Evaluation

It has been a while since my last post but here is my evaluation.

This project required me to research and develop a topic and then compile that research into a portfolio. I originally decided to research Wes Craven and George Romero as they are horror directors and I thought it would be quite interesting. However when I began research I became very bored very fast and I felt that I wouldn't really gain anything from it.
This is when I decided to change my topic of research and look into special effects instead as I am quite interested in this area of film making. I then realized that I had to narrow down my field of research as there are so many aspects of special effects.
To make my research more detailed I decided to look at Miniatures, CGI and 3D films. I thought this was a nice mix as it combines old, present and new kinds of special effects in films. There are also numerous examples out there for these areas such as Avatar, Poseidon and Titanic.
When I began my research, I learned quite a lot of techniques and methods of achieving realism in Miniatures and CGI such as camera running speeds and level of detail required in Miniatures and CGI models.
I found the 3D section the most interesting, especially the history of 3D. I learned so much about different 3D techniques such as anaglyph 3D and polarized 3D.
I didn't manage to make my own 3D pictures or films as I did not have access to the equipment I needed to make a successful 3D image, but from my research I have firm knowledge of how to successfully create 3D.
Overall I thought this was a very good project. I managed to source examples really easily and I have gained a lot of knowledge from it too. It will certainly help me in future when I make films.

The History of 3D

I found this website which seems to specialize in 3D films and stuff. It also has a brief history of the evolution of 3D so I thought I would share the link here.

Pretty fascinating stuff!

http://www.sensio.tv/en/3d/3d_history/default.3d

It mentions stereoscopic 3D which makes use of taking a photo with 2 cameras side by side to simulate the distance between human eyes. Once the images are viewed using polarized glasses or by simply crossing your eyes, the images merge together creating a 3D effect! Check it out below!

Phantasmagoria!

I've been doing some more research online and I have found something called Phantasmagoria!

It was a traveling show which made use of projection and special effects. However this was back in the 18th century!

Invented by the French, this show made use of the "Magic Lantern" which was essentially a slide projector. In the show, they used the projector to project ghostly images onto walls, translucent sheets and even smoke! This is pretty cool for the 18th century! Audiences would be amazed at the materialization of ghosts before their eyes.

As the magic lantern was portable, it was easy for them to transport it and travel around cities and towns to amaze people with this great show.

Animated plates were added, as simple as they were, they were also very effective, for example there was a show called The Rat Swallower. In this show, the cartoon image of a sleeping man was projected onto a screen. The man's mouth opened and closed as he snored. Then a rat would crawl over him and jump into his open mouth.

These days it is very simple and very low tech to achieve something like that, yet back then, it was state of the art and very impressive!

Quick Update

So I have finally done the Introduction for the report! I've been putting it off for ages but it is finally done and it's starting to come together now. I just hope I can find enough images online so I don't have to go and scan everything in!

I'll give you another update soon.

Wire Mesh 3D

With anything that is to be rendered in 3D space, it needs to be comprised of a wire mesh made up of shapes called Polygons. The more polygons in the mesh, the more detailed the result.
The polygons are traditionally triangles, quadrilaterals and sometimes convex polygons as this helps with rendering.
Nearly every computer animated thing you see will be built up of polygons like this below:

As this image shows, a lot of polygons go into making a 3D render, however this is a very time consuming and expensive job which is why Poseidon's budget was around $160,000,000 as I mentioned in my previous post, it has some of the best CGI I have seen in a film. And that's by 2006 standards.

Polygons can be made into any mesh structure which can then be textured (in other words, put a skin on or paint etc) and then animated appropriately. Remeber, the more polygons, the more detail you will achieve. Check out this example below.

As you can see, the shoe with over 8000 polygons is smoother and more detailed why the shoe with 170 polygons is rather blocky and doesn't look very realistic. Another example is seen here. Below is the final render of the Poseidon wish was used in the film:

As you can see it is extremely detailed and very realistic. I couldn't estimate how many polygons went into this but I can say it was a hell of a lot! You can see why the film's budget was very high! These Polygon models then need to be lit appropriately and realistically too otherwise film goers will reject the reality of the film that is before them.

I won't be supplying any of my own Wire Mesh models as I am terrible at creating 3D models.

As technology has move at a rapid pace, and realism is being achieved more and more with CGI, it seems that miniatures are being phased out, as CGI is cheaper and more efficient. The only downside I can see is if a hard drive crashes and you lose all of the work, you gotta start over.

Industrial Light and Magic

George Lucas, obviously famous for his Star Wars saga, has his very own digital effects company called Industrial Light and Magic which has worked on many films like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ironman etc

Check out their website here:

http://www.ilm.com/

There was a book in the Library all about ILM which will be a brilliant reference for when I talk about CGI.

ILM don't just specialize in CGI however, they tackle all sorts of visual effects such as miniatures, prosthetics, puppets etc. They cover a vast range of stuff.

Check out this video aslo, it shows behind the scenes work on Star Wars Episode 3.

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000306.html

Motion Capture, An Introduction

A very brief one I might add as I will look into this with more detail tomorrow.

Motion capture is a common technique used to create CGI characters within films and video games.

Motion capture entails an actor wearing a skin tight suit covered in a varying number of special balls. These balls are detected by a special camera which sends the movement patterns of these balls into a computer. This data is then relayed to a 3D model of a character in which I can be realistically animated based upon the actors movement.

Examples of this can be seen in The Lord Of The Rings with the Golum character, and also in King Kong.

An advanced form of Motion Capture was used to create Avatar (See previous post for a quick insight).

AVATAR

So I went to see Avatar today and I think it is a very good example of CGI use. If anything, this film has completely re-defined use of CGI in films.

Avatar takes CGI to a whole new level, rather than just the standard Green Screen technique of plac

ing live action elements within a CGI environment, James Cameron has managed to combine, flawlessly I might add, live action actors with CGI characters.

This film was actually delayed so that computer technology could improve enough to create Cameron's vision exactly how he wanted it. As this film was originally conceived in 1994 and scheduled to start production when Titanic (1997) was released, it would prove impossible to create the film on this scale back then.

Many different techniques were used in the film, even new technology created especially for this film was used, for example:

A Virtual Camera System was used which allowed James Cameron to Direct the motion capture sequences while viewing the live action in an augmented reality in real time, essentially allowing James Cameron to tell the actors how to react as if the CGI world was actually there. This allows more realism within the film as the actors are better directed instead of them being told roughly what they will be interacting with.

A new type of motion capture was used to create the Avatar's faces. An individually made skull mask was created with a tiny camera positioned in front of the actors face which captured every tiny detail of the actor's facial and eye movements. The data is then sent to computers. According to Cameron, this technique allows 100% likeness in their CGI characters, and it really shows! (see below image)

I highly recommend seeing this film as it shows a brilliant use of CGI and it is just a brilliant film.

It was also presented in 3D...I will talk about 3D in another post as I plan on explaining how 3D in film works and when it was first used.

CGI Case Study 1 "Poseidon"

So I have decided to look at CGI in more depth as it is the most common form of Special Effect used in the industry today.

CGI is best for creating fictional worlds, unreal creatures or for simple enhancements on sets or actors.

A very good example of CGI use can be seen in Wolfgang Petersen's 2006 disaster remake "Poseidon". Extensive use of CGI was used to create the shots of the ship in the ocean and also the entire opening shot was created with CGI, the only Live Action element was of Josh Lucas running along the deck. (See below Link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXrcTto7mzI

This shot managed to incorporate Josh Lucas running along the deck by filming him running

against a green screen. He was then matted into the CGI pallet in post production resulting in the

scene seen in the link above.

Every exterior shot of the ship was created with CGI, and in my opinion, I think that this film

showcases some of the best CGI work seen in film today.(Excluding Avatar as I have not yet

seen it, therefore I can't judge).

One of the main reasons the CGI in this film is so good is because of it's insanely huge budget

of $160,000,000. Sadly the CGI is the only good point to this film. The rest is terrible, however

I won't turn this into a review of the film. As CGI is rather expensive (But a lot cheaper than

miniatures), sometimes it is very hard to get the realism that is intended. However in Poseidon's

case, that wasn't a problem. Poseidon showcases some of the best CGI water I have ever seen

in a film. For example, take a look at the capsizing scene. The water effects are flawless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roayx-79cAs

Now if CGI was just limited to effects like this then I would certainly agree that CGI is the way

forward in films, however some films have smaller budgets, yet still rely on CGI which, due to a

cheaper company being used, the effects aren't as flawless as those seen in Poseidon.

For example, if we look at the TV movie Britannic, The CGI effects are clearly cheaply made as

the realism in them is very small.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOaVJ3wFqM0

As you can see the Green Screen effects used in this film are rather poor. The CG rendering of

the ship looks pretty good, but once the live action elements are placed in there the CG becomes

very unrealistic. For example, when the lifeboat is heading towards the rotating propellor, the water

effects look very badly matted to the live action lifeboat which destroys the dramatic reality of

the scene.

I will look at CGI further in my next post.

CGI - A Brief Overview

CGI, or Computer Generated Images, have been used in films since the late 1970's, starting with Westworld in 1973. This film used 2D bit-mapped images created by digital artists to create a POV shot of a robot. Quite a simple but effective technique requires little effort unlike the CGI used today.

The first use of 3D CGI was in the sequel to Westworld, Futureworld from 1976. This film used 3D CGI to model and animate a CG version of Peter Fonda's face and hand. Created by the special effects company Triple I, this marked one of the first uses of 3D CGI in a film.

George Lucas' Star Wars Episode VI: A New Hope was one of the first feature length films to make use of extensive CGI to create visual effects. The main CG sequence used was the training briefing video of the Death Star trench assault. It was a basic unshaded/untextured 3D wireframe model. A later 1997 re-release saw extra CGI effects and other special effects enhanced or added.

These films were the origins of CGI which would later be used more and more frequently as technology developed.

I will go further into GCI techniques in my next post.