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'Away' is a full-length CG movie made by one person
A boy dangling from a tree in a barren desert. A forest filled with standing stones that have circular holes punched through them. Turtle-riding cats. Spooky caves. Curious elephants. These are just a few of the shots in the first trailer for Away. The 3D animation is far from perfect, but there's a clear, distinctive style throughout. The most impressive part, though, is revealed in the video's description: "Animated feature film by Gints Zilbalodis." Unlike the latest Pixar movies, Away is being made by just one person. It's a colossal challenge, but one that the 23-year-old animator has been building toward for eight years.
With 'Siren,' Unreal Engine blurs the line between CGI and reality
Epic Games has been obsessed with real-time motion capture for years, but the company is now trying to take its experiments with the technology one step further. Enter "Siren," a digital personality that it created alongside a few prominent firms in the gaming industry: Vicon, Cubic Motion, 3Lateral and Tencent (which just became a major investor in Ubisoft). The crazy thing about Siren is that she comes to life using live mocap tech, powered by software from Vicon, that can make her body and finger movements be captured and live-streamed into an Unreal Engine project.
'Black Panther' is amazing. Why are its CG models so terrible?
Black Panther is a refreshing answer to the increasingly stale world of superhero cinema. But there's one glaring flaw throughout the film: its use of CG models to replace humans during action sequences. They're weightless, ugly and, worst of all, incredibly distracting. You'd think that in the year 2018, following the recent glut of comic book films, visual effects (VFX) studios would have perfected the art of creating realistic CG humans. Instead, we appear to have peaked at Avatar in 2010. What gives?
'Blade Runner 2049' VFX reel shows CG tricks behind bleak landscapes
There's no question that Blade Runner 2049 revolves around computer-generated effects, whether it's the retro-futuristic technology or its holographic AI personas. However, the CG is more pervasive than you might think. Rodeo FX has released a visual effects reel for Denis Villeneuve's bleak sci-fi movie, and it's evident that even the seemingly mundane shots were draped in digital artwork. Caution: there are mild spoilers ahead.
James Cameron's 'Alita: Battle Angel' stars creepy CG anime eyes
James Cameron has been toying with the idea of remaking Battle Angel Alita for decades now (seriously, I wrote about it back in 2009). Now, with its first trailer, the anime adaptation finally seems to be more than a myth. It centers on a scientist (Christoph Waltz) who discovers and repairs a trashed cyborg, Alita (Rose Salazar). And, as these stories tend to go, it turns out she's a bit of an ass-kicking powerhouse. (Her giant CG anime eyes might be enough to make her enemies cower in fear, though.) Unfortunately, Cameron isn't directing the film -- he handed over those duties to Robert Rodriguez two years ago, after he decided the world needs several Avatar sequels. And while Rodriguez hasn't had any huge successes lately, the trailer seems more reminiscent of the guy who made Sin City, and not the one who made Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.
Frank Oz on Muppets, puppets and CG Yoda
Frank Oz needs no introduction. He's voiced iconic characters like Yoda and Miss Piggy and directed classic films like Little Shop of Horrors and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. His impact extends far beyond geek circles; he's a creative legend in Hollywood. I had a chance to chat with Oz at SXSW this week about his upcoming documentary, Muppet Guys Talking: Secrets Behind the Show the Whole World Watched.
'Deadpool' used way more CGI than you probably think it did
The folks behind last month's raucous Deadpool movie lied to you more than you probably could've imagined. That intro sequence that serves as a narrative framing device for practically the whole flick? Almost entirely composited together in post processing. As you'll see in the video below, during the opening car chase, even the merc with a mouth kicking the goon riding shotgun out of the Chevy SUV was a collection of polygons. But when an entire movie is as over the top as Deadpool, finding stunt performers who could withstand the level of abuse that's on display would probably be pretty difficult.
Watch how 'Star Wars' turns people into CG characters
Heads-up: spoliers ahead. It's not shocking to hear that the frequently practical visual effects of Star Wars: The Force Awakens are still loaded with computer graphics, but you might be surprised to know just how much effort went into blending real people with virtual characters and worlds. Both IAMAG and FXGuide have posted clips showing the work involved, and it's clear that there's a whole lot more involved than green screens. The highlight by far is the rendition of barkeeper Maz Kanata. Lupita Nyong'o wore a special, patterned suit to let her perform on-set, and performed separate motion capture sessions (using a stereo head rig) to get her expressions down pat. The team also used software to tweak Maz's facial features after the fact.
