POST TYPE : Article
Listening To --> Pirates of The Caribbean OST -He's a Pirate
Thats a great piece of work you know. The theme I'm listening to.
Some guy called Klaus Badelt.
Amazing work though. So are the movies that this theme belongs to - the Pirates trilogy. Besides a sterling performance from Johnny Depp as the now-iconic Captain Jack Sparrow, all three movies utilised a generous but inconspicuous amount of 3D Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI). Gigantic, slimy sea monsters, the mutated crew of an entire cursed ship and in one particular sequence, the perpetually half-drunk Captain himself was changed into a skeletal, cursed being.
Some guy called Klaus Badelt.
Amazing work though. So are the movies that this theme belongs to - the Pirates trilogy. Besides a sterling performance from Johnny Depp as the now-iconic Captain Jack Sparrow, all three movies utilised a generous but inconspicuous amount of 3D Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI). Gigantic, slimy sea monsters, the mutated crew of an entire cursed ship and in one particular sequence, the perpetually half-drunk Captain himself was changed into a skeletal, cursed being.
Yes, well thats it, rather weird sight, ain't it? The Pirates universe revelled in its weirdness, mixing fantasy into the ships and pirates as seamlessly as you would...mix guns into a Western. And CGI played no small part in this. Here's a visual CGI marine treat if there ever was one :
Thats Davy Jones for you - go watch the movie if you want to know, all ye lazy landlubbers! or use Wikipedia like me *yawn* lol I'm quite obsessed with these movies at this point of time to showcase 3D from any other movie, if it isn't obvious already.
What you see above is fantasy being transferred from imaginative minds to 3-dimensional detail without approximation, without having someone walk upto you and say something about your imaginery being impractical -"Itne paise me itna hi milega" , whether you're the director of the movie or someone who went to watch it.
3D effects have been wowing us for years, but I think that after years of dabbling with it,experimenting, perfecting, we've finally gotten close enough to making it stand in for reality,which if I remember right, was the original purpose of good ole' "special effects".
It must be kept in mind that I'm talking strictly about creature 3D -of the moving, talking(grunting),living kind -aliens, werewolves, fantasy creatures. We've had fantastic lighting effects and still-3D(imaginary buildings, spaceships) effects as far back as Independence Day or even ET, or the faithful Star Wars lightsabres and Star Trek space- ..whatever those were. But each of these movies, and in recent times, movies such as Underworld or Van Helsing, used a mixture of 3D CGI and well-crafted models, which (, the quality of the sculpted models, and the skill of their sculptors notwithstanding,) have been used right from the beginning of fantasy movie-making.
As a software person myself, I felt rather disappointed that crafting these creature models was actually the more economic alternative to plain straight-out 3D CGI. Everything around me seemed to suggest that 3D CGI wasn't really a replacement, but an enhancement. If any of us has seen videogame trailers, they're always done tastefully, rendered to near-life dazzle or grime, they look real, and we think - "So its finally here. Real 3D. Wow." But nope, the game is released, and its back to cartoon graphics or compromised reality.
Real 3D will still take close to a decade to hit the videogame industry, since movie graphics are not rendered on minions like single Home PCs or Videogame consoles anyway, but on graphics-intensive behemoths. But judging by the spate of recent movies that have increasingly gone in for slick 3D over clay-and-styrofoam
models/creature suits for actors, such as the Pirates trilogy or the remake of King Kong, Real3D will be in the movies a lot sooner.
Think of "Space Jam", and imagine Bugs Bunny being a well-textured,
almost tangible entity in Michael Jordan's universe. THAT's Real 3D.
Thats Davy Jones for you - go watch the movie if you want to know, all ye lazy landlubbers! or use Wikipedia like me *yawn* lol I'm quite obsessed with these movies at this point of time to showcase 3D from any other movie, if it isn't obvious already.What you see above is fantasy being transferred from imaginative minds to 3-dimensional detail without approximation, without having someone walk upto you and say something about your imaginery being impractical -"Itne paise me itna hi milega" , whether you're the director of the movie or someone who went to watch it.
3D effects have been wowing us for years, but I think that after years of dabbling with it,experimenting, perfecting, we've finally gotten close enough to making it stand in for reality,which if I remember right, was the original purpose of good ole' "special effects".
It must be kept in mind that I'm talking strictly about creature 3D -of the moving, talking(grunting),living kind -aliens, werewolves, fantasy creatures. We've had fantastic lighting effects and still-3D(imaginary buildings, spaceships) effects as far back as Independence Day or even ET, or the faithful Star Wars lightsabres and Star Trek space- ..whatever those were. But each of these movies, and in recent times, movies such as Underworld or Van Helsing, used a mixture of 3D CGI and well-crafted models, which (, the quality of the sculpted models, and the skill of their sculptors notwithstanding,) have been used right from the beginning of fantasy movie-making.
As a software person myself, I felt rather disappointed that crafting these creature models was actually the more economic alternative to plain straight-out 3D CGI. Everything around me seemed to suggest that 3D CGI wasn't really a replacement, but an enhancement. If any of us has seen videogame trailers, they're always done tastefully, rendered to near-life dazzle or grime, they look real, and we think - "So its finally here. Real 3D. Wow." But nope, the game is released, and its back to cartoon graphics or compromised reality.
Real 3D will still take close to a decade to hit the videogame industry, since movie graphics are not rendered on minions like single Home PCs or Videogame consoles anyway, but on graphics-intensive behemoths. But judging by the spate of recent movies that have increasingly gone in for slick 3D over clay-and-styrofoam
models/creature suits for actors, such as the Pirates trilogy or the remake of King Kong, Real3D will be in the movies a lot sooner.
So what IS Real 3D? Real 3D isn't
"Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within" stuff, where everything is 3D animated, and any comparison with the real world is suspended in disbelief. Real 3D is where I can look at a computer-generated living breathing entityand observe its interactions with the real world. Think of "Space Jam", and imagine Bugs Bunny being a well-textured,
almost tangible entity in Michael Jordan's universe. THAT's Real 3D.
To most of us viewers, including me, it honestly doesn't make a difference whether its models or Computer-generated virtuality thats populating the screen, as long as it looks real enough. but thats where my digital conscience sets in - If its a real thing, it will no doubt look real. You only need a good artist to work on a creature model to get it right -he needs to select the right materials, and get to work sculpting it. A good virtual 3D model depends on the programmer and the 3D modeller, and their ability to translate real-life physics and textures into a digital world - The basic idea of making lines of code do what nature does. Playing God again. (Incidentally, talking of styrofoam, the Davy Jones 3D CGI that we saw earlier in this article used the scanned-in texture of a coffee-stained styrofoam cup for his fishy-looking skin. 1 brownie point to the styrofoam guys.)
For someone who sticks to personal topics, talking of 3D CGI would sound strange, but this is where it gets personal. The realisation of that challenge -of making 3D behave realistically- is what excited me, and prompted this little article here. As for the immediate stimulus, it was the news of the impending 3D animated flick by South Indian ( and by earning standards, Asian) superstar Rajnikanth's daughter featuring, quite obviously, him - here's a snap of the real thing and the virtual, juxtaposed.
For someone who sticks to personal topics, talking of 3D CGI would sound strange, but this is where it gets personal. The realisation of that challenge -of making 3D behave realistically- is what excited me, and prompted this little article here. As for the immediate stimulus, it was the news of the impending 3D animated flick by South Indian ( and by earning standards, Asian) superstar Rajnikanth's daughter featuring, quite obviously, him - here's a snap of the real thing and the virtual, juxtaposed.
And in case you want to see the video that made me stand up and feel good about Indian 3D animation - here goes :
