Spoiler Alert Clarification: The real design of Subahu hasn't made public appearance in footages yet, this comic book was shared with creators and those invited to the event.

First, i fact checked the popular claim of Subahu in the trailer which was initially a rumour and later amplified by social media and media outlets without factual bases and now most people think the meesho hulk to be Subahu. In the second part of this post, i tried defining three tiers of demons and how they will be presented and at last based on the tiers how we should actually draw parallels to other high vFx movies to compare the portrayal of monsters.

FACT CHECK

Meesho Hulk(Tier 2)

Most people believed that this meesho hulk with bad lighting is Subahu, but based on the Ramayana comic, which has shown exact demon designs as in the movie, it appears to be false. Subahu is shown with less hair, jewelleries and necklace of demon nails(or teeth) and most importantly he is shown a little fatty not muscular.

Right Side: Tarka(Same as shown in teaser). Left Side: Subahu(clearly written in comic)

3 TIERS OF DEMON

This is not official demarcation of different types of demons but an informal one to better judge the cgi and design based on the level of priority given by artists and its relevance to the storyline.

Tarka a tier 1 demon

-> Tier 1 = Major Demons who are actually mentioned in Valmiki's Ramayana and are central to the story.

ALL TIER ONE DEMONS: TARKA, SUBAHU, VIRADHA, SURPANAKHA(original form, yes she has a demon form in the movie), DUSHANA AND KHARA(they will have demon like facial traits).

-> Tier 2 = Demons who will get themselves casually killed to build the Aura of characters and are not mentioned in the story. We are going to consider dandakaranya forest demons in this category(except Viradha who is central to the story and is tier 1) as no specific name for specific demons in the forests are mentioned in the text and neither their looks or traits. Example of tier 2, the meesho hulk.

Dushana and Khara Army Member

-> Tier 3 = Demons who will form the armies; army of khara and dushana, army of ravana and army against heaven, kubera and etc. We should expect the least quality of CGI and design work from these very type of demons.

HOW THEY SHOULD BE COMPARED(OPINION BASED ON TIERS)

Tier 1 demons are the centre of the story and all vFx priorities so if they are not realistic in the movie(don't judge just based on teaser or trailer) and at least comparable to the worm of dune or airavat then this movie could be considered to fell short at it's main priority vFx works and commitment made by namit to deliver comparable work at greater scale(i trust they will easily do it).

Tier 2 should be compared in respect to the context that we will rarely see them for 5-20 sec sequence at max if the editor is happy with them. So they should be decently blended with environment if not absolute cinema or peak of cgi execution. It would not be crazy to say we can compare these monsters with side characters of avatar who are shown for comparable duration of sequence.

Tier 3 should be compared with GOT or LOTR armies cg execution or modern day "Avengers" army vFx. If somebody picks a screenshot of a random monster doing his part in the movie and compares it with let's say any one of main asset of another movie like thanos, worm of dune, varang(fire and ash), Caesar or any main asset you can think of, is stupid to the core.

I believe they will easily execute the tier 1 properly, if tier 3 and tier 2 even ends up being comparable to one tier above them, it will not be a stretch to say namit was right and he delivered and they can get an vfx nomination for the movie.

This is my second post covering constructive criticism but first to reply to the highly depressed people who are now hopeless for the film. If you think i am paid(i wish i was) you can visit my previous post where i actually covered all valid criticisms in a compilation and their possible easy solutions for the makers(chota muh badi bat).

I will cover questions here like "Why no real jungle shoots?", "Why the crowd looks game-ish?" and most importantly "Why jungles look fake?" using my knowledge of 3d assets, vfx, cinematography and some insider info(idk if true).

The hot discussion of the internet rn is if the makers are pouring 4000cr then why isn't it looking like dune or avatar in quality and especially when the producer himself said it is comparable to them at even a greater scale? The disparity here is not of quality but actually of how we perceive to be "quality". The vision makers had was the fantasy style vfx(i hate that, cringe Chinese dramas) with avatar level clarity in details, when that comparison by namit was made people started imagining avatar or dune type hype realism style vFx in everything. Does that mean the sloppy bad lighted demon during bala kand is what the makers intended for? No, as i said their vision is clarity of details like avatar so monsters and crucial objects will be realistic, and they must and are working on it. What should we expect then? We will see a lot fantasy style visuals in movie and i think the mithila city and it's shots will comprise majority of the fantasy visuals.

Coming back to jungles. Now since you know the parity between the styles, the jungles(unfinished rn but we will consider the final output here) were initially meant to be fantasy type since the very start. After the wider criticism(i support it), i wish they change its color grading to something with more dept and less yellowish tint like the image below.

More realistic color grading and more dept, no yellow tint policy unless it is a dawn scene. Ignore third image.

The main reason also behind not shooting in jungles was this, vision plus logistics. No movie that had avatar, jungle book or ramayana level cgi work in jungles was shot in jungle as logistics to capture 3d motions of cgi actors would be a nightmare. How would you prepare the flat surface for 1vs 14k army scene? They could easily achieve the hyper realistic forest like avatar or jungle book in studio using vfx and cgi at a fraction of that nightmare cost if they wanted(trust me it is really not that difficult to create forest environment) if they wanted, but the vision and intended output differs so it was not done, and due to the lack of dept and yellowish(fantasy type tint), it looks fake. Good thing is that they can solve it easily, below is also the 4 months back jungle work of dandakaranya forest without dept and now with dept.

Before: Yellowish tint, lack of dept in trees and forest.

After 4 months: Realistic color grading, added dept and details to trees.

Last question, why the ravana crowd looks fake? Because it is just a placeholder right now like the mithila bow scene was 4 months back in the footage.

At last, we must be patient, you will know where the budget went when you will see the full wide cities shot, fight sequences, initialization and post effect of divine weapons and the brahma boon scene.

Clarification: I am not a hater, in fact, I am more excited about Ramayana than doomsday or any other movie this year, not because it's Indian, but because of the quality and scope of story itself. And i think they already achieved 80% perfection.

This post is meant to attempt at reducing the noise, and compile all criticism in public into something coherent and actionable. This might seem like an opinion rather than a fact to some people, but it is based on my understanding of 3d assets, vFx, cinematography and acting. I watched and analysed all available footages at max quality possible online at 0.5 and 0.25x to see the details and not miss something before writing this.

At some point it may also seem that I am being hypercritical.

MAJOR PRACTICAL CRITICISMS:

2160p 4K Shot Asset Preview

Lack of lighting.

Presence of just lighting, blending is off as i used AI to say what could be changed without a lot of extra financial burden.

1. Low weightage demons and kumbhkarana: Low level demons(especially during the bala kand) looks bad.

Constructive: The CGI asset itself is not that bad if you pause and see, but the main culprit is color grading there. The scene's foreground and the background(forest) needs to be blended more with the asset and shadows and light. Spending high on 2-5 sec or max 10 sec demon shots is never the norm when you have to necessarily spend more on bigger scenes for the actual story.

His warrior like non demonic suit(except helmet) makes him less demonic and more disney's villain army member who will crack a joke.

Not much changes just some bloodily stained demonic suit

All dark and hairy demons look way better and good in the footages because that is how things are hidden for the good in vFx(ik also that hairs are the most complicated in 3d assets, maybe keep them universal for all low demons with changes in color and thickness). Low level monsters can also be made less cartoonish by making them darker and avoiding giving them "human warrior" like armour, the helmet and armour makes the demon look like straight out of disney, the armour needs demon like styling. Color grading will likely be fixed in post production like the kumbhkaran scene(which is a high quality asset when you pause and see without the environment) since that's how high vFx films work, while some assets need some slight non expensive changes to be way better.

https://preview.redd.it/jafih8dctkgh1.png?width=2556&format=png&auto=webp&s=04279f38c84e3dd7a19d5a34ba3680997f9f2df7

2. Arun Govil's Yajya Scene: Yajya scene looks like realism style animation.

Constructive: This scene has all elements but the lack of shadows and natural lighting or dept makes it look way more fantasy like than anything ever in both footages, this high fantasy vibe in absence of shadows and lights was also there in bala kand's monster hunting scenes(low level demons not tarka).

Just look at the blending and surface? Holy cow wow

A major appreciation also comes from lighting, the mithila scene of lifting bow has all natural shadows, lights and dept and that is irony from same picture.

3. Physics: This criticism is a 50-50 for me, 50% bs, 50% valid. Some scenes majorly the jumping scene of ravana from the body of dev army and the jumping of rama from the tree to kill demon army looks off due to lack of physics consideration maybe or it could be and i hope so, those scenes are intentionally made longer by stretching the small clips. If not so, then they do give South Indian action type vibe. Sorry, Terry Notary.

4. SMOOTH DUBBING: Mata sita dubbing is better than i expected, but it lacks something which needs to be tackled and i can't figure out what and how.

I ignored the inevitable and bullshit criticisms like "she/he doesn't give the vibe" and others. Feel free to correct me if i miss something. Ranbir's voice modulation is something i found validly criticized but i think it is unfixable now.

MAJOR APPRECIATIONS:

This is enough to tell you, we will cry here too.

1. SHOTS: Holy moly, some shots like the bow lifting in mithila, door reflection in waters, camera zooming to show tears in eyes of rama while leaving from praja and many more looks formidable. If you know about the mithila, ayodhya and lanka sets from the comic, you will know from the mithila scene how insanely they built all 3 cities and their shots will be insane.

Jai Siya Ram.

2. Divinity: Maharaj Dashrath and Maa Sita are giving divine vibes due to the practical sets and acting, ravana is looking and feeling like ravana.

This is the difference between a high value asset(where you are pouring money) vs low level demons.

3. VISUALS: If you think most look like AI Slop and most important visuals are not at least decent, your internet needs to be cut.