Preface: let's talk pipeline.

I suppose now is a good time to take a pause on going through all the landmarks, and actually talk about what is a VFX pipeline. We keep saying this movie invented the pipeline, that movie re-invented the pipeline, another movie established the modern day VFX pipeline. When we say pipeline, what are we referring to? Pipeline is just a fancy way to say “standard procedure”, where what goes in, and what comes out the other end of the step, and it goes into the next step down the line. Sort of like an assembly line, but each step takes a bit longer and a bit more artistry than an assembly line. 

So the pipeline usually goes like this. Typically, the R&D, which stands for research and development phase of the VFX production happens before the screenplay is even locked. A visual effects producer will read the not-yet-locked screenplay, and do a breakdown with the VFX supervisor. It’s like taking a highlighter and highlighting anything in the screenplay that might require visual effects, such as a giant robot, or a dinosaur, or environment extension, fake fire, snow, lightning, or some sort of graphics. They usually fall under the categories of creatures, special effects, hair, movement, environment, etc etc. Even though the screenplay is not locked, the major elements of the story have been decided, the director has some idea about how he or she wants the elements to look like. The VFX houses can start researching and doing mockups to present to the director, however, this is not common. Usually the R&D process has its design done by concept art, and not the VFX department, but I did work on movies that had VFX artists to design effects from the get-go, before the movie even started shooting.

(writing)