CGI Needs a Revolution, Dufflepud VFX, & Building IMAX Robots...
Has CG had its Day?
(denofgeek.com) I saw Transformers this weekend and after sitting through nearly two and a half hours of a movie that felt like watching somebody else playing a computer game I came out of the cinema feeling underwhelmed and flat.
What I mean by that is that there was no ‘wow' factor to the thing. By having so much going on and having such a movie spectacle it's like throwing everything you can do with CG on screen, with explosions, robots, more explosions, and the usual Michael Bay subtlety going on. The entire affair seemed clinical, personality free and really just quite dull, a fireworks display of pixels without the hotdog or jacket spud of entertainment or enjoyment..
In my opinion it seems that by bunging everything through a computer that cinema has shown the ‘man behind the curtain', that anything and everything has that digital tweak added to it. The spectacle has superseded the ‘magic' that is actual storytelling as the most important element to a film
There is no ‘how did they do that' factor in films doing the rounds at the cinema, Wolverine was bland, Star Trek was cursed with wobbly camera syndrome and Transformers as mentioned was just a excuse to make money back for the R&D investment they did for the Transforming sequence they did in the last film.
Seeing a Ray Harryhausen film, a Hammer horror or Toho monster movie we all know they were models but how did they do it? Camera trickery, composition, bits of rubber all blended together in a mix of magic but now as we all know it is pixels there is no sense of wonder any more.
Seeing Optimus Prime fifteen years ago on screen would have been impressive and given you that jaw dropping moment. Think back, remember when you first say a dinosaur in Jurassic Park, that's what I'm taking about - when was the last time you went into the cinema and had that feeling? To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum ‘just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you have to'
CGI in today's movies is so commonplace and overused that frankly it's lost its appeal. Again remember when you first saw ‘liquid metal' on screen, first in Flight of the Navigator and then of course Terminator 2 - this effect called ‘reflection mapping' has been around for the best part of twenty years and when it was used, it was used to effect - to quite literally show you something you had never seen before. However now it's used on adverts for cleaning products. It's the same with ‘Morphing' and even ‘Massive': how often now have we seen CG armies against each other?
CG has become cheap, easy and even throwaway. Accessible software packages such as Motion Builder, Maya, 3D Max and even motion capture software is in the reach of most people and while it still takes skill and dedication to master these pieces of software which have become commonplace tools of the trade, the imagination needed it seems is sometimes lacking.
Pixar it seems have managed to blend the two - classic stories and the use of CG - to the best advantage. Their films, no matter how short, have a special spark of magic that shows how to use computers in movies to their very best advantage. Take two 2009 films - Up and 2012. Comparing a Pixar film to a end of the world film might seem like oranges compared to lemons - but think about it; which movie will draw you in the most, which one will have you smiling and immerse you in the experience? I am certain it won't be the one that has earthquakes and aircraft carriers falling on the White House, but the one using the tools of CG correctly to have chubby scouts and grumpy old men floating around in a house covered in balloons.
CG, as it stands needs to go through another revolution. We know you can have it all on screen Michael Bay, Stephen Sommers, Peter Jackson, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, and with legendary FX houses like ILM and WETA, we understand you have pushed to boundaries of technology to the limit.
You can make orcs fight elves in medieval battlefields, the Hulk fight the Abomination or have the army fight Decepticons in the sand dunes of Egypt; you can send us into space as an Avatar or have us far underwater where Mega Sharks fights Giant Octopus (okay, maybe not that one). We get it, now that we can do all of this to the point where we really cannot tell what is real and what is not.
Shouldn't it be time to get back to the drawing board or word processor and actually work on the scripts?
Will Paramount Convince Michael Bay to Return for Transformers 3?
(comingsoon.net) There's no doubt about it - Paramount will finish the trilogy with Transformers 3, probably in 2011. But will Michael Bay return?
Over the last six months or so, two other big Michael Bay projects have surfaced as his probable follow up to Revenge of the Fallen - most recently, the sci-fi story I Am Number Four, but also the bodybuilders comedy Pain & Gain. If you remember, Paramount preemptively announced Transformers 3 for 2011 (with Bay) back in March. But then Bay came out and said: "No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots." A few weeks ago, there was a big internet rumor going around that Bay wouldn't return for the sequel at all. His response: "Hah, love press how they spin. Never said it - just wanted a vacation is more to the point."
We
already know that writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci won't be
returning to write Transformers 3, for better or worse, but as for
Michael Bay, that's still up in the air. But with a $200 million
opening weekend, I'm sure Paramount will coax him to return one more
time. But who knows if they'll shift it to 2012 or stick with the
originally announced 2011 release? Peter thinks that he'll move onto
that "small" movie Pain & Gain first before potentially returning
to Transfomers. That seems possible - a Christopher Nolan-like break -
but then it'll be pushed to 2012.
"Voyage of the Dawn Treader" Dufflepuds May Be CGI
(narniaweb.com) There is a tiny bit of interesting news about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Dufflepuds, thanks to Lee Ravitz's resume. His resume states "Role: Dufflepud (Green Screen VFX Test Shots Only) / Production: Voyage of the Dawn Treader / Director: Angus Bickerton."
This is intriguing because it implies a few things: First, based on the fact Lee Ravitz is doing green screen tests, it seems the Dufflepuds will be CGI created rather than hiring little people to act in the roles like Trumpkin and Nikabrik. Second, Lee Ravitz, according to his profile is 5' 9" so it looks like they could be making the Dufflepuds in a similar way to Gimli in Lord of the Rings. Whether they'll film actors and shrink them down or have the Dufflepuds fully CGI remains to be seen.
And finally, just as a side note, Angus Bickerton is the Visual Effects Supervisor for the Dawn Treader.
Source: http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=2197&dl=23474945&full=1
Warner Bros. Emerges as Sole Bidder for Midway Games
(latimes.com) Warner Bros. has emerged as the only bidder for Midway Games Inc., all but assuring that it will take control of the bankrupt video game publisher previously owned by Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone and become a major force in the video game industry.
Midway had hoped that the film studio's $33-million offer, made in late May, would spark a bidding war that would boost its price. A Chicago investment group and several game publishers kicked the publisher's tires, according to a source familiar with the discussions, but none pulled the trigger.
"No other bids came in, so there's not going to be an auction," Geoffrey Mogilner, a Midway spokesman, confirmed.
Redstone, who took control of Midway in 2004, was never able to bring the troubled company to profitability. He sold it at a huge loss to a private investor last November in exchange for a $700-million tax write-off that has since led to a lawsuit from the publisher's creditors.
Integrating Midway will significantly expand the scope of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the studio's small but growing video game division. Warner has acquired three game production companies in recent years and hired industry veteran Martin Tremblay as WBIE president. It also tried, unsuccessfully, to buy Eidos, the British publisher of the Tomb Raider games.
Although Midway has declined in significance in the last few years because of big losses and poor-selling games, it is still a well-known brand with a rich library of titles that Warner will be able to exploit as games or, potentially, movies and TV shows.
"We bid on Midway because we are interested in their catalog of intellectual properties," Tremblay said in May.
Assuming the deal goes through, the studio will take control of most of Midway's assets, including Mortal Kombat and well-known but dormant game series such as Joust and Spy Hunter. It will also get two production houses in Chicago and Seattle.
Full Press: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-midway27-2009jun27,0,2631772.story
"Moon" Director Changes Course
(Screen Daily) It looks like the recently announced new project for Moon writer/director Duncan Jones will not be his next, as he tells Screen Daily he is now working on a $25 million sci-fi movie titled Mute.
He says that the UK/German co-production is a "thriller-mystery" and will be set in Berlin at a variety of locations, including at Studio Babelsberg.
"'Moon' is about alienation and isolation. The next one will have a different vibe. It's not about one actor on their own, it’s an ensemble piece," he said.
Jones will team up with Moon producer Fenegan of London based Liberty Films. Fenegan said "'Mute' is about a woman whose disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. When she disappears, he has to go up against the city's gangsters."
Marin Based CritterPix Screens 3D CGI "Ollie The Otter" Promo
(thebusinessoffilmdaily.com) The gearing up of product utilizing 3D, the latest technology in the film industry's objectives for augmenting new experiences to the cinema going audience, sees a number of independent companies at Cannes selling a variety of offerings. One such company is CritterPix Studios.Based in Marin County, CA CritterPix Studios is a next-generation, low-cost, high-quality animation studio focused on G and PG-rated family films. Founded in 2003 by CEO Kelly Alan Williamson, the company' core expertise is using 3D-CG (computer-generated) technology to make its movies.
One of the hurdles of 3D is the generally high cost involved in the process. Kelly Williamson of CritterPix has developed a business model based on strong content creation, for developing and producing high quality 3D-CG films more cost effectively.
The company' first feature film is Ollie the Otter, based on the children's novel. With an environmental theme like Happy Feet or Free Willy, Ollie the Otter must save his family from natural and human threats. Having been taken from his wild home environment, similar to little Nemo's plight in Finding Nemo, Ollie and a group of domesticated animals must find their way back home. Out-muscled, outsized, and outmatched, Ollie emerges a hero while learning that no true leader can do it alone.
Full Press: http://www.thebusinessoffilmdaily.com/Cannes2009/D18_S2.html
ILM Builds Bots In IMAX Resolution
(studiodaily.com) There’s a sequence in DreamWorks/Paramounts’ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in which the Devastator, a gigantic Decepticon robot, scales an Egyptian pyramid as easily as a gorilla climbing a tree and rips off the top. With over 52,632 parts and nearly 12 million polygons, the robot is the biggest model Industrial Light & Magic has built in its 30 years of model-making. And they built the bot for IMAX shots.
Modelers built Devastator specifically for these high-resolution shots because the megaton menace spends most of its time in IMAX res. Optimus, however, spends as much time in 35mm as in IMAX, so the key for that robot was in painting high-res textures. “We knew the damage to Optimus would be in high res, so we added that detail as we went,” Smith says.
Dave Fogler supervised the team of around 25 modelers and viewpainters (texture mapping) who worked on the film. “More often than not, we worked with 2K maps,” he says. “But we had lots and lots and lots of them for individual parts. The reason is that things start to slow down once you go to 4K. So we had a collection of parts with 2K maps and if they didn’t work in IMAX we’d go to 4K.”
“Lots and lots and lots” is an understatement. The viewpainters created 6,467 texture maps for Devastator alone — 32 GB of textures. “On an average show, we keep one viewpainter and one modeler on to the end to keep an eye on things,” Fogler says. “On this film, we had a crew of six or seven adding details and damage and every time we had an IMAX shot, we’d cross our fingers, see what we could see, then go in and add nuts and bolts.”
Cloverfield Director Talks "Let the Right One In" Remake
(Los Angeles Times) Cloverfield director Matt Reeves talked to the Los Angeles Times about his upcoming English remake of the award-winning Swedish horror film Let the Right On In, which was based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's original novel.
"I was just hooked," Reeves told the newspaper. "I was so taken with the story and I had a very personal reaction. It reminded me a lot of my childhood, with the metaphor that the hard times of your pre-adolescent, early adolescent moment, that painful experience is a horror."
Reeves has finished a second draft of the script, now titled Let Me In. The film will be set in Reagan-era Colorado. He is scouting locations, looking to maintain the original story's chilly, snow-swept environs.
The production is also looking for the two leads, which Reeves vows will not be aged-up to make the film more of a smoldering Twilight-style romance. The story centers around Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy who finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.
Ed Catmull to Receive VES George Melies Award
(news.awn.com) Dr. Ed Catmull, President, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, has been selected by the VES Board of Directors as the recipient of the "2010 Georges Melies Award." The award will be presented at the 8th Annual VES Awards, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on February 28, 2010.
The Georges Melies Award honors individuals who have "pioneered a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by a way of artistry, invention and groundbreaking work." Dr. Catmull is the embodiment of this award as someone who not only spearheaded the creation of the technology that is used throughout the industry, but had a significant role in creating the art form itself and the standards for how we judge successful animation and storytelling for the modern entertainment industry. Dr. Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Previously, Dr. Catmull was vice president of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm Ltd., where he managed development in the areas of computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital audio.
"Ed Catmull has helped redefine the field of animation over the past three decades," said VES Executive Director Eric Roth. "Ed has become one of the giants of our industry by pioneering new ways to tell animated stories in a successful studio environment. He has been at the forefront of ensuring that while the animation should always be as eye-popping as possible, the story itself always has to be first class as well," added Roth.
Chair of the VES, Jeffrey A. Okun said, "Ed Catmull almost single-handedly created the software and hardware that is used by everyone in not only the visual effects industry, but the gaming industry and the computer animation industry as well. We all owe a great debt of thanks to his vision, dedication and creativity."
"It is truly an honor to receive the Georges Melies Award from the Visual Effects Society," said Dr. Catmull. "I've always believed that the combination of art and technology is an important part of a creative environment where we can continue to push the limits of filmmaking."
Dr. Catmull has been honored with five Academy Awards, including a Technical Achievement Award, two Scientific and Engineering Awards, and one Academy Award of Merit for his work. In 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Dr. Catmull the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for his lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the field of computer graphics for the motion picture industry. He also received the ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for his lifetime contributions in the computer graphics field, and the animation industry's Ub Iwerks Award for technical advancements in the art or industry of animation.
Previous recipients of the George Melies Award were Robert Abel, Phil Tippett and Disney/Pixar colleague John Lasseter.
'Transformers 3' Gets a Date
(variety.com) Paramount and DreamWorks are forging ahead with "Transformers 3," dating the movie for release on July 1, 2011.
It's the first word of the three-quel, although Paramount insiders downplayed the importance of the move.
They said the studio wanted to claim the date before a competitor did, considering that the 2011 summer release calendar is filling up.
No deals have been inked with director Michael Bay or franchise stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Nor has a writer been hired for the third installment.
The big-budget franchise has fast tried to claim the July Fourth holiday frame as its own. "Transformers" opened on July 3, 2007; "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" bows on June 24, 2009, one week before the holiday.
So far, "Transformers 3" has no direct competition on its July 1, 2011, date.
Paramount also moved up the release of Marvel Entertainment's "Thor" from June 16, 2011, to May 20, 2011, on behalf of Marvel Entertainment, which is producing and financing the superhero pic.
That shift comes less than one week after Marvel said it was pushing back the release of "Thor" by a year, from July 16, 2010, to June 16, 2011.
Marvel was criticized by some for scheduling "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" so close together. "Captain America" opens July 22, 2011.
Summer 2011 kicks off with the May 6 release of Sony's "Spider-Man 4." Pic was dated last week.
Late last week, Warner Bros. set "The Time Traveler's Wife" for release this Aug. 14. That meant Warners had to move "Final Destination: Death Trip 3D" off that date. That pic will now open Aug. 28.
Robot Mania: Full Size Gundam, Now Gigantor!
(justpressplay.net) Not long after Tokyo finished the life-size Gundam project, now Kobe is doing the same for their Wakamatsu Park with a full scale statue of Tetsujin 28-go, better known in the US as Gigantor.Unlike the Gundam statue, this one is meant to be a permanent tourist attraction for Kobe. It stands 60-feet tall, weighs 50 tons and is expected to finish construction in September, which, what a coincidence, is the same month I plan to buy a fallout shelter.
Created by one of Kobe's most famous native son, manga-ka Mitsuteru Yokoyama in 1956, Tetsujin 28-go (literally means Iron Man #28) is noted for being the first ever "giant robot" comic book. A popular black-and-white anime adaptation was made in 1963. It was later broadcast on NBC as Gigantor with its names changed and the violence toned down.
Back in January, Imagi Studios (TMNT, Astro Boy) released this cool teaser trailer as a test for T28, a CG-animated movie based on the manga, to gauge public interest.
Full press with pics: http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/5561-first-gundam-now-gigantorwhat-are-you-up-to-japan.html
