How was the Fantasy Forest filmed and what high technology was used?

Real shot, green screen and 3D modeling, shot with CG special effects.

To be exact, all the animals and most of the natural environment on the screen are realistic computer special effects pictures except the actors aged 10. In fact, the whole movie was shot in a studio in Los Angeles, and there was nothing about virgin forests and animals!

First, the storyboard:

It is a good tool to sort out the plot and subdivide the lens. The more "industrialized" the skillful works, the more detailed the storyboard is. There are many perfectionists who will draw all the scenes and shots of the whole movie in advance, such as Mad Max: Fury Road, which was a hit last year.

As a leader in American animation, Disney has always attached great importance to and is good at storyboards. This is one of the storyboard pictures of the animated version of The Jungle Book in 1967:

In order to shoot this live-action version, the crew also drew all the scenes and shots of the whole film in advance.

Second, the motion capture:

With the sketch, you can shoot according to the picture.

But most of the environment and animal characters in Fantasy Forest are digital virtual. How to film them?

Motion capture technology to save, when it is played, it becomes very big:

Generally, in other productions, moving capture is used to shoot some scenes of the whole movie. "Fantasy Forest" this time, according to the storyboard, let the special effects personnel use the mobile capture technology to play the whole film with the little actors!

Third, the visual preview:

When motion capture data is made into a rough animation effect, it becomes a preview of the whole movie. To put it bluntly, it is a dynamic, 3D storyboard.

In the visual preview stage, the creator can further fine-tune the settings, such as changing the position of the monkey's head in the above picture.

With the same simple environment and lighting, you can basically see the embryonic form of the film through visual preview.

Fourth, virtual photography:

Based on the visual preview, the next step is the main shooting stage. Different from the general shooting of real scenes or scenery, this film adopts virtual film photography according to its own production requirements.

First of all, before the actual shooting in the shed, we should reconfirm the spatial orientation and walking information with the actors; Because the digital background to be synthesized depends on the previous conceptual design scheme, if the actor's position and action exceed the set range too much, it will not match the digital background when synthesizing.

At the same time, the director should also remind the actors to pay attention to the reaction according to the general things that appear in the digital background.

Specifically, Fantasy Forest has been able to achieve complete synchronization without any operational delay. In other words, even if the camera is shooting a blue screen, the director can realize what you see is what you get on the monitor.

So in the virtual shooting stage, as long as the interaction between real actors and digital characters is real on the spot.