While a lot of megabudget film producers adopt the "fix it in post" mentality, often to the point of shooting their entire post team in the foot at the 11th hour, when used judiciously VFX can enable indie filmmakers to accomplish things that are well outside their budgets. Sometimes building a set costs more than shooting on a green screen and compositing a virtual environment.
Regardless of the purpose of the VFX and the budget however, doing VFX well and within budget and on schedule requires planning and forethought.
Who is planning on incorporating VFX into an upcoming indie film project? How are you planning to use VFX in your film?
Rakesh Malik Great question! "Fix it in post" is every editors favorite phrase! Just kidding. Was your first skills of focus VFX? If not then what? Just curious. I have so much respect for a great VFX artist. It's never been my forte, but I was around a ton of those types of artists while I was going to school for post production. I took a few classes for After Effects so I have a small picture of what it takes. There's so much to it and so much more than just After Effects.
Rakesh Malik To your question, we just launched Aerith Corp and we're developing a VFX suite called Avé that uses quantum computing to solve VFX. We're developing the applications within feature films, the first two being Slayer and Dark Veil. Avé wsoft ill create much faster and more accurate simulations and renders than currently possible, due to the quantum processes. Initially, we'll be working on increasing path tracing and shadow denoising. After that, Avé will go into a public beta testing phase. To your note about post, "fix it in post" is something you hear on a megabudget set just before the person uttering the phrase is fired. I hear it a lot on mid and lower tier productions when the people saying it just assume it's an easy thing to do later and don't have the money to reshoot something.
As someone who isn't well versed in VFX, this is useful info. The "fix it in post" mindset sounds like a trap. Planning ahead makes sense even if you don't know the technical side. Good to keep in mind for any project!
Michael Teisan I started in photography and migrated into cinematography before diving into VFX in a serious way. I've never used AfterFX; the VFX industry globally is almost universally based on Houdini, Maya, and Nuke, FYI.
Sam Rivera A lot of indie filmmakers fall into "fix it in post" mentality because they don't plan ahead, and a lot of megabudget filmmakers fall into it because they don't have to care about the budget -- or about the artists who have to make up for the executives' lack of planning.