Ghost In The (Coffee) Machine

Yesterday I’ve watched “The Raid” which is mostly about people killing each other in a well-choreographed and well-edited fashion. I do not want to share a room with people who gave this movie 10/10 on IMDB.

So to cheer me up, I captured this silly bit of footage today:

It probably reflects my facial expression over the course of the movie.

Action Sequences

Via Film Critic Hulk I’ve come across this nice and exhausting analysis of a particular action sequence in Nolan’s “The Dark Knight”:

The guy who made this is a movie critic who worked together with Roger Ebert so in a way his analysis of the action sequence has a bit of an academic feel to it. Sure, action that goes from left to right in one shot and then from right to left in the next may be “wrong” but it’s the 21st century. Nobody will assume that a convoy of half a dozen cars has suddenly changed direction.

Incidentally, I’ve also watched “The Dark Knight” again recently. The whole sequence didn’t feel that good to me but not for the changing number of police cars or the unclear position of Harvey Dent in relation to the vehicles.

• To me it just felt preposterous that a truck can crash into the convoy to take out the SWAT vehicle in front of Harvey Dent’s transporter yet the convoy is able to continue without having to slow down. The Joker’s truck would probably block all lanes for quite a while.
• It also felt weird that the convoy was diverted by the burning fire truck in the first place. It was supposed to be the most important convoy in Gotham City. The route was supposed to be cleared of any traffic, and there even was a helicopter. Yet nobody bothered to constantly keep an eye on the whole area? Nobody noticed that somebody ignited a vehicle in downtown Gotham? It was up to the cops in the leading vehicle to notice the burning road block after they had already been approaching it for at least one city block. That level of police-force incompetence is mind-boggling.

Here’s another video from Jim Emerson, this time about an action sequence in “Salt” which he thought was well-executed because it has shot/reverse shot consistency. I admit he has a point. But the stunts that Angelina Jolie pulls off in this clip are ridiculously super-human so I’m a bit uncertain which action scene I like better:

Anyway, the essay that led me to these videos in the first place is Film Critic Hulk’s three-part write-up on what constitutes good action scenes. It’s an interesting read if you have 1-2 hours to spare 🙂 Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

The Art of Simon Stålenhag

Fantastic paintings by Swedish (concept) artist Simon Stålenhag!

(check out his portfolio on www.simonstalenhag.se)

These paintings work on so many levels. For one, I dig the idea. Dinosaurs and Mechas in rural Sweden?! How cool would it be to live in that universe!

I also like how the artist chose seemingly mundane events for his pictures. Kids strolling around outside, people with their backs to the camera doing some boring tasks or manual labor. Nothing about the presence of dinosaurs seems to bother the inhabitants of Stalenhag’s fantasy world and those giant machines that are littering the landscape are as thrilling as rusty tractors. Are they the remnants of a war? Or “just” the result of energy shortage or an economic downturn?

Stalenhag’s paintings are also a great reference for cg compositing or matte paintings! Take a hint from his lighting, reflections and usage of fog and haze to create depth. Especially the painting of those sun-lit towers in the distance is a great reference if you want to get some inspiration on how specular highlights should be affected by atmospheric conditions.

(via pixelsham)

Countdown #6

Another video for the Fusion webinar countdown.

httpvh://vimeo.com/76365091

You can download the comp here. You’ll need one of my fuses and Krokodove 5.70 alpha as well as this font.

Music: Berry Nuggons by EAT! (cc-by)

VFX Bakery

For everybody who wants to know what working in VFX is like, here’s a fitting cartoon! Click for the full image.

(Found on pixelsham.com).

Motion Control

Bot & Dolly is a San Francisco-based company that offers robots for motion controlled cameras. This mind-boggling video installation – where computer animation is being projected onto two large panels – shows off their hardware.

I’m guessing everything in this video relies on their robots: not only the screens but also the camera – despite its hand-held feeling – is probably motion controlled. In that case, all positions in 3D space would be known and video projections could be pre-rendered to match the camera’s point of view. It would be nice to see a making-of though. Did they use robots to control the projectors as well or are they stationary? Or is everything being rendered in real-time?

Anyway, what an amazing mix of analog and digital.

And speaking of motion control, here’s the other famous robot in the VFX business: Spike, a high-speed robot coupled with a high-speed camera.

http://vimeo.com/33408157

Countdown

This is a short clip for eyeon’s Fusion 7 preview webinar in October. Motion graphics artist Dunn Lewis started a countdown series and I’m contributing this clip today:

httpvh://vimeo.com/75164074

It’s 100% Fusion, but using a couple of custom lens flare plugins I wrote. Some relighting is done using a spherical harmonics technique (that’s how I got the smooth shading along the round parts of the text).

Download the comp here. Zip includes my flare fuses as well as the font.

This clip and all the other artists’ work is available on vimeo.