Tata Elxsi’s Visual Computing Labs has provided virtual special effects for the Hindi film Ta Ra Rum Pum. The effects involved 800 shots displaying 3D people filling up a stadium, 3D cars racing on the tracks, smoke, fire and sparks and a 3-1/2 minute song sequence in CGI — with dancing bears, chocolate rivers and the actors Rani and Saif in a fantasy foodworld.
At first glance this two-hour action packed film, filled with fast cars and beautiful women, a family drama packaged in a slick production, looks like a lot of special effects, the in-camera type, but very little CGI.
The reality is somewhat different.
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None of the stadium shots were ever populated with cheering crowds. They were completely empty. Using a mix of live action plates and CGI crowds, VCL packed those stands with frenzied fans screaming and cheering wildly. It wasn’t easy since the DOP was having a blast following the speeding cars with the most complicated camera movement. The shots had to be tracked — ( plotting or simulating the movement of the live action camera with the CGI camera, so that all the 3D objects placed into the shot will sit correctly and move correctly with the shot). Some plates of crowds were shot separately to be placed into the stands, but because of the diverse camera movements a lot of these plates just wouldn’t fit in. Using a crowd generating software, VCL actually modelled and animated stadium agents to sit in the stands and scream, boo, cheer and react to the race drama as it unfolds. The stadium agents were then multiplied using the software’s brain to randomise and populate the stadium to capacity, which amounts to filling 50,000 seats with CGI crowd.
The excitement builds up with over 40 cars speeding on that track vying for the number one slot. The primary few cars, 10 to 12 of them, were shot live, but the rest were all added into the shot as CGI models. A typical car race stadium scene is packed in the central area with campers, haulers, cars and people. All these had to be added in CGI.
Some of the other major VFX work was actually building and animating the pile up that happens in a race. Added to this were the pyro effects of the smoke and fire and sparks all done in CGI. The lapboards that keep score were also generated in CGI and a lot of the signs and hoardings had to be cleaned up and replaced with the film sponsor’s brand.
While half the studio was completely immersed working with cars, crowds and racing, the other half was busy animating the four bears and building the delicious looking sets with ice cream mountains and strawberry waterfalls. The theme song, ta ra rum pum, is one of the highlights of the film — a 3-1/2 min fantasy world with bears and our heroes dancing in meadows and rafting down rapids.
The song was a challenge from the very begining with the concept of fouir big, clumsy CGI bears trying to dance to Vaibhavi Merchant’s very lively choreography! Rani and Saif with the two kids were shot entirely on a chroma background for the duration of the song. The shots were staged and blocked, keeping in mind the space required to accommodate the four huge bears in the frame. Often in the song there is shown some interaction between the bears and humans and for this purpose four stand-in dancers were used so that the interactions could be timed correctly. Obviously in post-production, these dancers would then be replaced with the CGI bears.
The scenes were supposed to depict various magical aspects of a child’s fantasy world, so there were green meadows and rolling hills, chocolate rivers and ice cream cone houses, balloons and white water rafting. While 12 artists animated the dancing bears, another team of artists worked on the 3D backgrounds, the fur artists clothed the bears in rich fur and the compositers put all of this together giving life and form to the entire song sequence.
Just like when we were kids, there were always kids that were mean and disrespectful, the kids that broke things and hurt other kids. ,