Special Effects

CGI not included

by Awni Issa

'Inception', Christopher Nolan's opus to the dream world, is an exploration into the subconscious and the limitless possibilities it holds.  


One example of these limitless possibilities is a scene in which one of the stars (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is suspended in mid-air giving the appearance of weightlessness.  So how do you make a dream world in our physical reality?  For this, Nolan incorporated a rare camera technique called "the camera toss" in which an entire room is constructed on revolving hydraulics and the camera is mounted, along with every object within the room, to be stationary.  


Once the room begins to revolve 360 degrees, only the actors are seen moving in what appears to be zero gravity, allowing them to seamlessly run on walls and ceiling.  Harnesses were attached to the actors to achieve the breath-taking fight scene in which Gordon-Levitt fights off his attackers while jumping from wall to wall in a smooth, fluid motion.

"Camera Toss" Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4_9AXGKn90&feature=related








Awni Issa is Green Advertising's  video producer 

Special Effects

Is bigger necessarily better? 

2006’s ‘300’ challenges the notion that “epic” and “grand” movies require an “epic” and “grand” budget.  Shot almost entirely on blue and green screen back drops, ‘300’ established not only its place in pop culture, but revolutionized the movie industry with its distinct and unique look that has been copied and mimicked to the length 1999’s ‘The Matrix’ changed Hollywood with its now commonly seen “bullet-time”.

“300”, based on Frank Miller’s 1998 graphic novel about Spartan King Leonidas leading 300 Spartans into battle against Persian "God-King" Xerxes and his army of one million soldiers at the Hot Gates of Thermopylae. At the time of its release “300” was controversial with the possible excess of VFX (special effects) and computer animation in the production.

Some of the critics did not put in place the historic facts involved during the time of the Greek/Persian conflict.  For those who did not watch the “300” movie, or the first version “The 300 Spartans” (1962) or are unaware of the historic event before and after the Thermopylae conflict may not understand the importance. If the Spartans did not take a stand against the Persian Empire then, we could possibly be speaking an ancient Persian language today.

Even with the historic importance of the conflict, the critics never took into consideration that the movie “300” was not only about history. With 90% of the shots created inside the studio, “300” required a lot of "special retouch and post-production work", VFX and CGI. Although the director Zack Snyder had more interest to explore the VFX/CGI capabilities (developed by a total of ten special effects companies), he had to incorporate the historic plots into his version of the epic.

To match the feelings of Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name, Snyder used a sepia effect called “The Crush”, a coloring filtration process that “crushed” the blacks in the image and saturated the colors to change the contrast of the final product. The sepia effect required the inside studio shot scenes to be filmed on a blue background instead of the actual green or black used to produce the super-imposition chroma key technique due to light bouncing back and other composing edge reasons. The director worked with lighting and the acting scenes on the blue screen before they went to post-production.  Zack Snyder also used pieces of the novel taped on the sets and with slow motion capabilities to capture the fury of the fight scenes by "spraying blood" after each sword stabbing to depict the graphic scenes portrayed in the novel.  This is what made “300” a piece of art.

Although a lot of the film’s visuals would be created by using a computer, the director with the creature FX department developed realistic creatures as the black wolf and horses used in the fight scenes to interact and support the acting in the studio. Also a conventional make-up department was involved in the project to work with the hunchback Ephialtes, the make up of the Persian king Xerxes, played by Brazil's Rodrigo Santoro and others. The make-up department had a large scar library that was catalogued for each actor on the sets.

The movie “300” will not be labeled as a great motion picture for those that expected an epic movie like “Gladiator” or “Brave Heart” with scenes of vivid landscapes, real castles, and a love story. “300” with its graphic novel look, full of VFX (editing and computer processes special Effects), CGI content, had developed epic scenes with giant CGI elephants and rhinos reproducing a distinctive look and feel of Miller's original novel.


post by Sergio Melicio and Awni Issa
Greenad.com 

Before Tron - Legacy

With the advancement of computer animation today it is common for us to see in the theater, TV and on our home computers many cartoons, TV commercials, and movies that are rich in special effects and CGI animation.

Computer animation has been growing in a process where many companies and individuals collaborated with the advance of the computer animation industry (http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/timeline.html ). There were several movies that included one or more special effects scenes that were CGI before 1982 like Superman, Star Trek – The Wrath of Kan etc. but this process of advancement could not be noticed without mention of the sci-fi movie TRON (1982).

TRON, directed by Steven Lisberger and produced by Donald Kushner, was one the first feature length movie to make extensive use of computer simulation, allowing the viewer images in a 3D prospect, a way that they never seen before.

Technology and creativity made TRON stand out in 1982. A multimillion computer was used for the development of TRON. These super computers occupied an entire department to achieve the speed needed for processing of all the components to obtain the volume, motion, and color and texture requirements to develop the project. Today with one single computer machine and adequate software it is possible to produce a similar process developed in 1982.

Two departments had to work to develop the project. On the West coast there were animators that were proficient in programming and on the East coast one programmer that was proficient in animation. With the usage of modems to transmit low resolution rendering between the two departments working on the East and West coast of the United States, they brought together the live action / computer reality to the big screen.

This year we will have the release of the sequel “TRON – Legacy” where the director will have the chance to explore many features not used in the first TRON. The computer animation overturn in TRON (1982) will always be remembered as a pioneer for today’s computer animation and a big contributor to escape reality and go beyond our imagination.

More about Tron –

http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/tron.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZMKGKtFv5A&NR=1