‘The Lion King’s’ VR helped make a hit. It could also change movie making
The process for making “The Lion King” was a first for Hollywood. Like other computer-animated films, the studio started with a relatively crudely animated version of the movie, known as a pre-vizualization. Then the camera crew, wearing VR goggles, filmed the action much in the way they would shoot in the real world. The editors could then select from multiple shots to construct each scene. Later, MPC and Favreau brought the characters to life with detailed hair, skin and facial movements.
For a chase scene inside a tunnel, the filmmakers grappled with how to make it look like they were actually filming inside a one-foot diameter space. They miniaturized themselves “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"-style in the virtual reality set and filmed with handheld cameras to get the shaky-cam look of the action sequence.
But now that the concept has proven successful, virtual reality and video game technology has potential to help on live-action sets, the filmmakers said.