Visual effects artists share their differing opinions on a Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) scene in the Harry Potter films. The scene is adapted from the bedroom Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Firewhen Sirius speaks to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) at Hogwarts via the Floo Network. Instead of physically traveling to Hogwarts through the fireplace, Sirius is able to make his head appear in the fire while he is elsewhere, allowing him to communicate with Harry without physically going to Hogwarts.
In a Runner Crew video, Visual effects artists analyze the visual effects used in the scene and discuss how they were changed in the book. In the source material, it is described as "Sirius's head was on fire," with his head floating in the flames. In the film, his face rises and is formed by the embers of the fire, as there are no flames. Runner Crew explains how this effect is technically changed and what works and what doesn't work well with the change. Check out the comments below:
I think [the face] It's a real 3D model that has been animated based on his face and performance, but I think it's a real rendering.
The vast majority of what we're seeing is full CG. Virtually everything has been completely replaced.
It looks like there is a very light mask where the embers travel underneath the other logs, so are you saying all that burning wood is CG?
Practically the entire bed is CG, and the face itself, Gary Oldman did his performance with tracking marks on his face. They reconstructed the face in 3D and basically covered it with dynamic pieces of wood. And I believe there's also a certain level of composition in their performance footage, specifically in the eyes and the nose, the contrast there, I believe they did some kind of filtering in that footage to layer it.
It looks so bizarre with the pupils standing out so clearly like that.
I feel like nowadays you could do this very quickly using blocking and after effects, just get a wood-like texture on someone's face using an AI-style transfer, or literally just putting things on it, taking bits of bark and then you can use blocking and still do physical simulations around it with a much simpler face model.
I know that's not what it says in the book. His face appears in the flames. What do you do when there are no flames? Granted, they could have the fire, but it's charcoal, so this is a fun and unique way to show it and I really like the aesthetic.
What this means for the Harry Potter films
The visual effects are not entirely effective in this scene
After Sirius escapes Azkaban and plays a major role in the previous film, his role in Goblet of Fire It's smaller and in the film it's condensed into this conversation. Depicting Sirius' head through the embers is a visually distinctive way of representing the scene. However, Some of the focus on Harry and Sirius' conversation and the valuable information Sirius shares is overshadowed by the visual effectsmaking them more distracting than useful in this scene.
To some extent, it has always been this way due to the creative decision to portray his face through the embers rather than having his head in the flames. The distraction is now further amplified due to the visual effects being somewhat outdated, with simpler, more efficient and more effective tools now available to bring the scene to life. It's by no means a bad scene, but one that It hasn't aged as well as other scenes in the Harry Potter films.
This is a scene that could be improved upon in HBO's Harry Potter show
This is an example of a scene that could be improved in the HBO film Harry Potter television program. THE Advances in technology and visual effects could allow Sirius's head appearing through the fire to look more convincing and less distracting than in the 2005 film. Other Sirius scenes that were cut from the Goblet of Fire the film may also be included in the television series. With a season dedicated to each book, there will be more time to include scenes cut from the films, another reason why the Harry Potter Television series have narrative and visual potential.
Source: Runner Crew