I want to be a visual effects artist later in life. Please help with my questions.?
Things to know - I'm currently studying my GCSEs (and doing well) - I am passionate about movies - I want to pursue a career in visual effects. These are my questions: 1) I am not amazing at drawing, I am above average (say 7.8/10). Do you need to be exceptional to study visual/special effects or have a career in them? 2) I am not taking art, is this a problem? (I am studying and doing well in graphic design however) 3) Are there good courses or colleges/universities that will give me the skills/qualifications? 4) Be honest, how hard is it to become a visual effects artist? 5) Would taking Film Studies help me in my efforts? 6) Are there any famous Visual/special effects studios in England doing work on feature films? 7) Are there any other things I should know? If you take the time to answer my questions, thank you and MUCH APPRECIATED.
How did they do the "Raiders of the lost Ark" Face melt effect.?
+++'' 9. Creating The Special Visual Effects For "Raiders" I feel that the most successful of the grisly ends of the three lead "Bad Guys" was the melting head of Toht. I liked that one the best (if "like" is the right word). That was actually done as a time-lapse shot and Special Make-up Effects artist Chris Walas did most of the work on that, preparing the sculpture from a life mold that was done on the lot in London while I was there. The time-lapse for the melting head was shot at a little less than a frame a second and a certain amount of optical work was done on the shot, which included matting fire in on one side of the frame. We did some other rather messy things to the face to get it the way we wanted it. We built the face and head out of gelatin and used heat to make it melt. Chris constructed it in layers, so that it would melt down in a certain way. A lot of people turn their heads when they see that shot, so I guess it was successful We took life molds of the characters in the screaming positions they would ultimately reach. We had them hold their positions while we took castings of their faces and then Chris Walas had to rebuild their faces from the molds. In the case of Belloq, the Frenchman, we blew his head up by using a sort of plaster skull with a pliable substance over it to build the sculpture up. Then we took a little bit of primer cord, quite a bit of compressed air, two shotguns and a few blood bags - and it all got pretty grisly. The stage was an absolute mess after we got that shot. We had to blow his head up three times before we got what we wanted. Then, since he was standing behind the fire, we had to matte in the fire (shot separately) over his face. That cut was on the screen for maybe 30 frames - a little over a second. The shrinking head - which was not my favorite shot in the picture - involved an awful lot of work, but it was one of those shots that we didn't have enough time to do again and again in order to get it right. However, George cut in just the right amount of that shot in just the right place - and it worked. Incidentally, the shrinking head effect involved a vacuum and various exotic materials. It took eight or nine people to control the effect, manipulating different levers inside the head, all of which had to be done by hand.