Film Fanatics - Chat Thread II

Original post by boromir9111

wow.....you've done effects for some big movies dude....that's amazing :eek:

you must enjoy what you do?

I worked on Scott Pilgrim too, as well as Paul, The Dark Knight, The Soloist, The Wolfman, and Iron Man 2... but stupid IMDb doesn't update everyone's info and is unreliable.

I now run three degrees in filmmaking at the University in Hertfordshire, and teach post-production. Love every minute of it... even the ones where I wish I was still working on features!!

Reply 3801

boromir9111

Original post by thecurators

I worked on Scott Pilgrim too, as well as Paul, The Dark Knight, The Soloist, The Wolfman, and Iron Man 2... but stupid IMDb doesn't update everyone's info and is unreliable.

I now run three degrees in filmmaking at the University in Hertfordshire, and teach post-production. Love every minute of it... even the ones where I wish I was still working on features!!

What type of effects did you do for Iron man 2 and Dark Knight? I am still amazed you worked on these movies lol......now I know who I need to hire if I ever need an effects person but I guess you don't come cheap :tongue:

Reply 3802

Original post by boromir9111

What type of effects did you do for Iron man 2 and Dark Knight? I am still amazed you worked on these movies lol......now I know who I need to hire if I ever need an effects person but I guess you don't come cheap :tongue:

I didn't personally do the effects, I was the effects editor, so I cut the effects into the film.

Dark Knight - the company did over 600 shots - capes, wire removal, explosions, the helicopter crashing, additional crowds, added buildings in the skyline, character doubles, smoke, green screen skylines, the batmobile turning into a motorbike etc. etc.

I only worked on previs for IM2, so I only saw some of the initial CG renders of the Iron Man suit in flight as test shots.

Reply 3803

cadaeibfeceh

Original post by thecurators

I didn't personally do the effects, I was the effects editor, so I cut the effects into the film.

Dark Knight - the company did over 600 shots - capes, wire removal, explosions, the helicopter crashing, additional crowds, added buildings in the skyline, character doubles, smoke, green screen skylines, the batmobile turning into a motorbike etc. etc.

I only worked on previs for IM2, so I only saw some of the initial CG renders of the Iron Man suit in flight as test shots.

Dear sweet lord, it's an actual film-maker! :adore:

Reply 3804

Spaz Man

13

Anyone else love this filmsite?

spill.com

I get all my reviews from there. The guys are frickin hliarious and most times their opinions hit the nail on the head. On a side note, The Dark Knight Rises + The Avengers + The Hobbit = Nerdgasm!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3805

cadaeibfeceh

Original post by Spaz Man

Anyone else love this filmsite?

thespill.com

I get all my reviews from there. The guys are frickin hliarious and most times their opinions hit the nail on the head. On a side note, The Dark Knight Rises + The Avengers + The Hobbit = Nerdgasm!

http://www.thespill.com/ :no:

http://www.spill.com/ :yep:

Reply 3806

Spaz Man

13

Original post by cadaeibfeceh

http://www.thespill.com/ :no:

http://www.spill.com/ :yep:

Will change hehe

Reply 3807

ahq

15

I was just glancing at some of the responses to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and noted that Andy Serkis' performances has been highly lauded. I'm not very knowledgeable about film technology, so I wondered if anyone knew how prominent his role would have been? As in, when an actor is used for a motion capture character, how much of the performance is the actor and how much is the computers? Note that Serkis' character in the film has hardly any dialogue.

Reply 3808

cadaeibfeceh

I just watched Bridesmaids. Why? Why did I put myself through it? It made me laugh once. At a fart joke.

Reply 3809

Sonny_J_D

1

Original post by Abiraleft

I was just glancing at some of the responses to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and noted that Andy Serkis' performances has been highly lauded. I'm not very knowledgeable about film technology, so I wondered if anyone knew how prominent his role would have been? As in, when an actor is used for a motion capture character, how much of the performance is the actor and how much is the computers? Note that Serkis' character in the film has hardly any dialogue.

I haven't seen the film, but I know from his work on LotR that pretty much everything you see the character do on screen is Andy Serkis. All the movements (body and facial etc) are performed by him wearing a motion-capture suit and then he's made to look like an ape later via computer.

Reply 3810

Original post by Abiraleft

I was just glancing at some of the responses to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and noted that Andy Serkis' performances has been highly lauded. I'm not very knowledgeable about film technology, so I wondered if anyone knew how prominent his role would have been? As in, when an actor is used for a motion capture character, how much of the performance is the actor and how much is the computers? Note that Serkis' character in the film has hardly any dialogue.

The technology they use is a combination of performance-capture motion tracking and filmed performance. Serkis is actually in situ while the filming takes place (so he doesn't record his role separately from the rest of the cast), while wearing a performance-capture suit which covers his whole body, minus his face. This allows his movements to be captured exactly into software which creates a series of points in three-dimensional space. These are attached onto a CG skeleton which is the controller for a CGI mesh - which, when textured, lit and rendered, is the ape that you see in the film. Serkis' performance drives the skeletal rig entirely, though the VFX team are able to tweak it and animate it if they wish.

At the same time, Serkis is wearing a camera that is clipped onto the hood of his performance-capture suit which points back at his face and records his expressions. These are then recreated by the animation team. Everything from obvious mouth movements, to the widening of his pupils when he changes his expression, will be picked up. They may also use tracking points on his face, as a series of dots, which can also be applied in the same way to the CGI ape mesh as before.

Think of Serkis as the performer and the ape character as digital makeup that sits on top of his performance. I think it's fair to say that the end result is 99% Serkis' performance and he deserves all the credit he gets for the role!

Original post by sheep_go_baa

Sorry, I don't know what that means... Was my answer too lengthy? :confused:

Reply 3813

ahq

15

Sonny_J_D

I haven't seen the film, but I know from his work on LotR that pretty much everything you see the character do on screen is Andy Serkis. All the movements (body and facial etc) are performed by him wearing a motion-capture suit and then he's made to look like an ape later via computer.

thecurators

The technology they use is a combination of performance-capture motion tracking and filmed performance. Serkis is actually in situ while the filming takes place (so he doesn't record his role separately from the rest of the cast), while wearing a performance-capture suit which covers his whole body, minus his face. This allows his movements to be captured exactly into software which creates a series of points in three-dimensional space. These are attached onto a CG skeleton which is the controller for a CGI mesh - which, when textured, lit and rendered, is the ape that you see in the film. Serkis' performance drives the skeletal rig entirely, though the VFX team are able to tweak it and animate it if they wish.

At the same time, Serkis is wearing a camera that is clipped onto the hood of his performance-capture suit which points back at his face and records his expressions. These are then recreated by the animation team. Everything from obvious mouth movements, to the widening of his pupils when he changes his expression, will be picked up. They may also use tracking points on his face, as a series of dots, which can also be applied in the same way to the CGI ape mesh as before.

Think of Serkis as the performer and the ape character as digital makeup that sits on top of his performance. I think it's fair to say that the end result is 99% Serkis' performance and he deserves all the credit he gets for the role!

Massive thanks - I've just run out of rep. :colondollar:

The bolded paragraph in particular was what I was looking for - whether he had a large hand in the expressions of the character, or whether that was mainly the effects team and he basically gave substance to the movements.

Reply 3814

sheep_go_baa

1

Original post by thecurators

Sorry, I don't know what that means... Was my answer too lengthy? :confused:

Nooope

Spoiler

Reply 3815

The Cornerstone

16

Original post by cambo211

Finally watched/watching One Flew over the Cuckoos nest :coma:

Such a great film, I watched it because I was in my psychology class and I thought it was a way of killing time before the holidays instead of working but I seriously underestimated it.

That also reminds me how great A Beautiful Mind was (which I watched under the same circumstances :mmm:

)

Reply 3816

Original post by Abiraleft

Massive thanks - I've just run out of rep. :colondollar:

The bolded paragraph in particular was what I was looking for - whether he had a large hand in the expressions of the character, or whether that was mainly the effects team and he basically gave substance to the movements.

You're very welcome :smile:

Reply 3817