(bsckids.com) Breaking Dawn Part 1‘s director Bill Condon, shares that the movie has more special effects that Avatar. That is right; you eyes have not tricked you! He shared this news at the Twilight panel in California. Here is what he had to say exactly about the movie’s effects. You will also find the whole clip in the video down below.
The big thing is, it’s got more special effects shots than Avatar, Almost every shot is a special effects shot and I’d never done that before so for me it was like going to school on all that stuff and I loved it — especially when we get into this stuff when it’s really subtle, tiny little things that happened with Kristen as she gets sicker and sicker. To watch the way you can use it [special effects] to tell a story, it was a real revelation for me.
It sounds like they wanted to make the movie huge! I cannot wait to see it on the 18th. I am so excited to see what special effects were all used in it. I have no doubt that they did use some amazing ones on it. But it is hard to believe that they used more than they did in Avatar. That seems to be pushing it a bit. However, it could be totally true and we will only know once we finally see the movie open up.
How do you feel about Condon’s thoughts? They are about the same as what they were before. I have no doubt that I used them on that job, but they also stress how important it is to have family out here. However, the movie now does sound a whole lot faster than what I remember it being like.
Video: http://www.bsckids.com/2011/
Oscars 2012: Is Pixar's Winning Streak Over?
(latimesblogs.latimes.com)
“Cars 2” may have made $554 million in global box office, but that doesn’t mean Lasseter made a great movie. I mean, Michael Bay could be saying the same thing about “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which made more than twice that amount globally but still wasn’t even close to being good, much less great.
In fact, the reviews for “Cars 2” were abysmal, with the film earning a lowly 38% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Just how lowly is a 38% rating? Put it this way: “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family” and “Cowboys & Aliens” got higher Rotten Tomatoes scores. It didn’t stop lots of people from seeing the film, but it is bad news for Pixar’s chances of winning the Oscar for animated feature, a category Pixar has won four times in a row and six out of the last eight.
Critics may have little to say about how well an animated film does in the broader marketplace, but a critical consensus means everything at Oscar time. Since the animated feature category was launched in 2001, 10 films have taken home the trophy — none of them having earned less than a 74% Rotten Tomatoes score. And even that score, registered by “Happy Feet” in 2006, was something of an outlier. Since “Shrek” won the first statuette, no other film, other than “Happy Feet,” has won with a score lower than 96%.
That establishes a minimum critical quality requirement for any animated Oscar winner, which leaves “Cars 2” out in the cold, especially since 2011 is shaping up to be an especially strong year for animated films. Leading contenders include “Rango,” “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Puss in Boots,” “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Happy Feet Two.” The films already in release all topped the 75% mark at Rotten Tomatoes, with the upcoming “Happy Feet Two” and “Tintin” expected to be critical favorites as well.
In fact, there’s no guarantee that “Cars 2” will even end up being a nominee with such a crowded field. According to academy rules, if 13 animation films qualify in any given year, there can be a maximum of four nominees; if there are at least 16 films eligible for the award, there can be five nominees.
Eligibility is a big issue this year because of the presence of several films, notably “Tintin,” relying heavily on motion-capture technology. There’s already a heated debate in animation circles about including such “mo-cap” films, with traditionalists, including Lasseter, opposing their inclusion. I still think the academy’s animation committee will rule in “Tintin’s” favor, but it’s not a slam-dunk.
As for Lasseter, who told the New York Times that he doesn’t read his reviews, he should come to grips with the fact that he missed the mark with “Cars 2.” Pixar had, until now, an unequaled track record of making an amazing string of critical and commercial successes. The streak was bound to end sooner or later.
But Pixar won’t have as much luck starting a new streak if its fearless leader continues to be in denial about the fact that he whiffed this last time out, artistically speaking. What made Pixar great was its ability to be self-critical. Time and again, throughout the creative process, Pixar’s creative team would pick films apart, often sending them back to the drawing board when something in the story or the character development wasn’t making the grade.
But the system broke down with “Cars 2.” Was Lasseter too distracted running Pixar when he should have been focused on filmmaking? Did Disney’s corporate push to turn films into brands overwhelm Pixar’s quality control system? All I can say is that, with “Cars 2,” for the first time, Lasseter seemed out of touch with his muse.
Pixar’s greatest strength has always been its reservoir of fresh ideas. So if Lasseter is willing to listen to any advice, hear this: If you want to keep winning Oscars, let Pixar be Pixar, the company that always values originality.
CG Workstation Attends Red Carpet Premier
(youtube.com) The HP Z800 Workstation steps out of a limo to walk the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of 'Puss in Boots 3D' along with models, bodyguards, and the film's stars.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Digital FX Growth Forces Rethink For Outdated Union Roles
(variety.com) As anyone who follows Variety's tech coverage knows, one of the consequences of the digital revolution is the blurring of traditional job functions.
Matte painting on glass is extinct; matte painters are digital artists now. With digital set extensions and all-CG shots and scenes, the visual effects realm overlaps with production design and cinematography. Some of what used to be vfx is now done by colorists in digital intermediate. Editors at their Avids can now do effects that used to be the province of f/x or opticals. Compositing, once an obscure f/x process, is on its way to being as powerful and creative as editing or DI. And with the latest advances in lightfield capture, even basic jobs like camera operator and focus puller are likely to evolve, if not disappear.
But as Steven Poster, prexy of the Intl. Cinematographers Guild noted Monday at Variety's Film Technology Summit, existing job titles are enshrined in union contracts, work rules and best practices hammered out over a century. And that's a problem, because the filmmaking process that spawned those definitions and rules is fading into history.
Poster called for an industrywide consortium similar to the Digital Cinema Initiative to look at the on-set workflow and find new, flexible definitions and rules.
"We need to develop a flexible concept of what the work is going to be over the next three years," he told Variety offstage, "because it's going to change, and we can't lock ourselves into something that isn't going to have some flexibility to it."
The DCI spec that Poster cited as an example, less than a decade old, is already showing its age. There's been talk of a DCI 2.
"I think that every certain number of years you're going to have to do this because it's changing so rapidly," Poster said. He said the pace of change has forced the ICG to constantly retrain its members, like never before.
Among the new challenges that demand new standards, he said, is 3D exhibition. Poster said he's recently discussed with a studio the idea of exhibition standards, because the 3D golden goose could be killed by dark, muddy projection.
"If there are no standards… you're going to get mom-and-pop theaters, you're going to get small chains, and everyone has their own standards, instead of everyone saying, 'Let's work toward this.'?"
Godzilla and Asteroids Head Into Rewrites
(Heat Vision) Both Legendary Pictures' Godzilla and Universal's Asteroids have gotten new writers.
Max Borenstein, who just turned in his script for Art of the Steal at Warner Bros., is penning the new screenplay for Godzilla, which will be distributed by WB. David Goyer (The Dark Knight) previously worked on the script.
Borenstein also co-wrote the upcoming Seventh Son, starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes and Julianne Moore.
Gareth Edwards (Monsters) will direct Godzilla. Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing along with Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers.
Universal's adaptation of the Atari video game Asteroids, meanwhile, will be written by Evan Spiliotopoulos. Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) originally worked on the script. Spiliotopoulos was a writer on the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman.
The trade says "the plotline for the film adaptation has evolved into the story of two estranged brothers that must team up to save Earth from an alien race." Lorenzo di Bonaventura ("Transformers" films) is producing.
ZBrush + Dinosaurs = Revolution
(zbrushcentral.com)
Take a look: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/
Auctioning VFX History: Talking About the 'Vista Cruiser'
(vimeo.com) A court ordered auction of the assets of Kerner Company was held so that creditors could recoup losses. Auctioned off was historic camera equipment used by Industrial Light and Magic. Many parties wanted the original Vista Cruiser camera; Prop Store won it. The parts to the camera were spread across multiple lots, purchased by different owners and the goal was to ascertain the history and come together to get the parts in one place.
Here is a video of Craig Barron, from the Academy (Matte Department ILM) and Mike MacKenzie (Head of Camera Engineering at ILM) talking to Brandon Alinger (Prop Store).
The video was shot on Catherine Craig's iPhone by Caleb Stenzinger. It was shot in the back of the truck on the auction pick-up day, November 1st, 2011.
Video:
http://vimeo.com/31511469
http://vimeo.com/31506167
Making Immortals’ Epic Greek Battles
(wired.com) Immortals might take its characters from Greek mythology, but the movie’s 3-D visuals look anything but familiar.
In the exclusive behind-the-scenes video below, members of the effects team explain how director Tarsem Singh pulled off the film’s epic, eye-popping battles and stamped the ancient story with a grand style all his own.
“There’s major computer-generated effects, but it still has to be a marriage between physical effects and the computer world,” says special effects supervisor Ryal Cosgrove in the clip. More than a dozen physical sets were built and stitched together with virtual environments.
The filmmakers also utilized technology used in Avatar to make it possible to see what actors would look like within the movie’s virtual world. The system “allows Tarsem and the staff to see exactly what’s going to be green screen, and what’s going to be set,” says Jeff G. Waxman, Immortals’ executive producer.
Preview footage screened in 3-D at this summer’s Comic-Con International showed off some of the movie’s stunning fight scenes.
Director Singh, who directed 2000 sci-fi thriller The Cell as well as R.E.M.’s classic “Losing My Religion” video, said to expect a brutal retelling of mythic stories in Immortals, in which King Hyperion (played by Mickey Rourke) leads the Titans in a war against humanity.
“It’s a little darker than what I think the trailers lead you to believe,” Singh said at the time. “The trailers that you see have been for everybody. The movie’s a little more hard-core than that.”
The R-rated Immortals — which stars cinema’s next Superman, Henry Cavill, as Theseus — opens Friday.
VFX Making of video: http://www.wired.com/
Animation president trades 6BD in San Rafael for $1.16M
Full article: http://sf.blockshopper.com/
Jurassic Park Effects Supervisor Explains His Groundbreaking Work
(cinemablend.com)
Well we have the film's visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren to thank for setting that standard, the reason the nigh 20-year-old effects still hold up today. Muren pushed the limits of what CG can do, and with the help of animatronics God, the late, great Stan Winston, created one of the best films of all-time. Muren recently sat down with the LA Times to talk about his work on Spielberg’s iconic film, and shed some light on what it was like bringing the creatures to life.
It was like almost every day, we were looking at something and saying, “Did we do this? Because this has never been done before. I’ve never seen anything like this.” And it was really a very, very exciting period. And it started out with us thinking, “Well, maybe we could do dinosaurs in the distance with computer graphics, and have ‘em running and all, but never get much closer than wide shots.” But as we were doing it, we just tried and got more bold, and got closer on ‘em and closer ’til we ended up doing a close-up on a T. rex with a performance that you’ve never seen before, because you could never get the acting of those animals with animatronics or with rod puppets or Muppets or anything. There was just no way to do it. It was really a real shocker for the audience and ourselves too, when we saw the film and we saw those shots.
Muren was no stranger to being on the frontier of special effects, having worked on Star Wars, The Abyss, Terminator 2 and many other amazing films, but JP was the first time computers could be used to take effects to the level they took it to. However, using CG wasn’t their first inclination as effects artists, but as the story evolved so did the ideas.
Phil Tippett was going to do the animation stop-motion, and we were going to add blurs to that to make it look a little more real, and Stan Winston’s guys were doing the dinosaurs and all, so actually, I had a small part in the show at the beginning. But then we started doing these tests, because it just seemed to me that if you’re doing a movie like that, a big film, and we’d done “Terminator 2″ just before that film, it seemed like maybe we could actually do a real animal with the technology we’ve got. It seemed like we should just try it. It’s an opportunity. You don’t get these opportunities very often. You got a big director, you’ve got an audience, so you’re going to be able to see what the people are going to think of it. So we pushed for doing it CG. And the results were much more startling than we ever thought.
The results were more than anyone expected, and that’s what makes the film great. That now 18 years later the film is still regarded as one of the best effects films to date, regardless of movies like The Matrix or Avatar stepping into the picture, is astounding to say the least. The Jurassic Park Bluray trilogy is in stores and is packed with bonus features, including some interviews with Muren and the rest of the cast and crew. Head out, pick it up, and marvel at the perfection that is Jurassic Park.
Aardman Animation Threatens Overseas Move
(bbc.co.uk) Wallace and Gromit maker Aardman's head of TV has said the company may have to halt UK production of its famed stop-frame animations because it has become too expensive.
Miles Bullough told Radio 4's World This Weekend there was a "crisis" in the UK's TV animation industry and that homegrown shows were being lost to cheaper foreign competitors.
"When a company like Aardman is considering offshoring stop-frame animation, which we are at the moment, something's got to be wrong," he said.
The main problem, he said, was that while films made in the UK can receive government help in the shape of a 15-20% tax credit, UK TV animation receives nothing.
As a result, many British companies were either sending their shows abroad to be made or were being bought out altogether, he said.
"There is genuinely a crisis. HIT, a beacon of excellence in children's animation in the UK and maker of Bob the Builder and Pingu, has just been bought by US company Mattel.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Do we want to see Bob the Builder driving on the right-hand side of the road?”
End Quote Miles Bullough Head of TV, Aardman Animations
"Cosgrove Hall, known for Dangermouse and Avenger Penguins, is sadly no longer with us."
Aardman is most famous for the Wallace and Gromit television shorts and feature film, but it has also had a big TV hit with Shaun the Sheep which is now seen in more than 180 countries.
The show is currently still made in the UK - at Aardman's Bristol studios - but if companies are increasingly having to outsource their shows overseas, it could "threaten the country's cultural heritage", said Mr Bullough.
"Do we want to see Bob the Builder driving on the right-hand side of the road? That is what will happen if we don't watch out," he said.
"And do you want our children thinking that the emergency services number is 911? If we let cheap American products come into the country we are selling our children short."
Shaun the Sheep The global TV hit Shaun the Sheep is due to be turned into a feature film
Companies in Canada, Ireland and France also receive government support for producing TV animation at home and in some countries there is protection against imported products.
If the situation was the same in the UK it would be "a tremendous boost to our industry", said Mr Bullough.
He added that, at a time when the government was having to make widespread budget cuts, the potential profit for the Treasury had been outlined in an Animation UK report called Securing The Future Of TV Animation In The UK.
"Animation is such a labour-intensive undertaking that by retaining jobs in the UK we increase national insurance receipts, tax receipts, expenditure and VAT receipts and actually a tax credit should be profitable in the long run," he said.
Treasury spokesman Matthew O'Toole told the BBC News website: "We recognise the importance of the animation industry and the UK's proud international reputation for excellence in this creative sector. The future support for this is being considered as part of the film policy review, which is expected to report to ministers shortly."
DreamWorks Animation Stock Falls Even With Puss In Boots At #1
(cinemablend.com)
In fact, the $34 million isn't just lower than all of the Shrek movies-- it's the company's lowest opening since Flushed Away in 2006. Yes, Puss in Boots-- a spinoff from DreamWorks Animatiion's indisputably hit series-- grossed less in its opening than the studio's lowest-grossing film since Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. When you put it that way, getting #1 at the box office doesn't seem like such an accomplishment after all.
DreamWorks is blaming the snowstorm on the East Coast for taking a few million off their gross, and to be sure, the movie will play just fine in the coming weeks, with nothing else so explicitly kid-friendly coming until Happy Feet Two on November 18. But if DreamWorks Animation was planning to mine the Shrek franchise and its side characters for spinoff movies for years to come, they might need to rethink their strategy. Yes, I know studios never want to err on the side of originality-- but we can hope for now, right?
Time Lapse Video of the 2011 ILM Halloween Party Invite
(rickortreat.howtoappsalong.
VIDEO: Take a look - http://trickortreat.
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