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Eyecube Creative Director Charles Darby gives us an insight of the most awaited and one of the biggest VFX Bollywood film - Aladin. CGTantra speaks to Charles about his experiences about pulling off a mammoth amount of 1600 VFX shots, the Characters and VFX Industry. We are thankful to Charles for taking time out for this interview and to Vamsi M. Ayyagari, Sr. Executive Producer for providing all the artworks for this article.

Charles Darby is one of the International visual effects wiz and has been associated with more than 45 films in the last 14 years. Darby’s work includes Academy and BAFTA award-winning work on films such as 'Titanic,' 'The Matrix', 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon', 'The Fifth Element' and 'Minority Report'.

Aladin is the biggest vfx film since Drona and Love Story 2050 in 2008. Tell us about your visual effects (vfx) work for Aladin?

Eyeqube had worked on over 1600 VFX shots. We covered the entire life cycle of visual effects right from initial development to final delivery of FX. All shots were conceived and executed in-house. We have 3d, 2d, matte paintings, 3d environments, character animation, digital doubles...all kinds of complex work fills the film, some noticeable, some invisible. Much of the film was impossible to film without vfx. The magic elements of the film are obvious important shots but the sets are made many times larger by the use of invisible work...if you can spot 100 vfx shots you will have missed a 1000!

What were the biggest challenges did you face in the VFX shots the film have?

Our digital frog "fluffy" was a challenge to create. Believable skin, movement and lighting were so important. Also, the city of Khwaish was an enormous task....3000 houses in pure 3d.

When it comes to the character of Genie in Alladin, people generally had the image of the animated funny genie in mind. What kind of brief in terms of design and vfx did you have from the director to build the aura around Amitabh the Genie?

The fact that Mr. Bachchan was very impressed with the quality of our work speaks volumes about our successful design of the VFX. Overall, we strived hard to make all FX an integral part of the character and story-telling.

Did you also work on the design and pre-production stage?

Several environments and shots that were created would not have been possible without the active role of pre-production and pre-visualization. We had detailed concepts and Previz ready for several sequences even before they were shot. We were also heavily involved in both the pre-production and shoot, always advising what was possible and how we should approach each shot

Can you give us a breakdown of the Genie appearance/ disappearance shots from design to execution?

The entire shot of Genie appearing was generated in CG. Right from the character formation to the environment/background room was birthed in Eyeqube. It is a classical example of how visual effects can extend dramatic storytelling, add punch to the narrative and the vision of the Director.

What is your understanding of the Indian industry? And can you shed some light on future projects..

India is still working its way to quality vfx and so we really pushed very far to train artists to approach the work from an artistic point of few, not IT. We have made benchmark VFX for this film...much of it so invisible that meant will thing its all set decoration or location work. Unpredictable and tough however it was also wonderful to create work never before here in India. The response to our work from our Indian an Overseas clients has been overwhelmingly positive and they were genuinely pleased to see these quality levels