????????
The bad news remains: Warner Bros. wants to take high-frame-rate
projection (48 frames-per-second, double the old standard rate of 24
fps) for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey fairly slow.? They?ll only
exhibit the movie in 3D 48 fps in very few select markets come December.
The good news, as being reported today: there won?t be an additional ticket upcharge to see the film at the higher frame rate.? You?ll still have to pony up the premium for 3D, but 48 fps comes free of charge.
We?ll have to wait and see which cities are chosen to exhibit the film this way.? I?m guessing at best ? Los Angeles and New York.? Maybe Chicago, too?
Remember, the word out on the critical street regarding 48 fps is pretty rotten.
How To Lay People Off in the Video Game Industry
(kotaku.com)?????????????? A layoff is a layoff is a layoff, to misquote Gertrude Stein. Surely, they all suck. But they also happen. Some would say they have to happen, capitalism being what it is and such and such.
Don't do it the Activision Vs. Infinity Ward way:
??? Fenady testified that he expressed concern about the project but was told, "Don't worry about the repercussions." Fenady found an outside company, InGuardians, who also balked at the task because of "legal hurdles." Stymied, Fenady approached the company's Facilities Department and talked about staging a "fake fumigation" and a "mock fire drill" in order to get West and Zampella away from their computers long enough to copy files on their computers. (as reported by the LA Times)
Don't do it the THQ way:
??? Kotaku has heard from some affected that, yes, most employees were informed of the decision today. The first day of E3. About as busy a day in the games press as you're ever going to get, meaning it's as good a chance they're going to get of burying the news under a flood of trailers and game announcements.
Do it the PopCap way, if you've got to do it at all:
??? ...this morning we informed our employees about a reorganization in our studios that will include a "Reduction In Force" in our North American operation ? mostly in our headquarters here in Seattle ? and an "exploratory consultation" to evaluate the future of our PopCap office in Dublin, Ireland.
??? And now in English: "Reduction In Force" means that some people are losing their jobs. "Exploratory consultation" means we're talking to our Dublin team about the future of that office and whether we can find a path to improve our profitability in Europe without having to close the operation. Today's news is something you expect periodically from a company in a fast-changing industry, but it sucks if you're one of the people losing his or her job. These people are our friends and we don't like doing this.
??? We've made hard decisions before, even had cuts before ? at this time in North America there are about 50 people who will no longer work at PopCap. We've hired aggressively this past year and PopCap is still growing. Even with the cuts we expect to end the year with roughly the same number of people we started with.
??? A little context on why we're making cuts in some areas while we're investing and expanding in others: In the past year, we've seen a dramatic change in the way people play and pay for games. Free-to-play, social and mobile games have exploded in popularity. That happened fast. Surprisingly so. The change in consumer tastes requires us to reorganize our business and invest in new types of games on new platforms. It's a completely different world from when we started.
??? There's also an economic component to the reorganization. To stay in business, we need to manage costs, improve efficiency and maintain a profit. We've been able to invest in creative new games like Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies because we had a high profit business. That business is challenged, and if we don't adapt, we won't be able to invest in new IP. That sounds harsh ? but if we don't stay in business, no more plants, zombies, jewels, frogs or worms.
??? One year ago, we decided to integrate PopCap with EA. I know I wouldn't choose to be anywhere else right now. EA has provided a lot of resources for us to grow and allowed us to operate as an independent studio. I've seen speculation that EA is no longer letting PopCap run independently, and that's simply not true. The founders, CEO, and executives who were in charge of PopCap still are. The decision to reorganize was 100 percent made by us, with no pressure from EA. EA has a diverse business with games on consoles, PCs and practically every other platform under the sun. We're glad to have those resources supporting us when a lot of other independent studios are struggling. In addition, some of the people affected by the reorganization may be retrained and reassigned to other jobs in the EA studios. If we didn't have EA behind us, the cuts would have been worse.
??? What's next? Part of making changes is to stay healthy and viable. Good companies don't wait to change until it's too late. We're growing quickly into new areas of mobile and social, and are expanding in new markets like Japan and China. And there are many more great games to come from PopCap.
??? While today's news is distressing in some ways, especially to those of us who've been with PopCap from the beginning, we're sincerely excited about the company's future prospects and committed to continuing to lovingly craft the very best and most broadly appealing video games in the world.
??? John Vechey, Co-founder
Because, hey, sometimes you've got to let people go, but you might as well try to be a human being about it.
Adam Berg Helms A "Videodrome" Remake
(darkhorizons.com)???????????????????????? Acclaimed commercials director Adam Berg is in talks to make his feature directorial debut on a remake of David Cronenberg's 1983 body horror meets media satire classic "Videodrome" at Universal Pictures says Deadline.
James Woods starred in the original about a cable TV programmer who tried to make his station relevant by programming 'Videodrome', a reality TV series that depicts torture and murder that transfixes viewers.
He soon uncovers a political conspiracy tied to a malicious broadcast signal within the show that causes disturbing hallucinations and brain tumours in an effort to ideologically "purge" North America.
The film recently made it onto the Sight and Sound Poll's Top 250 films of all time list and is famous for its catchphrase "Long Live the New Flesh".
Ehren Kruger is penning the remake and will produce with Daniel Bobker.
Green Goblin Makeup Test Photos & Video for Sam Raimi's First SPIDER-MAN Movie
(dailyblam.com)??????????????? Although it never made it to the film, Amalgamated Dynamics used prosthetic make-up and animatronics to re-create the comic book Green Goblin character for Sony Picture's 2002 Spider-Man movie.
??? Average teenager Peter Parker is transformed into an extraordinary super hero after he is accidentally bitten by a radioactive spider. When his beloved uncle is savagely murdered during a robbery, young Peter vows to use his powers to avenge his death. Deeming himself Spider-Man, he sets about ridding the streets of crime, bringing him into conflict with malevolent super-villain Green Goblin.
Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. co-founders Tom Woodruff, Jr. & Alec Gillis offer a slew of details (courtesy of The Stan Winston School of Character Arts Blog) about their Green Goblin creation, including video and images showcasing the application and final design of the outfit:
"When we started Spiderman in 2002, no plan was in place for how the Green Goblin should look. There was some great art by production artist James Lima and creature designer Miles Teves that showed a direction toward the classic early comic book style but director Sam Raimi was unconvinced. Since we had started early enough before shooting was to begin, we were granted a little time and money to produce a prosthetic make-up version to consider.
"In capturing the comic book style, we knew the large goggle-like eyes were going to be a problem. Since they were opaque, there would be no life in them and the thickness of the surrounding forehead would also eliminate expression that would make for a rather dead-looking face. We decided to mechanically articulate the brows via low relief radio-controlled servos that Dave Penikas would design and a separate puppeteer would operate. Sam didn?t think it was going to work, but there was only one way to tell.
"Alec and I art-directed Ryan Peterson to sculpt a very realistic-looking Goblin character, referencing early Spiderman art. Rather than mechanically reproduce the comic book version, Peterson took it several steps farther to make it a very organic creature character. The large eyes were still a challenge. To be safe and cover our bases, Peterson also sculpted a more streamlined version that would rely on the actor?s eyes showing and his brow movement reading through. If the animatronic version was a bust, we wanted to have something to show Raimi that would be a solution."
??? In 1972 Stan Winston established Stan Winston Studio. Corralling some of the finest designers, engineers, sculptors, painters, machinists and technicians, the work that came out of the Stan Winston Studio was, from the start, widely recognized as the state-of-the-art in character creation. Over the years, the studio grew from a room in Stan?s garage to a fully-staffed workshop of hundreds of artists, all working to give filmmakers something that exceeded their wildest imaginings.
??? Always eager to embrace new technologies, Stan Winston helped pioneer the digital revolution including co-founding Digital Domain alongside James Cameron and former ILM boss, Scott Ross.
??? Integrating emerging techniques such as motion capture, and CGI enhancement, Stan Winston Studio came to be associated with cross-platform and Hybrid CG/Practical character creation for all visual arts venues. Stan?s core team continues his legacy into the new century with Legacy Effects, where a new name, a new building and new projects and challenges continue to keep the spirit of Stan and his studio alive.
PHOTOS - Take a look:?????????? http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2012/08/23/green-goblin-makeup-test-photos-video-from-sonys-first-spider-man-movie
Graphic Artists Now Have Computer-Simulated Knitting Tech
(fibre2fashion.com)??????????????? To put clothes on their characters, computer graphic artists usually simulate cloth by creating a thin sheet, then adding some sort of texture. But that doesn?t work for knit sweaters. To make the image realistic, the computer has to simulate the surface right down to the intricate intertwining of yarn.
So scientists must, in effect, teach computers to knit ? and graphic artists have to painstakingly model the 3-D structure of every stitch.
A new method for building simulated knitted fabric out of an array of individual stitches was reported at the 39th International Conference and Exhibition of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques earlier this month in Los Angeles by Cem Yuksel of the University of Utah; Jonathan Kaldor, of Facebook; and Steve Marschner and Doug James, Cornell University associate professors of computer science. The work was done when Yuksel and Kaldor were at Cornell.
The Cornell innovation is to create a 3-D model of a single stitch and then combine multiple copies into a mesh, like tiles in a mosaic. The computer projects the mesh onto a model of the desired shape of the garment, treating each stitch as a tiny flat polygon that stretches and bends to fit the 3-D surface. Then it ?relaxes? the graphic image of each stitch to fit the shape of its polygon, just as real yarn would stretch and bend to fit the shape of the wearer.
The result is a simulation with detail down to the yarn level.
?We are actually changing the shape of the yarn loops that make up the stitches,? Marschner said, ?simulating how they wrap around other loops.?
The researchers tested their method with several patterns from knitting books and created images of dresses, sweaters, a shawl and a tea cozy. The simulations are highly realistic, but the researchers noted that the results of knitting a particular pattern depend on the yarn and needles used, as well as the style of the individual knitter. The method has some parameters that can be adjusted to simulate the effects of different needles or yarn, or different yarn tension used by the knitter, they said.
The process is computationally intensive, requiring several hours to simulate a garment (cable stitching takes the longest). As of today it would not be practical for an interactive application such as virtual reality, Marschner said, but it would be usable for movies.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Pixar.
Pixar's Up House 3D Model
(dribbble.com) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ?? From the day I first viewed Toy Story, I have been inspired from the work produced out of Pixar Animation Studios. I dreamed of working for them and doing what they do, but never fully appreciating the skill and rare talent the studio possessed.
??? This particular model was a labor of love for me, and though I could get very nit-picky over many of the flaws I see in it, I am pleased with the end result and my homage to my favorite animation studio.
??? Please see the attachments for bigger sizes, as well as the full house and balloons :)
Take a look:????????? https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#drafts/139542ef335dd310
??? Also, check the video on vimeo for a small fly-through: https://vimeo.com/47938374
CGI: The Newest Form of Puppetry
(smartwhenshouting.com)??????????????????? It seems that the media world is starting to go through a rebirth of cartoon characters. From the wonderful revival of The Muppets last year to the recent success of the raunchy comedy Ted, zany, cute, and ?lovable? characters have been taking up a great amount of screen-time over the past few years.
However, most people don?t see that the majority of these characters aren?t actually based on the style and concepts of old cartoons. The way they act, speak, and connect to the audience are not reminiscent of the classic Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry shorts. Instead they very clearly draw inspiration from another form of family entertainment.
Puppetry.
Though the artform originated thousands of years ago, modern puppetry has been a strong staple of American culture since the early days of television broadcasting.
In the 1960s shows like Howdy Doody and Mr. Roger?s Neighborhood premiered and worked to establish puppetry as a legitimate and important part of childhood entertainment. By combining the soft, familiar, and stylized faces of cartoons with real-people and ?family friendly? humour, the shows provided a way for children to transition from the simplistic joys of youth? into more complex forms of entertainment.
Howdy Doody
We?re still trying to figure out which one is creepier
The shows were a staple and gave way to a boom of puppet-centric entertainment. One of these programs specifically stood out, a show from a new talent by the name of Jim Henson. His project, The Muppet Show, became a cultural smash and sparked a revolution in the media and set a standard for all puppet-centric forms of entertainment to this day.
Moving outside of the puppet-verse, we?ve recently seen a boom in the adaptation of old cartoon properties into feature films. Though the quality of each is certainly debatable, the adaptations of Scooby-Doo, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear, and The Smurfs have all seen incredible fiscal success.
However, despite being based on properties practically swimming in old, classic cartoon feel and action, these modern films don?t draw from them outside of superficial reasons, like the looks of the characters and the occasional gag or two. Rather, these films draw more from puppetry and The Muppets.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
In order to proceed it is essential to examine the basic elements of both cartoons and puppetry.
Cartoons, by nature, tend to be the most free, expressive form of cinema. From a technical aspect they are not constrained by any natural laws, meaning that unrealistic portrayals of characters (in this case for reasons that aren?t shallow) can be easily accomplished with a brush-stroke.
The nature of the canvas also allows more-easily for the portrayal of fantasy, providing a cheaper and more fluid way to show mysticism, extremism, and off-the-wall zaniness that would be much harder and far more expensive to show in a live-action film.
However, cartoons also have the disadvantage of not being real. The reason parents tend to be okay with showing extreme amounts of violence to their children in the form of a Bugs Bunny short is because there is never a question of whether or not Mr. Bunny?s actions are real or not. He may shove dynamite into someone?s mouth, practically blowing their head off, but hey, it?s just a cartoon, right?
Bugs Bunny
?Ain?t I a stinker??
On the other hand, puppetry tends to be used more when the artist or entertainer wants to make the character feel alive and like they are inhabiting space, just like us. However, due to their visual nature, the human mind never quite sees them as real, granting puppet characters the ability to do things that, for any human, would be unrealistic and possibly even offensive to our sensibilities.
Ventriloquists have used this fact to their advantage for years, utilizing the fantastic elements of puppetry to create oddball characters in their own unique fashion and shoving their unrealistic qualities front-and-center, allowing the audience to easily make them the butt of jokes without feeling bad about it. Jeff Dunham is the perfect example of this, using his puppets to make jokes that, while in other contexts may be seen as offensive, command huge laughs from his audience. After all, they?re just puppets.
However, because they are physically real and our mind thinks of them on some level as actual beings, we also grow a fondness toward them. This is where creatures like The Muppets shine. Though we can laugh without remorse when one of them is flinged into an electric fence, we can just as easily attach to the character and grow a kinship with them regardless of how much love they actually deserve. By their slight amount of realism our human empathy is unlocked and allows us to throw our hearts to the characters in a way that other forms of animation can?t always command. Anyone who cried at the end of the recent Muppet reboot knows this fact first-hand.
Sesame Street
What does this have to do with CGI, though?
While many people won?t look past the superficial image of these characters, stripping them of their brand reveals very little cartoon but, on the other hand, a vast amount of puppetry.
Movies like Alvin and the Chipmunks rely less on extreme stunts and cartoonish actions and, instead, focus on the humour of their integration. They make them play by human rules and, because of this, they can?t make them as fast or overblown as they otherwise would. Essentially, the chipmunks and the other cartoons being rebooted are less zany and mystical then they were in their classic shows.
And that is where puppetry comes in. Though there is no-one physically controlling a chipmunk doll, the animators and director are treating the characters more like puppets then cartoons. Their movement is slow, their proportions more realistic, and they simply feel more integrated. In order to keep the audience in the experience the latest hybrid movies have made their characters dependent on the groundwork of puppetry.
Is this greater dependence? a bad thing? No. However, it is an essential one. Because CGI is more technically demanding than hand-drawn animation, relying on mathematics and strict coding rather than just the artist?s pen, the free-flowing nature of cartoon animation simply isn?t as practical with CG. It?s the exact same reason that forced Sega to slow down Sonic the Hedgehog when the famous platforming icon initially made the leap from 2D to 3D.
Sonic Adventure
Cartoons are also far harder to integrate into live-action films. Take for example 2003?s dreadful Looney Tunes: Back in Action. As the film that hoped to revive the classic franchise, Back in Action made no secret of its many cartoon elements, constantly having the toons moving around frantically and being injured in a variety of wacky ways.
Combined with the slow feel of the real actors and setting, however, they never felt real. Many of the scenes that tried to combine the two actually made otherwise funny jokes fall flat because cartoons and real people simply don?t mix. When the film doesn?t adjust itself to that fact in the way the golden standard of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? did it falls totally flat and makes watching it a turgid experience.
Though not all CGI utilizes the ideas of puppetry, there has been a huge push toward using them as the standard. And it seems to be working. CGI characters made with puppetry in mind, like the foul-mouthed teddy bear Ted, feel more real than anything that has come before. And though the quality of each film is debatable, the enhanced immersion that puppetry groundwork gives is not.
'Iron Man 3' Special Effects Slated for Port; No Word on Downey's Return
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- Shooting for "Iron Man 3" will resume this weekend with some special effects, but there's no word on if the movie's star will be part of the filming.
A film permit for the movie, code-named "Caged," will return to the State Port of Wilmington Friday through Tuesday. The cast and crew had been shooting at the port earlier this month until star Robert Downey, Jr., was injured. At the time, Marvel Studios said shooting would take a break while he recovered. Marvel has not returned a call to find out if Downey will rejoin the shooting this weekend.
Regardless of whether Downey will be there, the shoot will have some star power thanks to special effects. The City of Wilmington released a statement today saying there will be scenes that will include gunfire, smoke and a helicopter. The city says residents and businesses in the area have been notified about what to expect, but the production wanted to make sure the city was aware in case calls come into the 911 system.
Introducing MARI 1.5, the 3D Texturing Tool Behind Star Wars 1313
(gamezone.com)???????? You know those impressive visuals we've seen in the latest Star Wars 1313 trailers and screenshots? A lot of that has something to do with MARI 1.5, a new version of The Foundry's 3D digital paint tool.
Just released, LucasArts has already been harnessing the power of the MARI 1.5 with production on their latest game Star Wars 1313. The highly-anticipated game has looked so impressive, visually, that it has begun to draw speculation that it could release on next-gen consoles.
?Integrating MARI at LucasArts for Star Wars 1313 helped us work a lot more efficiently and contributed to making the game visually stunning," said LucasArts visual effects supervisor Kim Libreri.
So what exactly does MARI 1.5 do? In short, it allows artists to "spend more time being creative and less time managing technical issues". For the more complex features, it includes Overlapping UV support, Maya texture export, shadow support, DDS Cubemap support, among the many other additions.
"MARI allows us to create more realistic assets using techniques similar to those we use at ILM for our movies," Libreri added. "It?s also been a real benefit that the texture artists are able to preview assets in real-time so they can interact with them and see exactly how they are going to look in-game.?
List Inconsequential: The Worst Special Effects
(spectrumculture.com)
Jaws 3-D (1983)
Whenever anyone brings up crappy special effects, my mind instantly turns to Jaws 3-D, which combines all the low-rent shabbiness of Jaws sequels with the lazy artlessness of the mid-?80s 3-D fad. The nadir of the film?s many weak 3-D gimmicks comes when the irate mother shark attacks the underwater lab. Well, I say attack. What it really does is drift forward slowly, its body static save for a half-hearted opening of its jaws, moving so arduously and unnaturally that the director has to use slow-motion of people merely reacting with fear, themselves not moving much, to make the shark seem animated. Then, the piece of shark-painted shit merely freezes in place as the ?glass? of the underwater bubble ?shatters? and does other things that can only be described within quotation marks. The godawful centerpiece is so riotously terrible it almost justifies sitting through the rest of this mess just to see it. - Jake Cole
The Hunger Games (2012)
I?m not exactly sure of what sort of fevered fan base ire I?m bringing upon myself by daring to write ill of The Hunger Games, but surely even the devotees who are in so deep that they?re planning to saddle their first child with the name Katniss see the flaws in the digital rendering of the pumped-up dog-like creatures dispatched against our heroes towards the end of the film. With their galumphing gait and blocky design, they could have bounded in straight from Ghostbusters. When the most direct comparison for a modern film?s special effects is a comedy from over 25 years earlier, there?s a serious problem. ? Dan Seeger
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
?It?s just a flesh wound.? It?s easy to become outraged at truly bad special effects in major studio releases. You can stand in awe of blockbuster films that, despite having humongous budgets and countless hours of work poured into them, are laughable in their failure to convincingly depict their own world. Then, there are movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, those that use ?bad? special effects artfully to produce an overwhelming feeling of camp. From the severed limbs with obviously fake blood protruding from them to the stuffed-animal aesthetic of the Killer Rabbit to the delightfully crude drawing of ?God? in the sky, Monty Python and the Holy Grail proves that special effects can sometimes be willfully shitty. ? Jacob Adams
Independence Day (1996)
Sure, it?s easy to pick on movies from a decade or two back for cheesy special effects. But some films age like a well-made Pinot: even though technology has passed them by, their visuals were rendered so carefully and thoughtfully, that they still capture the imagination. Films like Jurassic Park, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Star Wars come to mind. And then there are the movies that age like cheese, with effects that become laughable. To me, the epitome of this throw-money-at-the-scene garbage dump is Independence Day. Yes, I know the White House blowing up was mind-blowing in 1996. But now that the CG animation is as clunky as Amanda Bynes driving down Hollywood Boulevard, every other terrible part of the movie becomes so obvious: the groany one-liners, the endless plotholes, Bill Pullman. Because like beauty, cutting-edge effects don?t last forever. And when you don?t back up your visual razzmatazz with an incredible story, competent acting and plausibility, we have no other reason to watch than to run our own MST3K commentary hour. And reminisce about the good old Fresh Prince nineties? - Tabitha Blankenbiller
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Snakes on a Plane is intentionally campy, a Hollywood take on a B-movie premise crafted only to promote a cheesy catchphrase. Samuel L. Jackson?s ?I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane? is the main reason this movie exists. Jackson has made a career of loquacious badassery, but he usually manages to find himself in blockbusters with less hokey special effects. While there actually were some real nonpoisonous snakes used during the filming, their presence only made the animatronic or CGI vipers all the more laughable. Their unnatural movements may be the worst, as when a 20 foot python snatches a thrown puppy out of the air, or when it swallows an entire human whole in the midst of utter chaos. Digitally shimmering serpents cartoonishly lunging for and swinging from genitalia in airplane lavatories don?t help matters either. With such terrible special effects, Snakes on a Plane is hard pressed to even achieve the status of a guilty pleasure; in no time at all it?s easy to get fed up with the motherfucking snakes. ? Josh Goller
More:???????? http://spectrumculture.com/2012/08/list-inconsequential-the-worst-special-effects.html/2/
The Time James Cameron Apologized To HR Giger For ALIENS
(badassdigest.com)????????????????? Yesterday was James Cameron's birthday, which I'm sure he spent immersed in a VR tank fondling flora on Pandora and being king of the world. He's a big time guy! He does big time things! And he's known as a big time difficult person, the sort of guy who yells at people all the time and makes crew members cry and whose shoots are endurance challenges for everybody involved.
So when James Cameron apologizes, it's a big deal. And he did just that in 1987, writing a letter to HR Giger saying 'sorry' for Aliens. Not because the movie was bad, but because Cameron didn't include Giger - the designer of the Xenomorph - in the making of the film.
Here's the letter Cameron sent to the artist. Happy belated birthday, Jim!
Read the letter:????????????? http://badassdigest.com/2012/08/17/the-time-james-cameron-apologized-to-hr-giger-for-aliens/
Vets Help Get Computer-Generated Horses Just Right
(horsetalk.co.nz)?????????????????? Massey University vets have helped out Wellington-based visual effects company Weta Digital to get their computer-generated horses just right.
The computer generated running horse.
A computer generated running horse which was the model for the new release film ?Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?.
The company was looking to upgrade its computer-generated models of horses, and asked staff at the New Zealand university?s Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences to help.
The results can be seen in the film ?Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?, which opened in New Zealand recently.
Dr Deb Prattley was part of the team that worked with Weta, which has won five Academy Awards for visual effects.
Prattley says the institute?s equine treadmill was used to collect motion capture images that the company then used to build its computer-generated horses.
?They had several cameras in the room, including overhead, and filmed the horse at different gaits so they could use that information to create computer-generated models of horses doing different things.
?They also spoke at length with our anatomists because they really wanted to make sure the shapes of the horses were right and that they moved properly,? she says.
?They needed to make sure the joints articulated in the correct directions by the correct amounts and the muscles appeared with the right shapes in the right places, as the horse moved.
?They had previously built models by looking at the horses from the outside, but we were able to give them an understanding of the structure ? so the models are built from the inside out.?
Even the expressions on the faces of the horses ? their hair and the way their nostrils looked ? were covered.
?They paid attention to the most minute details to make sure they had things right,? Prattley says.
The Weta Digital team also worked with the institute?s imaging department to get X-rays and CT scans to get a deeper understanding of how horses move.
Using computer-generated animals meant the on-screen action could be captured without concerns about animal welfare, something that needed to be carefully protected before the technology was available, Dr Prattley says.
Upon completion of the project, Weta Digital shared with Massey the models they had built.
Weta Digital visual effects supervisor Martin Hill says the work done with Massey added greatly to the realism.
?For example, looking at the carpus (knee) and the way it articulates. Rather than being a single pivot, which we assumed before, their knees bend at two pivot points, one of which always flexes twice as much as the other one until it gets to a very extreme amount of flex.
?These are the things that are fantastic to know. The nuances when you apply them to our digital model suddenly give an extra level of reality.?
The Massey staff involved in the project included Dr Cameron Knight, Dr Angela Hartman, Dr Chris Rogers, Dr Deb Prattley, Marty Johnson, Nicki Moffat, Allan Nutman and Professor Hugh Blair.
VIDEO - Take a look:???????????? http://horsetalk.co.nz/2012/08/23/vets-help-get-computer-generated-horses-just-right/#.UDZc5dnXRG4
Effects Filled "Goretoreum" Hotel Set To Open In Vegas
(insidemovies.ew.com)?????????????????? Eli Roth?s Goretorium in Las Vegas may just be the kind of gruesome, bloody year-round destination horror fans have been salivating for, and Roth himself is as giddy as a twisted school boy about it.
The director-writer-actor behind the Hostel and Cabin Fever franchises, and upcoming Netflix series Hemlock Grove, brainstormed the mock haunted hotel and casino called The Delmont, aka the Goretorium, for five years. Located across the street from the City Center and The Cosmopolitan, on the Vegas strip, already the land of dark-edged glitz and mayhem, it opens Sept. 27. Complete with techie and makeup-fueled special effects, a lounge called Baby Dolls with caged zombie dancers, and a bar called Bloody Mary?s, the two-story high Goretorium sounds like a go-to Halloween hangout for adults. It will even house a chapel where star-crossed, gore-hungry lovers can get married. Zombie Elvis as a wedding officiant?
Stuck at the Burbank Airport, about to board a plane to Vegas, Roth talked to EW.com about Goretorium being the ?Disney World for horror fans,? working with rapper RZA on RZA?s upcoming directorial debut, the martial arts movie The Man with the Iron Fists, which Roth co-wrote with RZA and co-produced, and Roth?s new horror flick The Green Inferno, set to start filming later this year in Peru. Chilean earthquake thriller Aftershock, co-produced, co-written and starring Roth, premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival. Even over the phone, Roth oozed as much unbridled horror-loving passion as a puss-filled sore on a zombie?s thigh. Seriously.
Full article:?????????? http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/08/23/eli-roth-goretorium-las-vegas-rza/
-H??? ? ? ?? The real-time operating system in the Apollo 11 spacecraft (1969) could multi-task 8 jobs at a time with only 2k of memory and 32k of storage. ?? ?????
Source: http://philipkochfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/worth-mention-0824512.html
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