Behind the Scenes on Gravity

Framestore are taking film fans and VFX aficionados on an out-of-this world journey behind the scenes on their Bafta-winning blockbuster Gravity. A 'Show and Tell' film uploaded to YouTube reveals the technical trickery and inventiveness that went into creating an space film so realistic it's been praised by astronauts.

The two minute video shows everything from pre-visualisation experiments through to footage of the live action shoot in the specially built LED box and set, 3D rotoscoping and CG render. It also highlights the level of detail that went into designing the equipment and spacesuits depicted in the movie.

The visuals has been described as the most realistic-looking depiction of space by astronauts such as Commander Chris Hadfield and Major Tim Peake, though both have joked about the lack of 'space diapers'.

“The visuals are spectacularly good in this film. I mean, I don’t understand how you (Cuarón) did that. That was just marvellous to look at,” Hadfield said at a Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

Meanwhile British astronaut Major Tim Peak had this to say in a recent article in the Guardian: "The film does capture the essence of what it's like to be in zero gravity, though: how difficult it is to move; how you have to struggle to stop yourself from just rotating endlessly. And the vistas of Earth and space are stunning, very much like the movies you can see on YouTube made of time-lapse photographs taken from the ISS."

To find out more about how the team made Gravity, check out the Your Shot interview with VFX Supervisor Tim Webber.