Bill Fontana
posted by JH at 8:39 AM
0 comments
Friday, October 07, 2005
Friday, September 30, 2005
Research
The following is just some links that might come in usefull for the intermediate studio assignment- ok, so we're not ment to google things, but i've just got the dictionary definitions for the 'key words' in the assignment.
Gaps
Identity
deja vu
photogrphy
Doubles
Culture
copy
Chance
encounter
imagination
Gaps
Identity
deja vu
photogrphy
Doubles
Culture
copy
Chance
encounter
imagination
posted by JH at 9:48 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Alton towers
I've just been looking at the Alton towers website and thought i'd blog it because of the graphics they use look computer gamey. The map is like an old gameboy game. It's cool!
Alton Towers
Alton Towers
posted by JH at 11:14 AM
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Sunday, April 10, 2005
Essay
In my Spatial and Visual Culture module we had to give a presentation on a multimedia subject that we selected from a bag of newspaper articles. Kind of like pulling a name out of a hat but it was newspaper articles and it was a bag not a hat!
I was lucky enough to pick out an article about Kerry Conran, the director of the film Sky Captain and the World of tomorrow, a film released in 2004 that was created entirely on computer with the exception of the actors.
It all started in 1994 when Kerry Conran had the idea of a film set in 1939 where giant robots were attacking the world. He knew that it would be very hard and very expensive to film a real set that bore any resemblance to a 1939 scene so he decided that maybe it would be a good idea to actually animate the scenery and it would only be a fraction of the cost that there would be if it were all live action (somewhere in the region of fifty million dollars). So he sat down at his Mac llsi and using Electric Image, Photoshop and After Effects he started to make the film by himself. He even said “…I didn’t care in a way how long it was going to take, because I knew it was possible.”
He based his original sets on photographs of New York as he had never actually been there!
After four years he had only animated six minutes of his film.
He said “It would take five minutes to process a single frame, for a simple comp, not even 3D. Five minutes just to see any changes take place.”
Things were looking pretty bleak for Kerry. It would take film forever to animate an entire movie on his own. (Actually if the film were 90 minutes it would take 22 and a half years if he continued at that pace!)
Luckily his brother Kevin Conran showed the six minute clip to a family friend, Marsha Oglesby. She was so impressed with the work that she advised the Conrans to show the work to a friend of hers. Jon Avnet, a producer.
They sent a video tape to him containing the six minutes of footage but also included a comic book and a small plastic version of the huge robots in the film.
He was even more impressed with the work than Marsha had been and decided to take the project on.
Jon Avnet helped Kerry get a script together and was always available to help when he hit problems with the story line.
He was also responsible for casting some big name actors. The first person he cast was Jude Law by simply showing him the six minutes of footage that Kerry had created. Although Jude Law wasn’t really the real American cowboy style hero Kerry and Kevin were expecting they were happy with the choice.
Next Jon Avnet also cast Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, again by showing them the six minute short and explaining Kerry’s ideas to them.
Jon Avnet also set up a custom Digital effects studio in a building in Van Nuys, the porn capital of America. Marsha Oglesby said that the building was ‘a machine shop and there was sawing and drilling next door.’
Jon Avnet also set about hiring a fleet of digital artists, animators, modellers and compositors to aide Kerry.
As the people in the film were going to be real actors, Blue screen technology was to be used. However the actors would find it nearly impossible to be in the right place on the set at the right time, so there had to be a 3D storyboard created with digital stand ins of the actors. This helped the actors get their bearings and using a top down view and markings on the set floor they were able to act a lot easier.
Before filming took place, nine months before actually, Jon Avnet set up a reading of the script so that Kerry would have a chance to meet the actors, but also so that they would have recording which they could then put together with the animatics that had been created.
When it came to filming, the footage of the actors was shot using HD cameras instead of tape so that the footage could easily be obtained from the cameras using the Macs that had been used for the entire production.
Filming took just 29 days in a location in London. Kerry said that “…directing wasn’t hard with these actors. With Jude Law in particular, there was never a moment, even when he was standing in the middle of blue nothing, when you didn’t believe he was somewhere.”
Kerry also insisted that any extras in the film that did not interact with the main characters had to be shot severalty so that they could be manipulated later without having to re-shoot the entire scene.
I was lucky enough to pick out an article about Kerry Conran, the director of the film Sky Captain and the World of tomorrow, a film released in 2004 that was created entirely on computer with the exception of the actors.
It all started in 1994 when Kerry Conran had the idea of a film set in 1939 where giant robots were attacking the world. He knew that it would be very hard and very expensive to film a real set that bore any resemblance to a 1939 scene so he decided that maybe it would be a good idea to actually animate the scenery and it would only be a fraction of the cost that there would be if it were all live action (somewhere in the region of fifty million dollars). So he sat down at his Mac llsi and using Electric Image, Photoshop and After Effects he started to make the film by himself. He even said “…I didn’t care in a way how long it was going to take, because I knew it was possible.”
He based his original sets on photographs of New York as he had never actually been there!
After four years he had only animated six minutes of his film.
He said “It would take five minutes to process a single frame, for a simple comp, not even 3D. Five minutes just to see any changes take place.”
Things were looking pretty bleak for Kerry. It would take film forever to animate an entire movie on his own. (Actually if the film were 90 minutes it would take 22 and a half years if he continued at that pace!)
Luckily his brother Kevin Conran showed the six minute clip to a family friend, Marsha Oglesby. She was so impressed with the work that she advised the Conrans to show the work to a friend of hers. Jon Avnet, a producer.
They sent a video tape to him containing the six minutes of footage but also included a comic book and a small plastic version of the huge robots in the film.
He was even more impressed with the work than Marsha had been and decided to take the project on.
Jon Avnet helped Kerry get a script together and was always available to help when he hit problems with the story line.
He was also responsible for casting some big name actors. The first person he cast was Jude Law by simply showing him the six minutes of footage that Kerry had created. Although Jude Law wasn’t really the real American cowboy style hero Kerry and Kevin were expecting they were happy with the choice.
Next Jon Avnet also cast Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, again by showing them the six minute short and explaining Kerry’s ideas to them.
Jon Avnet also set up a custom Digital effects studio in a building in Van Nuys, the porn capital of America. Marsha Oglesby said that the building was ‘a machine shop and there was sawing and drilling next door.’
Jon Avnet also set about hiring a fleet of digital artists, animators, modellers and compositors to aide Kerry.
As the people in the film were going to be real actors, Blue screen technology was to be used. However the actors would find it nearly impossible to be in the right place on the set at the right time, so there had to be a 3D storyboard created with digital stand ins of the actors. This helped the actors get their bearings and using a top down view and markings on the set floor they were able to act a lot easier.
Before filming took place, nine months before actually, Jon Avnet set up a reading of the script so that Kerry would have a chance to meet the actors, but also so that they would have recording which they could then put together with the animatics that had been created.
When it came to filming, the footage of the actors was shot using HD cameras instead of tape so that the footage could easily be obtained from the cameras using the Macs that had been used for the entire production.
Filming took just 29 days in a location in London. Kerry said that “…directing wasn’t hard with these actors. With Jude Law in particular, there was never a moment, even when he was standing in the middle of blue nothing, when you didn’t believe he was somewhere.”
Kerry also insisted that any extras in the film that did not interact with the main characters had to be shot severalty so that they could be manipulated later without having to re-shoot the entire scene.
posted by JH at 10:42 AM
0 comments
Second part of essay
When the footage of the actors was completed, work began on the animation side of things. It was all done in the Digital effects studio, starting with a team of twenty then jumping to a hundred people and even some external companies.
Even though there was not much money for luxuries in the building, including food and air conditioning, morale was fairly high. Most of the people working on the film with the exception of Jon Avnet and Marsha Oglesby and a few of the animators had never worked on a film before and were all excited to be doing so. According to the animators it was a good morale boost to have the Conran brothers, who were essentially the producers of the film, just wandering around the building and always on hand to offer advise.
Steven Yamamoto, the animation director and digital effect supervisor said that any advice given by the Conran brothers was usually in the region of “If it looks too big, it’s not big enough. If it looks ridiculously big, just go a bit more”.
The final result was actually intended to be black and white. The footage had a filter on it so that the colour was removed leaving only black, white and greys. Then, however colour was applied later by a team of colourists. According to Kerry this was how they achieved the sepia feel of the film.
“We did make a black and white movie, we just laid colour on it after”- Kevin Conran.
When it came to the post production stage of the project Macs were again used, running Final Cut Pro and After Effects.
Finally the project came to an end, 10 years after Kerry Conran first sat down at his Mac llsi. The ‘little independent movie on a big scale’ was finished and was released in the latter half of 2004.
Before I end this essay, I’m just going to mention a few interesting facts about the film that I dug up of the internet, such as the fact that some of the dialogue between actors and some of the sounds emitted by the robots was lifted directly from the ‘The war of the Worlds’.
Also if you watch the film, keep an eye out for King Kong who is on the empire state building in a certain scene. You might also spot another giant monster, namely Godzilla, on the front of a Tokyo newspaper.
Zack Petrock, the modelling supervisor on the film said “You’d be hard pushed to find a frame that does not have something that was specifically put in there that maybe only the people in the project would know about.”
Dr. Totenkopf, the evil guy in the film, is played by Sir Laurence Olivier, who died in 1989. Using him was made possible by manipulating archived footage of him. Jude Law thought that he would be good for the role and recommended him.
The spire on the Empire State building is actually in place to allow air ships to moor as they do in the film, however strong updrafts from the city below make it impossible to actually do.
In a particular scene where Sky captain and Polly Perkins are glying underwater they fly (sail?) past a ship graveyard. If you look closely you might see the Titanic and the Venture (the ship used in King Kong.)
Finally as I mentioned in the essay Conran used photographs of New York as his inspiration for the sets. However when production began on a larger scale they actually used the photographs instead of computer animated versions. However this idea was scrapped because it meant that only a few scenes could actually be used.
Even though there was not much money for luxuries in the building, including food and air conditioning, morale was fairly high. Most of the people working on the film with the exception of Jon Avnet and Marsha Oglesby and a few of the animators had never worked on a film before and were all excited to be doing so. According to the animators it was a good morale boost to have the Conran brothers, who were essentially the producers of the film, just wandering around the building and always on hand to offer advise.
Steven Yamamoto, the animation director and digital effect supervisor said that any advice given by the Conran brothers was usually in the region of “If it looks too big, it’s not big enough. If it looks ridiculously big, just go a bit more”.
The final result was actually intended to be black and white. The footage had a filter on it so that the colour was removed leaving only black, white and greys. Then, however colour was applied later by a team of colourists. According to Kerry this was how they achieved the sepia feel of the film.
“We did make a black and white movie, we just laid colour on it after”- Kevin Conran.
When it came to the post production stage of the project Macs were again used, running Final Cut Pro and After Effects.
Finally the project came to an end, 10 years after Kerry Conran first sat down at his Mac llsi. The ‘little independent movie on a big scale’ was finished and was released in the latter half of 2004.
Before I end this essay, I’m just going to mention a few interesting facts about the film that I dug up of the internet, such as the fact that some of the dialogue between actors and some of the sounds emitted by the robots was lifted directly from the ‘The war of the Worlds’.
Also if you watch the film, keep an eye out for King Kong who is on the empire state building in a certain scene. You might also spot another giant monster, namely Godzilla, on the front of a Tokyo newspaper.
Zack Petrock, the modelling supervisor on the film said “You’d be hard pushed to find a frame that does not have something that was specifically put in there that maybe only the people in the project would know about.”
Dr. Totenkopf, the evil guy in the film, is played by Sir Laurence Olivier, who died in 1989. Using him was made possible by manipulating archived footage of him. Jude Law thought that he would be good for the role and recommended him.
The spire on the Empire State building is actually in place to allow air ships to moor as they do in the film, however strong updrafts from the city below make it impossible to actually do.
In a particular scene where Sky captain and Polly Perkins are glying underwater they fly (sail?) past a ship graveyard. If you look closely you might see the Titanic and the Venture (the ship used in King Kong.)
Finally as I mentioned in the essay Conran used photographs of New York as his inspiration for the sets. However when production began on a larger scale they actually used the photographs instead of computer animated versions. However this idea was scrapped because it meant that only a few scenes could actually be used.
posted by JH at 10:41 AM
0 comments
Friday, April 08, 2005
HI
I am still alive honestly. Just not been abe to do much in the way of posting on my blog because i can't get internet access very easily.
But! I am alive!
But! I am alive!
posted by JH at 3:16 PM
0 comments
Thursday, March 17, 2005
What i've done today
Hello
This is just a quick post at about 20 past midnight
I'm just sat in the library with my friend and thought i'd document some of the stuff i did today on my Toy project. I finally found a decent conversion from Euros to pounds and also designed and documented (!) three levels of my game and to top it all off, i started doing the actual thing in Flash! Wow I've been productive (for me!) Anyways i think we're going home now!
This is just a quick post at about 20 past midnight
I'm just sat in the library with my friend and thought i'd document some of the stuff i did today on my Toy project. I finally found a decent conversion from Euros to pounds and also designed and documented (!) three levels of my game and to top it all off, i started doing the actual thing in Flash! Wow I've been productive (for me!) Anyways i think we're going home now!
posted by JH at 12:21 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Euro conversion
This website has got a Euro conversion table on it which is very helpful, especially since i reaslised yesterday that i have no idea how muchu a euro is worth in comparison to a pound!!
Euro converter
Euro converter
posted by JH at 9:27 AM
0 comments
Sunday, March 13, 2005
german hotel
As one of the main areas of the main places that the main character in my game wil be visiting is the hotel where they need to go to get their energy recharged, i thought i'd look at some german hotels. This is the best picture (In my opinion)i could find!!!
posted by JH at 1:47 PM
0 comments
germany
This is a German street. i thought i'd blog this beacuse as my game is set in Germany the majorioty of the surroundings obviously will be German streets.D'oy.
posted by JH at 1:45 PM
0 comments
Saturday, March 12, 2005
This is a website i found where you can play free online language games.
Might be cool to use for referance
language games
Might be cool to use for referance
language games
posted by JH at 5:51 PM
0 comments
AQA
This is just a link to teh AQA website. they are the main exam board that is used at GCSE. Might come in useful!
posted by JH at 5:48 PM
1 comments
