in Mumbai was put to life by performing real motion capturing technique.
Motion Capturing (MoCaP) is one of the great new frontiers in the world of movie making and is becoming a crucial tool in complex digital effects.
A source elaborated, "The VFX team of Red Chilies had already created a graphically designed flawlessly looking face of Rajini, after taking textures from Rajini's Robot sequences. Sensors were put on the face of Rajinikanth and his facial expressions were captured through MoCAP".
"Rajini was also made to wear Chitti's attire and walk in and out of the sporty Benz car, his entire body movements especially the facial expressions were captured and real motion was put to his computer generated face and body," disclosed the sources.
As per sources, in haste to meet up the deadline of release, Rajini's voice was also recorded on the VFX machine and not in a professional dubbing studio making it sound shabby.
Visual graphic expert revealed, "The entire activity took around a couple of hours, perhaps if Rajini sir would have not made it to Mumbai we would have to use a body double to do the needful".
Robert Zemeckis has produced three films entirely using MoCap: Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol. Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have also used the technology in their productions.
Writers Corner: Books, Stories & Poems
11