There was a very impressive array of talent at the VFX summit which took place in the Science Gallery in Trinity College last weekend. Included on the list of guest speakers was an Oscar winner and also a number of individuals involved in some of the biggest film releases of this year including Guardians of the Galaxy and Paddington.

Andrew Lockley was the Oscar winner and the keynote speaker on Sunday. He won his Oscar for his work on the Christopher Nolan film Inception but has also worked on Interstellar, Captain America, the Dark Knight and Children of Men. He told how he ended up working in film from a humble beginning in Graphic Design in a Printing company after leaving school with two O levels. His talk was one to inspire those considering working in the industry, as he said that anyone could have done what he has with some luck and a lot of hard work.

Laurie Brugger from Framestore largely focussed on their most recent release in the form of Paddington. There was some impressive moments as she took us through the development of the bear. They had to decide how realistic to make the bear and where to draw the line between the earlier incarnations of Paddington including the original books and various cartoons. There was a focus on how difficult it is to model a creature with fur, and how the loss of definition in their facial expressions made their job much more complex. There was also the added difficulty of Paddington’s snout.

She also showed us the wonderful Creepy Paddington which was the fans reaction to seeing the original art work for Paddington, which they thought looked closer to a serial killer than a friendly bear from Peru.

Kyle McCulloch from Framestore talked of his work on Gravity and more recently on Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel sound a difficult and demanding client but are willing to go all out to get the perfect shot. The director of Guardians said to Kyle that the film would not work if the character of Rocket Racoon was not believable. No pressure then!

He talked of the their attempts to create black fire which was used for several seconds in one shot but took over six months to get an affect they were happy with. The 40 minutes of footage that was developed by Framestore in the film took over 50,000 man hours, or 30 years if it was the work of one individual.

Overall the weekend was a fascinating insight into the developing science, and makes you appreciate the time and effort that goes into things we instantly take for granted on the screen!

Find out more about the VFX Summit here.