Cameron in Wellington, NZ - Jan 12, 2014. Peter Jackson in background.
Well I had heard rumors that this was happening, but nothing was solid enough to publish so I let it slide. Now it is official and James Cameron has pushed back the AVATAR sequels 1 year. AVATAR 2 is now slated to screen around Christmas 2017.
So what does this mean? It means the movies are technically complex. It means the stories may not be as complete as previously thought.
So let's talk about it being technically complex. How about complex enough for Cameron to go out and buy Atlanta based Giant Studios? Yes you heard right - Lightstorm Entertainment is going to close down that facility and take their intellectual property in house, including Giant's talented creative team. This is a big deal folks. Giant was a world leader in motion capture technology and this gives Cameron a tremendous sandbox with which to play in - with more autonomy. Now here's where I have gotten some information from a top source that plugs into this. As you know by now, extensive amounts of AVATAR 2 will be underwater (as of now of course - another year can bring about changes). My source says Cameron will be shooting scenes based on a triage of complexity: The harder scenes will be done first to allow ample time for post-production. That means mo-cap / perf-cap. There is a tremendous amount of mo-cap to be done and this is where Giant's talent comes in. Cameron now has an army of experts at his beck and call. Plus he has consulted with Andy Serkis' The Imaginarium for the use of some advanced techniques. It's all very exciting! However it is also time consuming and thus the delay. Shooting mo-cap for underwater scenes is going to be very tricky and has got to be done right. Better than right - James Cameron right.
Let's talk story. My source says there will be the exploration and magical moments, but there is also the retribution of corporate Earth and Stephen Lang. His words: "It's going to be the most elaborate production in cinema history, bar none." I believe him. He's one of my top sources and besides - Cameron with an astronomical budget will deliver far and above our expectations, I'm sure. He always has.
I'll have more for you as soon as I can. Some of this is breaking news - other bits are just nicely plugging in now. It is certainly a clearer picture - but too bad for audiences, it'll be another year to wait.
We saw one the apes clutching an assault weapon during a recent TV spot and now we have another one pointing a shotgun. Seems these apes aren't all about spears at all and have adapted to the human technology that suits their needs. Not all of it does apparently though.
It'll be interesting to see Caesar lead his group of apes while the humans struggle to make a comeback. I'm looking for human interest AND ape interest stories here and when the two factions meet - look out!
Here's the storyline for the movie: A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.
Says Serkis:"Caesar not only has a wife, but also an infant son and a teenage son. This film centers around the notion of family — the survival of the family and what lengths you would go to to protect them when life is extremely hard and tough."
Check out our exclusive interview with Andy Serkis(Caesar) if you missed it! Tim and Andy talk about 3D, the 3ality Technica rigs - and you know, cool MarketSaw stuff :-)
Take a look at this very cool featurette of how Peter Jackson's creative geniuses have crafted the very realistic trolls and Goblin King Caverns in THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY.
I thought the scenes mentioned in this featurette were among the best of the movie and certainly bears the time it takes to watch this thing.
My review of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is coming later today (Sunday) so stay tuned.
World wide reaction to the movie has been amazingly good: Friday totals are in at $37.5 million pointing at a $100 million weekend - easily a new record. A $200 million worldwide tally is certainly possible as well by Monday morning!
I'm thrilled at how fast this project is coming together since we heard about the cast that's attached to THUNDER RUN. Sam Worthington, Gerard Butler and Matthew McConaughy top line this HUGE action film that will use extremely heavy visual effects to capture what to date has been called impossible to achieve with standard live action. In fact most of this thing will be motion and performance captured with voices added, that's how crazy it is. It would have been prohibitively expensive to shoot it with real tanks.
THUNDER RUN is based on the David Zucchino novel entitled THUNDER RUN: THE ARMORED STRIKE TO CAPTURE BAGHDAD. Simon West (THE EXPENDABLES 2, THE MECHANIC, CON AIR) is directing and fully embracing modern 3D technology too.
Here's the book's description: In one of the boldest gambles in modern military history, just three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of 5 million people and, in three bloody days of combat, ended the Iraqi war. Thunder Run is the story of the surprise assault on Baghdad—one of the most decisive battles in American combat history—by the Spartan Brigade, the Second Brigade of the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized).
Facing Iraqi forces dug into bunkers and firing from rooftops, the brigade punched a hole through the heart of Baghdad with a high-speed charge to Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace and military parade grounds. Many Iraqi soldiers fled or surrendered during the onslaught, but thousands of Republican Guards, Fedayeen militiamen, and Arab mercenaries stood and fought, challenging seventy-ton Abrams tanks in Toyota pickup trucks, school buses, taxicabs, Chevrolet Caprices, ambulances, and garbage trucks.
Iraqi forces destroyed the brigade’s command center, cutting off communications and burning a fleet of signal vehicles. The Iraqis also ambushed the brigade’s resupply column, killing two sergeants and setting fuel and ammunition tankers ablaze in an attack that nearly cut off the main assault column. And even as it appeared that the brigade was seizing control of the capital on the battle’s third day, a fierce counterattack across the Tigris River trapped an American tank company under withering fire and forced a retreat. With the shadow of Mogadishu hanging over every member of the Spartan Brigade, the capture of Baghdad was a brutal and terrifying three days of urban warfare.
Trust me, this movie is going to be MASSIVE. Shooting starts this summer.
For all of our THUNDER RUN coverage,click here. More when I get it!
I love following projects through their life cycle to fruition but some stand out more than most. Simon West (THE EXPENDABLES 2, THE MECHANIC, CON AIR) has the credentials to get almost anything off the ground and this new project he has percolating is certainly pushing the threshold of what is possible forward.
Motion and performance capture has taken off in amazing ways thanks to a number of visionary individuals and companies, like James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Weta and Giant Studios to name a few.
Now you can add Simon West to that growing list.
A new production company known as Freedom Films is actively pursuing financing /distribution for a film adaption of David Zucchino's book entitled THUNDER RUN: THE ARMORED STRIKE TO CAPTURE BAGHDAD. Freedom has impressively secured Sam Worthington, Gerard Butler and Matthew McConaughy to mocap and perfcap their characters along with supplying their voices for the actioner.
Here's West on 3D itself:“You know the thing I like is the ability to go to the places that you can’t normally go. That’s why the first half of Avatar is so magical to me, because there’s no way that you could physically build that world in the same way. To float around in 3D on a new planet was really mesmerizing, so I definitely want to do 3D and CGI. I’ve got like three CGI films in my company at the moment. I’m going to direct one and produce two others.”
On THUNDER RUN:"It’s a tank battle in the Iraq war, which is a phenomenal story that you just couldn’t physically shoot. There wouldn’t be enough money in the world to shoot it so we can do it CGI and 3D with photo-realistic motion-capture. It’s the only way to do it, because there would be no way to do it for real."
"When I first read Zucchino's book, I realized immediately it was one of the great accounts of modern warfare: heroic, exciting, tragic and ultimately political. I had the same feeling when I found and developed 'Black Hawk Down' with Jerry Bruckheimer."
Here's the book's description: In one of the boldest gambles in modern military history, just three battalions and fewer than a thousand men launched a violent thrust of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles into the heart of a city of 5 million people and, in three bloody days of combat, ended the Iraqi war. Thunder Run is the story of the surprise assault on Baghdad—one of the most decisive battles in American combat history—by the Spartan Brigade, the Second Brigade of the Third Infantry Division (Mechanized).
Facing Iraqi forces dug into bunkers and firing from rooftops, the brigade punched a hole through the heart of Baghdad with a high-speed charge to Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace and military parade grounds. Many Iraqi soldiers fled or surrendered during the onslaught, but thousands of Republican Guards, Fedayeen militiamen, and Arab mercenaries stood and fought, challenging seventy-ton Abrams tanks in Toyota pickup trucks, school buses, taxicabs, Chevrolet Caprices, ambulances, and garbage trucks.
Iraqi forces destroyed the brigade’s command center, cutting off communications and burning a fleet of signal vehicles. The Iraqis also ambushed the brigade’s resupply column, killing two sergeants and setting fuel and ammunition tankers ablaze in an attack that nearly cut off the main assault column. And even as it appeared that the brigade was seizing control of the capital on the battle’s third day, a fierce counterattack across the Tigris River trapped an American tank company under withering fire and forced a retreat. With the shadow of Mogadishu hanging over every member of the Spartan Brigade, the capture of Baghdad was a brutal and terrifying three days of urban warfare.
Ken Nolan and Robert Port are adapting and The Graphic Film Company (Another Simon West company) will be tackling the motion and performance capturing; they will be using the same tech that they are employing for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS 3-D. Oh and GFC is hiring too: Artists and Painters mainly.
I am kinda nervous about how the quality of the performance capture will turn out (mocap less so). I have taken a look at what GFC has for demo reels and the facial capture looks to be a little lacking. One thing that pops out immediately with me is the very few data capture points on the actors face. Compare this with Weta's work and you get the idea. Hopefully they are augmenting this data with some sort of additional mapping technology. Their motion capture volume and data capture suits look fine to me however.
It does bother me that they present their 3D conversion technology in anaglyph - I can't stand seeing that, but that's a personal view. I know there is no other way to show an end result on the Internet currently, but I would rather not see anything at all.ALL of this is mitigated though by the fact that Simon West's name is marbled all through this production. His brand is enough for me to be excited and to waylay fears of something going wrong.
There was actually more than just one Thunder Run undertaken (see the map images) so perhaps this movie will bring them all together (along with an Iraqi counterattack) as the book describes as "3 bloody days of combat". More when I get it...
Listen - I had zero confidence in MARS NEEDS MOMS other than that it was aimed at family audiences. I thought THE POLAR EXPRESS was amazing in it's day (and still is in a nostalgic way), but A CHRISTMAS CAROL barely passed muster with me. The sole saving grace of what Zemeckis' ImageMovers studio has done in 3D was BEOWULF personally.
Sadly, it is time for Zemeckis to get the heck out of mo-cap - at least "ImageMover's" style mo-cap. Why not get back to his live action roots? We all loved BACK TO THE FUTURE, CAST AWAY and FORREST GUMP! Am I right? Even the hybrid WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was amazing.
So now Disney has killed his planned mo-cap production YELLOW SUBMARINE which at worst would have featured outstanding music. Can you blame them? No, not really. A CHRISTMAS CAROL did not do so well and MARS NEEDS MOMS? Pulled in a scant $6.9m against $150m production cost. The box office disappointment was the last straw for Disney.
THR is reporting that Zemeckis has flown to Montana to think it all over and indeed he is looking at a live action movie. Robert, if you are reading this - go back to the live action we all know you excel at and keep it in stereoscopic 3D too.It'll be a blast.
Catching up with the Robert Zemeckis' 3D production of YELLOW SUBMARINE we have an brief interview clip with star Cary Elwes (via MTV) from New York's Comic Con where he was promoting SAW 3D:
George Harrison's visage (through motion capture) and voice will be portrayed by Elwes and he has been very pleased with the support of the Harrison family: "I know the family a little bit and they're very happy about it. I think the film will be really extraordinary thanks to 3-D. Today we're able to reinvent the film in a way that will be very, very exciting."
Not sure who is doing the soundtrack yet... anyone? ;-)
I couldn't be happier! In what I think will be the biggest comic-based movie of all time (yeah, I think TDK could go down a notch), Marvel's THE AVENGERS will in fact be 3D and use AVATAR's motion capture cameras for character creation - at least with The Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo).
Says Mark Ruffalo (nymag):"I'm really excited. No one's ever played the Hulk exactly, they've always done CGI. They're going to do the Avatar stop-action, stop-motion capture. So I'll actually play the Hulk. That'll be fun."
I am assuming that when he says stop motion he is talking performance capture / motion capture. If he hadn't of mentioned AVATAR I would not be able to place the quote really as he clearly doesn't mean Henry Selick will be setting up stop motion puppets to play THE AVENGERS! :-)
And on the Hulk (and therefore THE AVENGERS) being in 3D: "I hope I don't bulge in anyone's face, that's all I have to say."
THE AVENGERS is setting up to absolutely pulverize the box office come May 4, 2012! Yes, a fair amount of anticipation will be set with the performance of THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA and the fact that those will be conversions. I know who is converting THOR and let me say I have trepidation at this point. CAPTAIN AMERICA's conversion is still in bids from what I gather. DO THIS RIGHT GUYS. Don't mess around; spend the time and money.
Whew baby - THE AVENGERS is looking more and more exciting with every announcement!
Jim here. In case you missed it I had better put this one out there: Robert Zemeckis has been tapped to use his steadily improving mocap expertise to tackle YELLOW SUBMARINE for Disney. It will of course be in stereoscopic 3D with Zemeckis at the helm.
Further, Disney has designs on adapting the movie for Broadway as well as a Cirque du Soleil show.
I still have not seen Beatles LOVE show in Las Vegas as my wife is a huge McCartney fan and I am saving that for her, but this one looks very intriguing too. With Zemeckis handling the creative, anything is now possible for this psychedelic trip.
Disney is looking to get this movie out before the summer of 2012.
Michael here. We know that stereoscopic 3D has already made a huge impact on cinema over the past couple of years, and that it is well on its way to your home.
But what’s next? Prof. RameshRaskar(left in below picture), leader of the Camera Culture research group at the MIT Media Lab and Co-Director of the Center for Future Storytelling, has his eye on the future and is working with his teams to bring some incredible new technologies into existence that will not only transform how we see movies, but how we record and share the stories of our lives.
Imagine 6D or even 8D capture and display. Personal, do-it-anywhere motion capture. Cameras that will guarantee that your subject is never out of focus, and others that can even see around corners.
A huge thanks to Prof. Raskar for taking the time to talk with me about his projects!
MICHAEL: The research you are doing seems to be aimed at what's next, beyond stereo 3D. What do you think will be the "next big thing?" Will there be something beyond 3D that will continue to provide the impetus for people to go outside their homes to the movie theater?
PROF. RASKAR: Certainly. 3D is just a piece of the puzzle. The key limitation for anything that is on traditional formats is that you are always going to trade off the resolution for other parameters. You lose resolution to see stereo on a traditional monoscopic display - lenticulars - or if you do time sequential you lose resolution in time. As resolution in space (which is pixels) and resolution in time (which is frame rate) becomes less of an issue, then you can start trading off the resolution for color, or stereo, and so on. We've already seen that a little bit, where you have six channels - some Mitsubishi and Samsung projectors support that - six primary channels, six primary colors, as opposed to three. And then either time sequential, or view sequential.
MICHAEL:The autostereoscopic displays I saw at CES were impressive, but were based on 1080P screens. I didn't get a chance to see Phillips' 4K model.
PROF. RASKAR: [For autostereoscopic] you will lose resolution in time or in space. To get more views, you need more pixels that can only be created in space or in time. The fact that autostereoscopic displays are being based on 1080p is really a legacy issue. They should really be being built on 4K, or even larger screens. And that will come. It's just a matter of time.
MICHAEL:Some have the opinion that consumers won't accept 4k in an 8k world.
PROF. RASKAR: I don't think that argument is valid. At some point it's OK to trade off resolution for stereo. But right now, at 1080P, we're just at the acceptable level of resolution. So if you go from 1080 to half of that - that's not acceptable. But once you go to 8K I think 4K would be sufficient. It's like buying a camera that is 6 Megapixel versus 12 Megapixel. Does anyone really care? It's just a marketing gimmick.
MICHAEL:Many have been pushing for higher frame rates in theaters - either 48 fps or 60 fps. But what about the idea of eliminating the very idea of discrete frames?
PROF. RASKAR: Yes, certainly. More people are talking about "frameless" rendering, in which certain parts of the image get updated in an asynchronous manner - so there is no sanctity of a frame. I'm a believer in that concept as well, but as soon as your frame rate becomes sufficiently fast - let's say it's 500 frames per second - things like frameless motions can be implemented with a 500 hz projector, or 500 hz displays. There's not that big an issue to get there. The key reason people are talking about frameless rendering is because of bandwidth. So if you have a mostly static screen, and a character moving really fast, then you don't have to update all the pixels, as not all the pixels are changing - you can save on bandwidth.
MICHAEL:So, where do you see the future of imaging heading?
PROF. RASKAR: We are creating things like 6 dimensional displays. You start with a 2D image. If you add horizontal parallax that's 3D. If you add vertical parallax that's actually 4D. And it turns out that mathematically, if you are to express the experience of a static world, it can be represented using 4 dimensional quantities, not 3 dimensional quantities. So the experience of the world is not actually, 3D, but 4D. Some people refer to this as "light fields."
The idea is that you don't represent the world with pixels, but with the rays, and what is happening along each of the rays. As you can imagine, if I move the camera around outside, I am capturing different rays of what is out there.
So that's 4D. So where does the 6th dimension come from? It's based on the lighting. Even if I create a hologram of a flower, and right next to that I put a real flower, they still don't look that similar because if I bring a flashlight then the real flower will respond with beautiful caustics (specular highlights and reflections), shadows, and reflections, but the hologram will not. It will only change with viewpoint, not with lighting. So we are creating displays that also respond to light.
MICHAEL:Do you use lenticulars over the pixels that react to varying incident light angles?
PROF. RASKAR: We use microlenses - I wouldn't call them lenticulars any more, because they are pretty complex per-pixel. We are basically using optics to channel the ambient light so that it reveals a particular part of the image; and for a given viewpoint, it recreates the particular 3D appearance of that object. So I think that things like that would become very interesting. Not necessarily for cinema in the short run, but definitely for home entertainment - where you may shoot a video of your vacation, you come home to watch it, and you want to probe your video with ambient lights, or flashlights. So it’s 3D and also responds to how it was when captured.
MICHAEL:So it has horizontal parallax, vertical parallax, as well as response to light.
PROF. RASKAR: The X position of light, and the Y position of light make it 6D. And mathematically speaking, in our field we call it an 8-dimensional reflectance field. Instead of just holding a flashlight, you could hold a video projector. And the frame buffer for that video projector is also 2-dimensional. So 4 dimensional for viewing, and 4 dimensional for illumination. So put together it is an 8 dimensional reflectance field. So in the research world, the search for 8 dimensional capture and display is a very important goal, and once we get there we can really create hyperrealistic imagery.
MICHAEL:How far along on the path towards 8D are you right now?
PROF. RASKAR: Many people have looked into 8 dimensional capture already, and some of it is already getting used in special effects, where they will capture an expression of a character under an array of lights, and they will record his/her whole appearance, so at post-production, they can manipulate it. This was used in Benjamin Button. So the 8D capture is already there in a way, but as you can imagine it is very cumbersome, very expensive, very special facilities.
MICHAEL: Like the special birdcage-like contraption used by Mova.
PROF. RASKAR: Exactly. People have tried to do 8D capture, but nobody has tried to do more than 4 dimensional display. So our group is the first one to create a 6 dimensional display. And we built one a couple of years ago, which is really exciting. And Mike Bove is working on holographic displays, and we are working on 6 dimensional displays. We think both are really exciting. Another field is multispectral – to create images that aren’t just RGB, but have 6 or 8 color channels. If you look at the real world – a rainbow, for example, cannot be respresented that well in just 3 colors. Certain butterflies, ocean colors, with a very deep cyan, are not captured well with RGB systems, since the color-gamut is not covered with just the primaries. 3 colors is not enough. With 6, you can recreate much more realistic images. But the problem is that we don’t have cameras than can capture in 6 colors.
MICHAEL:Are you working on capture tech for 6 channel color?
PROF. RASKAR: We are working on a device with a color synthesizer. We call it "programmable-wavelength imaging." We have a camera that can change its spectrum. Say, if we are shooting videos of a butterfly, ocean colors, etc., we would pick more cyans, and at home when viewing we could boost more cyans.
MICHAEL:What can you tell me about the smart cameras and computational photography you are working on, such as the anti-motion blur technology.
PROF. RASKAR: The basic concept is that we want to simplify the capture-time decisions. The difference between professionals and amateurs is decreasing rapidly – the part that makes professionals stand apart is that they can make really good decisions at the time of the shoot. They can set the right exposure times, the right ISO, the right focus, focal plane, and so on. And amateurs are not so good at making those decisions. But if you can move all those decisions to post-capture (digitally refocus, remove motion blur, or relight the scene) then anybody in a creative spirit can create beautiful visual imaging.
MICHAEL:You have your hands full – is there any one project that is taking up the majority of your effort at the moment?
PROF. RASKAR: Every one of them is taking up all my effort!
We’re building lots of crazy things. We are building cameras that can see through volumetric objects such as fog, and give post capture control. We are working on a camera that can look around a corner using flash photography.
On the motion analysis side, we are building a motion capture technology called Second Skin, which enables us to finally take motion capture in the real world. All of the components we are building are very lightweight. We just mounted a camera and rig on a car, and one of our guys was running down the street- and we could capture that. That would be almost impossible to do with other methods. Being able to do on-set motion capture is the holy grail of motion capture. we don’t need dots – our technology is imperceptible. We could do a live shot on TV, where you have a character that’s wired up with our technology, and have a live shot that shows the transformation. James Cameron is trying similar things with his pre-vis[ualization].
I think [Second Skin] is the right direction for not just on-set motion capture, but live pre-vis. Also, The Shader Lamps technology we have built is for live feedback to the actor about where they are. Instead of a white ball telling them their eyeline, convergence points, and so on, it will all be real. It will be an integrated environment where the actors can see themselves, the director can see, and the final viewers can see, almost in real time. That’s kind of the dream. And we have pieces of the puzzle in motion capture, in cameras, and on displays.
MICHAEL:Do you see a competition emerging between lenticular-related technologies like 6D and 8D displays, and holograms?
PROF. RASKAR: The limits of a hologram and a lenticular display are the same. In our group we have done a lot of theoretical work and mathematical analysis of light transport. There’s a concept called “augmented light field” that we invented, in which we analyized data that shows that holograms and lenticular screens are the same in the limit – if you have millions of pixels in one dimension for lenticular screens. But clearly that is not practically possible, so that is why you want to use holograms. But we still have to figure out how to make holograms light sensitive.
MICHAEL:With the march of 3D, and at some point the technologies you are working on, into the home, do you still see people going out to movie theaters in the future?
PROF. RASKAR: I hope so. The goal of these new technologies should not just be recording visual memories, but recording experiences and creating an atmosphere where they can be shared. And there is a very social, very human component to both capturing and sharing experiences. As long as movie makers, distributors, technologists, and also average consumers keep that in mind, I think we can create a highly networked, very integrated set of technologies that will allow us to not just watch a movie, but actually live in a movie. And I think that’s exciting. We’re already at a place where the experience of a movie isn’t just the two hours in the theater. But that is still just the Hollywood model. How you can bring this into your everyday life is the exciting part .
Thanks very much to Prof. Raskar for meeting with me in his Cambridge, Massachusetts office, and to Alexandra Kahn for arranging the meeting!
Popular Photography magazine has a great new article titled "The Future of Photography" that looks at Prof. Raskar's projects and where imaging will go in the next 40 years.
Also, BBC NEWS has an article on Camera Culture's 3 mm "bokodes" that can be read at a distance of several meters and can contain thousands of times as much information as traditional barcodes.
Jim here. Just a quick note about a fine article about Giant Studios over on The Hollywood Reporter: Read it.
I originally spoke about Giant back in the fall of last year and how they are paving new ground in motion capture technology and services (they tend to focus on full body motion capture as opposed to facial 'performance capture'). They built and serviced 'The Volume' for James Cameron's AVATAR. It is all very exciting - a paradigm shift for Hollywood if you will.
So after reading the THR's column I have a question for you - the same I asked last fall:
Who owns the rights to the actor's performances and the subsequent data that has been generated from it? Can a studio re-purpose that data at a later date on an entirely different project? Or is it the actor who has the right to assign where this data goes?
Jim here. I couldn't resist. The geniuses over at THE ONION have struck again!
Here is an excerpt: "According to sources at the National Archives, Obama will spend the next four years in a custom-made, lycra-and-neoprene bodysuit, featuring 238 reflective "marker balls," which will instantly relay trillions of bytes of information to a central computer in Centennial, CO.
Careful to only move in short bursts, Obama reads to first-graders at a Chicago-area school. Designers at the motion capture firm Vicon Motion Systems will then use this information to build a lifelike 3-D wire-frame model of the nation's 44th president, before digitally "painting" over the structure with computer-generated skin, hair, and clothes. The data will be stored on a hard drive at the National Archives, where curators will employ it as a complete record of Obama's tenure in office."
Be sure to read the whole hilarious post righthere. LOL!
Steven Spielberg and Weta are looking for applicants who know Motion Builder for the motion capture based movie TINTIN:
Weta Digital is looking for LA-based artists with experience in Motion Builder for a limited period shoot (Tintin). Immediate start. Applicants should be technically competent and comfortable working within a team that is processing a high-volume of data(that's an understatement!).
The position involves: Integrating post-processed motion capture data and into virtual environments. Developing motion-montages for virtual camera work (Experience using the Story tool is a plus) Generating and checking rendered media.
**UPDATE III: Oct 15th: Got an email from a Weta employee (who is very serious about their NDA btw) who very clearly pointed out that they do not use Giant's services for any of their in-house stuff like LOTRs or KING KONG (one would imagine this continuing for THE HOBBIT) unless they are collaborating with Giant outside of New Zealand. Giant provides them with software updates so that they can continue to do this on NZ for themselves. In fact if you go here and scroll down to "Post Production Diary - 31 Weeks To Go" (King Kong), you can view their mocap system (which is now their old one) in action, with Giant software running the system for the motion captured body. Obviously a lot of collaboration taking place. **UPDATE II: Oct 10th: Got a reply from my source. Again - this is ONLY TO CLARIFY, not start/expand a rift. He insists that while Weta does have a mocap department, the software they use is Giant's. And he is quite certain that you cannot "purchase" that software, but must use Giant's services team that happens to come with the technology. The "headrigs" are another matter entirely though - not Giant's tech. So in the end, Weta does do their own mocap (100% end to end) for facials, but for full body work, the technology and service team is predominantly Giant. Not to say that Weta is not collaborating with them!They are. And together is where the magic is. From what the world has seen, there is no need to change anything - you make damn good products.
**SAME DAY UPDATE - *sigh* Could it be that I have hammered out a post too quickly again all in the same week? Yep. I trusted a source that I had who definitely seemed to know what he is talking about, but obviously who is VERY wrong. RETRACTION: WETA was and is responsible for working with mocap LOTRs and KING KONG. The only research that was done on those couple of statements in the opening paragraphs about WETA was simply from one of my sources that has not let me down before. We now he has. Regardless, the true nature of what I wanted to get across with this post was not inflamatory, but rather of collaboration. FAIL. So, in an effort to polish this the way it is intended for the new readers coming to view: Weta and Giant work together as a team to produce their work. There is a lot of magic there obviously. The aim for the post is to introduce readers to Giant, not alienate WETA. Damn poor week for me. Oh and I WOULD HAVE fact checked with WETA themselves if they would ever return my emails. But they don't. One too many exclusive inside sources contacting me I guess. Frankly, I don't give a shit about the PR people for WETA. I do love their technical work though, and thus this retraction.
Jim here. I thought I would clear up a lot of misconception of who is doing most of the big time motion capture work for the studios, and it is NOT Peter Jackson's WETA.
Meet Giant Studios. Giant are specialists in motion capture and boy are they focused. In fact, they are the folks responsible for the major motion capture scenes for IRON MAN, THE HULK, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, I AM LEGEND, PRINCE CASPIAN and THE MUMMY. And more recently, they are working on James Cameron's AVATAR and the Spielberg / Jackson trilogy TINTIN.
Furthermore, Giant are the ones who did the motion capture work for the LOTRs trilogy and KING KONG - many believe that WETA was responsible for that work. Yes WETA is a large VFX house and are damn good at what they do - effects. But they have not done mocap and have always called on Giant to do so.
There work has evolved and has taken us on a cinematic journey that just keeps getting better. For example, they have built a 70 by 36 foot grid-marked space (or Volume) for performance capture (same as motion capture but also captures the actor's facial performances) on AVATAR. Lightstorm and Giant further augment the larger, truss based, near infrared lighting system of the Volume with a single camera solution that they call "Headrigs" for capturing facial performances.
There are other players. A case in point is Imagemovers. From Post Magazine: "Imagemovers Digital's mocap stage, which was built for A Christmas Carol, also uses near infrared lighting, but had a separate truss system built for wirework so the mocap cameras wouldn't be effected by truss movement. Instead of upping the camera count, they relied on 100 cameras, using the HMCs for facial motion capture.
As it stands, in the world of mocap there is always a tug of war between increased accuracy and realtime performance. The greater the resolution and number of cameras, the more points can be captured with greater the accuracy of the points and the reduced incidents of occlusion. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of realtime preview. The flexibility of shooting anywhere, especially outside of a soundstage or volume restricts the normal flexibility of 3D motion capture in that it often solves only the mocap from certain perspectives, which is fine when you are mixing with a traditional camera since its perspective is determined at the time of recording.
As processing gets faster and the tools, which combine multiple technologies, are developed, we can expect higher resolution while still providing realtime playback. There will also be a larger number of tools, and a larger pool of talent. The systems will be more flexible, quicker to set up, provide more accurate data, and provide more integrated workflows."
So as you can deduce, Cameron is going for better storytelling and then amping up the photo-realism in post production. I firmly believe this is the best tact to take with today's technology but as reported by POST, eventual higher resolutions in real time will serve to enhance the director's real time look at what he is shooting and speed up post production - saving money.
With experts in their field like Giant Studios, Hollywood is truly empowered to go places they have never dreamed possible before. How lucky are we to have the best minds in the business for both directing and for delivering the direction. 2009 can't come soon enough!
The photo on the left with the two horses and human being "mocapped" is from the performance capture volume of Cameron's AVATAR - Take a look at the first ever, super high resolution image of the AVATAR set here.
Here is an interesting thought: Who owns the rights to the actor's performances and the subsequent data that has been generated from it? Can a studio re-purpose that data at a later date on an entirely different project? Or is it the actor who has the right to assign where this data goes? How will you be able to trace the performance's origins if it has been "Image Metric'ified"?
WHOA.Thanks to reader "Hector" who sent in this this golden nugget:
"I can see a na'vi creature on the picture of the set, is right to the thing that has L8 written on it, and is close to the curtain. It has red hair, blue skin and seems very tall, it's visible just from waist up!"
Awesome find Hector! Jeez how did we miss that? The boys on the AVATAR production crew must be getting a laugh at our expense - but now we have a little something going on! I have also tried to enhance the image somewhat below - again, if someone with a better touch than I can enhance that shot - send it over! Again, the hi rez shot can be downloaded here (click 'download' above the image).
What do you guys make of thisfirst ever glimpse of a Na'vi? Awesome or what? Finally a glimpse!! Click images for blow ups...
Is this a mannequin or a live actor walking out to The Volume? Is it male or female? Those look like breasts to me - or is it just the 'vest' sticking out?Now imagine it with a tail from this authenticated silhouette image. And Hector is right - this Na'vi is damn tall just as was thought from the original scriptment. Using the 8 foot ladder in front of the curtain as a reference - just follow the fold line on the curtain across to the Na'vi and it has got to be 8.5 feet to 9 feet tall!
It's looking pretty damn creepy! I don't know about you, but I am getting those familiar Bill Paxton "We’re all gonna die, game over man, game over." feelings about this one!
UPDATE: It seems blogger restricts the size of the image - use these Picasa links (by clicking on the thumbnail below) and then click download just above the image!
Jim here guys. I just got what is probably the only version of this image in high resolution on the Interwebs. The original low rez was here. You have GOT to check this Hi Rez out. The detail is amazing... here is what I have made out so far - but there is so much going on in this one shot! The full resolution shot is REQUIRED to see what is really going on. Comment as to what you see as well so we can flesh out what this photo really means.
1. Through the far curtained wall you can make out what seems to be an alien "tree", but it only slightly resembles what our sources had discovered outside of the LA callback location set back in April. Note that it is all stark white (Not Tony Stark Hot Rod Red!) - a placeholder for CGI for the director/actors to reference?
2. Some MDF rocks and boulders along the left side. Their massive sets used a great deal of MDF in Wellington, New Zealand.
3. The motion capture suits that MarketSaw exclusively uncovered for you here and here again back in April are pictured at work here. NOTE the location of what seems to be tails in red (on one of the horses as well as the mo-cap actor on that same horse - on his back?? This actor seems to be wearing a different suit - a different species?) and the Na'vi hair in red and blue on all the other mo-cap actors. What a cool luminescence on those mo-cap suit reference points! They are not powered either - they were glowing like that while hanging in wardrobe.
4. I can make out what SEEMS to be some sort of flying creature prop (Banshee?) in the back beside A-5 (follow the gridlines on the floor) as well as another mountable creature (A-1) to the right of it.
5. You can just about make out the image on the large monitor on the right wall - I have blown it up below (two shots - one in normal color and one in serpia) as well with comments.
6. What on earth... errr, on Pandora is that dude holding at J-4? A prop for a creature, plantlife or what?
7. Of course tons of cameras and equipment. Can you make out very small cameras along the top right framework?
Sound off! What do you make of the details in this first ever look at the AVATAR mo-cap set?
What is on the monitor? Looks like a creature in the top right corner walking from left to right - is that "hair" flowing behind the head? Whatever it is - it certainly seems alien. You can see what seems to be plantlife to the left of the image. And perhaps Pandora's landscape in the background - looks to be high mountains with sheer cliffs with very flat tops like buttes?
If any of you can manage a better enhancement from the hi rez shot let me know!
Man oh man - this movie has got me so damn pumped up and it is still 15 months away!
Comparing what we already know to be an accurate silhouette of a Na'vi from Pandora, do you think that one of these creatures is being portrayed in the performance capture set photo?My belief is yes. That silhouette by the way has been verified by another source of mine that I trust immensely. It is the real deal.
We need a trailer! Let's hope Zoe Saldana was right when she said we may have something by Christmas of this year!
UPDATE September 8th: Check out this post for the HI REZ photo and zooms!
Guys - Jim here. Finally something on Avatar's production in image format!
FIRST LOOK photo of the motion capture set that was used for shooting James Cameron's AVATAR is brought to us by the guys over at Post Magazine. They give us a pretty darn accurate summary of how the technology is used - stressing that the markers that are in use on the actors and horses are merely for reference as the software does not rely on them to create the real time images. Cameron can then view these images while shooting the scenes - then take his time manipulating the angles, virtual lenses, zooms, lighting, etc as much as he wants - AFTER the actors have gone. That's right, he can virtually "reshoot" scenes in post. Amazing isn't it?
Michael here. In case you still harbored any doubts that the CG characters in James Cameron's Avatar will be anything less 100% photorealistic (i.e. indistinguishable from reality), this video demo of the Image Metrics facial performance capture technology that Cameron is using should make you a believer.
Meet "Emily":
Oh...did I mention she isn't real? Image Metrics uses an HD camera along with proprietary computer software (no sticky dots!) to analyze the most minute facial movements of a performer, and then superimposes those movements on a CG model. The results are mind boggling. I can't wait to see what Cameron and WETA have done with this.
Avatar producer Jon Landau on Image Metrics:
"Image Metrics’ revolutionary technologies for performance-driven character animation require neither complex motion-capture hardware, nor specialist technical knowledge. Their animation solutions put the performer at the heart of the process, dramatically enhancing the creativity and reducing post-production time. It is this type of innovation that will again allow us to present to the consumer, stories that could not otherwise be told."
My source and I went through some more of his photos of the "Avatar" wardrobe room that show slightly different angles and discovered what we believe to be where the Na'vi's tail is attached during performance capture in "The Volume" (an area which is surrounded with cameras capturing the actors movements and facial expressions). Look for the red circle in the first image. I have attached the original high res shots as well - click to enlarge (large files!)
Further, my source points out that the motion capture suits above the main rack are for CHILDREN. Lots of them!! So again, children play are a factor in a James Cameron movie - which I think will add that extra layer of tension. That also means that there will be a very large chance of ALIEN NA'VI CHILDREN AS WELL in the movie! It'll be great to see how Cameron pull off younger aliens too... Man is he having fun with this one.
We will get you some more "Avatar" pics as soon as we can! Nobody else is doing it, so we'll pick up the slack!! :-)
First of all - a huge thank you to my source for the ongoing work that you are doing for MarketSaw and all my sources for that matter! You make this site all the more exciting to read and I appreciate all your efforts. All of you.
There are not too many spoilers so don't be too worried about losing something from the movie - although there are photos of wardrobe. Keep that in mind if you decide to read on! That's the beauty of motion capture - the characters can be wearing ANYTHING the director wants...
This first photo is of what seems to me to be a military uniform or similar. Click on the image to blow it up to a larger size. I actually stopped placing the super high res pics on here as they take awhile to load. Make note of the boots in the lower right corner - they actually glow in the dark by way of all those shiny spots. I can't make out what is in the plastic bag immediately over the boots. The suit itself reminds me of the slaughtering get ups used in Hostel 2. This could be a crude military outfit, but I am thinking it is more utilitarian - looks like keys hanging off of his belt. It certainly looks like a protective piece of clothing - I'm stopping short of saying it is armor vs. weapons; more like protection from acid or something. The other wardrobe pieces look like they are made of heavy cotton and the white tops look remarkably like what someone involved in martial arts would wear. Most of the wardrobe seems to be colored in earth tones - browns, greys, greens.
Check out the motion capture suits! For those just catching up to what Motion Capture is - it is simply a way for a director to 'capture' the movements (and performances as Cameron likes to say) of an actor by using tiny dots on apparel that actors wear - the computers track these dots as they actor moves. Here is a great video clip of how Zemeckis did this for the 3D movie "Beowulf" last fall. There are a ton of them and everyone of the cast gets one it seems! Looks like they are color coded too so the mocap system can keep track of who is who when the characters interact. You can clearly see tags for Peter, Laz, Wes, CCH, Brady, Cullen, Rueben, and Sigourney. Could someone please tell me who the heck Mark and Sara are? I have the other nametags figured out! Mark's is first in this shot and Sara's is down by Sigourney's.
If anyone would like the super high res images of these let me know and I will send them to you!
I am assuming that the actors wear the mo-cap suits most of the time, but also have the alternative wardrobe available for intimate scenes. And that footwear - what are those designed for?
As always, I will post more pics when I get them and believe me, my source is back at it again - can't wait to see what he can come up with next time!!
DISCUSSION: What do you make of these photos?! That uniform on the end looks quite sinister to me - what do you think the owner needs with that thing?
