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Designing the technology of ‘Blade Runner 2049’
This article contains spoilers for 'Blade Runner 2049' There's a scene in Blade Runner 2049 that takes place in a morgue. K, an android "replicant" played by Ryan Gosling, waits patiently while a member of the Los Angeles Police Department inspects a skeleton. The technician sits at a machine with a dial, twisting it back and forth to move an overhead camera. There are two screens, positioned vertically, that show the bony remains with a light turquoise tinge. Only parts of the image are in focus, however. The rest is fuzzy and indistinct, as if someone smudged the lens and never bothered to wipe it clean. Before leaving the room, K asks if he can take a closer look. The blade runner -- someone whose task it is to hunt older replicants -- dances over the controls, hunting for a clue. As he zooms in, the screen changes in a circular motion, as if a series of lenses or projector slides are falling into place. Before long, K finds what he's looking for: A serial code, suggesting the skeleton was a replicant built by the now defunct Tyrell Corporation. Throughout the movie, K visits a laboratory where artificial memories are made; an LAPD facility where replicant code, or DNA, is stored on vast pieces of ticker tape; and a vault, deep inside the headquarters of a private company, that stores the results of replicant detection 'Voight-Kampff' tests. In each scene, technology or machinery is used as a plot device to push the larger narrative forward. Almost all of these screens were crafted, at least in part, by a company called Territory Studios.
Watch how VFX artists crafted 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
ILM has unveiled the official "sizzle reel," for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, showing how it did major visual effects for the movie. If this sounds familiar, an apparently unauthorized making-of video made the rounds early this year, but was quickly pulled. The franchise is the gold standard for VFX, though, so fans can once again get a look behind the curtain, seeing how shots were created at houses in San Francisco, Singapore, Vancouver and London.
See how VFX puts the realism and fire into 'Game of Thrones'
Warning: mild spoilers ahead. The last two shows on Game of Thrones season six were particularly spectacle-laden, so the show's VFX houses were busier than ever. Mackevision and Rising Sun Pictures have released new demo reels showing exactly how they turned extras into a huge crowd or just (digitally) murdered them. Rising Sun (below) was charged with the King's Landing scenes in the final episode, which featured fiery green explosions, a huge bell crushing a hapless citizen and the incineration of a certain not-well-liked character.
Change the romantic pairings in Cassius' latest music video
The French musical duo Cassius has released a new music video that, for the first time, lets you change actors in the middle of a scene. Created for the group's single "The Missing" from the upcoming album Ibifornia, it features an interactive video from the director collective We Are From LA. During scenes with couples making out, you can switch between 20 actors just by clicking on the person you want to change, making for more than 100 possible versions of the video. The technique is not unlike YouTube's multi-angle videos, but you choose the actor, rather than the camera.
How a 'Star Wars' nerd made VFX software for the rest of us
If you've ever tried to make your own movie, you know that emulating J.J. Abrams isn't easy. Moreover, even if you were the greatest unheralded cinematographer in history, you still couldn't compete with Hollywood. After all, even modestly budgeted films employ a legion of visual effects artists tasked with bringing the impossible to the big screen. That feeling of teenage disappointment may not be the same for future generations, however, and it's all thanks to FXHome, a British software house whose flagship product offers amateurs the ability to produce high-quality visual effects in a matter of hours.
Recommended Reading: I let my mom use Tinder to find me a date
This Is What Happened When My Mom Ran My Tinder for a Month Clay Skipper, GQ Mom knows best, right? Well, here's the story of a 26-year-old who installed Tinder on his mom's phone and let her find him a date. As you can probably guess, hilarity ensued.
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.
The challenges of running a modern VFX Studio
We've come a long way since the Harryhausen-era of special effects. Instead of countless hours spent adjusting claymation models, modern VFX require more computer processing power than the moon mission. But while they seamlessly blend into our storytelling, creating convincing special effects is still no easy feat. Just ask Shade VFX CEO, Bryan Godwin.
Hollywood FX artists help doctors practice child surgery
Boston Children's Hospital has formed an odd partnership with a practical special effects company to create more realistic surgery simulator models. Santa Monica-based Fractured FX is well acquainted with human anatomy (and gore), having worked on FX's bloody American Horror Story. It also helped recreate surgeries performed in the early 1900s on the Cinemax Series The Knick. For its part, Boston Children's Hospital has had a surgery simulator program for quite awhile, but decided it needed to up the realism quotient and give doctors a better "haptic" feel for patient's organs.
HTC's Peter Chou joins visual effects studio behind 'Iron Man 3' (updated)
No, Peter Chou isn't leaving HTC. As the company is gearing up to launch its virtual reality platform (and another flagship phone) later this year, the co-founder has decided to pick up a second role at renowned visual effects company, Digital Domain, to strengthen his company's VR know-how. That's according to a statement from HTC, anyway. For those who don't know, Digital Domain is the digital production house behind movies like Iron Man 3 (seems like HTC just can't get enough of Robert Downey Jr.), Her and Tron: Legacy. It also made animated clips in games including Assassin's Creed Unity, Destiny and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Chou will officially join the Hong Kong-owned company as an executive director on August 31st, but it'll obviously be a while before we see what this will bring to the HTC Vive. Update: Well, HTC has finally admitted that Chou did leave the company before joining Digital Domain, though he is still an "honorable consultant" and is therefore still working for his old company. Smells like a cheeky cover-up to us, if you ask us.
See how digital effects put the spectacle into 'Game of Thrones'
Game of Thrones has a healthy $6 million-per-episode budget, but that's still nothing compared to the average Michael Bay blockbuster -- especially for the special effects needed to fill in the magic (and gore). That's where the creativity of effects house Mackevision comes in. If an epic shot can't be done "practically" in camera, characters are filmed against a green screen or threadbare set. Then, elements like terrain, castles, crowds of soldiers and even CG water are added. As you can see in the video below, with a touch of artful compositing, lighting, shading and color-timing, the result is a seamless final shot. If there's any money left over, they may even add a dragon or three.
Bring Hollywood-style FX to your iPhone or iPad
I've looked at a few apps that allow you to layer effects over videos and found them impressive. Today I'm looking at Green Screen Movie FX Studio (US$4.99, universal) for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It goes a step beyond some others and lets you create impressive green screen effects. The app also allows tweening so you can set a few positions for an effect, like a tank, a rocket or dinosaur, and it fills in the animation between the starting and ending points. The app features 88 video FX layers, which you can resize, rotate or move along a timeline. Effects include explosions, fires, weather (snow, fog, hurricanes), space ships and much more. In addition, there are backgrounds you can insert behind people in your videos like Niagara Falls, Paris, beaches, etc. %Gallery-171312% Background replacement requires your subjects to be in front of a solid-colored background, which the app replaces with something else. If you want to use an existing video with no solid backgrounds, you can still add effects to layer over it. This app packs a lot of complex technology into your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and therefore isn't something to just jump into. Fortunately, extensive video tutorials are available and helped me make some videos on my iPhone that worked quite well. I think it would be even better on the larger iPad screen. There is a good video demo of what you can expect here. Your creation can be shared through the usual social networks, as well as email and Dropbox. Green Screen Movie FX Studio requires a minimum of an iPhone 3GS, fourth- or fifth-generation iPod touch and any iPad. It does require iOS 5.1 or later, and the app has been optimized for the iPhone 5. Green Screen Movie FX Studio is really a clever app that does what it claims. Just be prepared to experiment and learn about all the app can do.
Alien Sky gives your photos an other worldly look
I grew up reading science fiction books and loved the cover illustrations with vistas of alien worlds. I particularly remember the great paintings of Chesley Bonestell, an architect who later in life became a premier illustrator of space scenes. He also worked on some classic sci-fi movies like Destination Moon. This brings me to Alien Sky, a new US$0.99 iPhone app that will easily transform your images into something that can recreate that eerie outer space look on your own photos. The app features illustrations of galaxies, moons and planets. It also includes gradient filters and lens flares. You select an object and drop it on top of an image from your photo library, or take a fresh picture with the iPhone camera. Once the object is layered over your photo, you can change the size or rotate the object to any angle. It can then be saved to your picture roll, or shared via email or Twitter. It can also be directly imported into some photo editors on your iPhone like Photo Splash or Photogene. Of course, once in your camera roll, the image can be opened by any image editor. The results with some western landscapes I had were excellent. Maximum output resolution on my iPhone 4S is 3072x3072. A couple of changes I would like to see include some masking features which would let an object go behind something in the foreground like a rock or a building. For now, you can work around it using some of the objects in the library which have only partial images and move and rotate them near rocks or other things. Also, the app is not universal and it would be great on the iPad at full resolution. I talked with developer James Grote who told me he is working on including masking and there will be an update that makes the app universal. For now it works natively on the iPhone and iPod touch. Alien Sky is a very slick app, and if you have a fondness for science fiction illustration, you'll enjoy playing with your own photos. I've included some images I did while testing the app for this review. They are in the gallery below. %Gallery-159980%
Daily iPhone App: PyroPainter is special FX made easy on the iPhone
There's been an explosion of special effects videos on YouTube over the past few years. Because the technology to create special effects has gotten so cheap and so easy to use, basement video editors of all kinds have put together videos of themselves throwing fireballs or fighting with lightsabers against their cats. PyroPainter takes this idea to an even easier place: It's an iPhone app that lets you add special effects to videos as simple as dragging and dropping them across the screen. The app's instructions are unfortunately a little sparse, but once you figure out how it all works, it's really simple. You upload one of your previously recorded videos into the app, choose an effect from the huge library and "paint" it across the screen with your finger. Anything you add gets added to the video, and you can then go back and watch the video while dragging or deleting the effects as you like. Once done, the video gets rendered right there in the app, and sent back to your video library, in full HD form, where you can send it off to YouTube or watch it on AirPlay. It's very impressive. There are already a few demo videos on YouTube, but I hope to see even more cool demos put together by users in the future. PyroPainter is a free download, and there are two packs of special effects to buy for 99 cents each with more to come. Developer Markus Nigrin has also released a second app available for free to celebrate the launch of PyroPainter: Photo Extractor is something he came up with during development of the effects app. It will allow you to grab HD photos from any video on the iPhone, and then save those off to the photo reel on their own. It's a much simpler function than the full effects app, but it could be very helpful for that specific need.
Fusion-io announces ioFX, a super-SSD that's already garnered an Oscar
You've heard of Fusion-io, right? It produces super-SSDs with the teeth-whitening ioMemory that's so fast it can manage a billion input and output operations every second. Now it's bundling that gear into a workstation PCIe card for FX professionals and speed-conscious multi millionaires. Capable of delivering 1.5GB/s (we checked, GB/s) of bandwidth, it's capable of previewing 3D movie effects on the fly. The gear's even managed to cover itself in Academy awards after it was used by studio Pixomondo on the special effects for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo." A 420GB model will arrive in late Spring, setting you (or more likely, your departmental budget) back $2,495 with an inclusive one-year support contract.
Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' Blu-ray 3D set for release February 28th -- 3D haters beware
Considering that Hugo was a flick capable of earning 4 out of 4 stars from noted 3D hater Roger Ebert, it will be interesting to see how it's received upon its home release February 28th. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and currently rocking a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the fantasy tale of a boy who crosses paths with legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès in 1930s Paris may be the best example yet of how an artist can make use of the effect. The two hour six minute flick will be available in Blu-ray 3D combo pack, and 2D Blu-ray editions, with a 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack and special featurettes on the making of the film and the real magician/director who inspired the story.The release date is two days after the Academy Awards, and if this flick can snag Best Picture or Best Director it could become a turning point for 3D. New 3D movies are already on deck from other high-profile directors like Ridley Scott (Alien prequel Prometheus) and Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby), while big budget conversions like Star Wars -- coming to theaters next week -- and already-sold-out-for-Valentines Day Titanic test the waters for older movies. Add in sports broadcasts planned including UFC 143 tonight and the London Olympics in the summer, and 2012 is shaping up to be an especially rough year for 3D haters -- you have our deepest sympathies. Those on the other side of the fence can check after the break for a press release with more details and (2D) theatrical trailer, it's currently available on Amazon for preorders at $27.99, 2D only is $21.99.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon clip breaks down shooting movies, special effects in 3D (video)
The Transformers: Dark of the Moon Limited Edition Blu-ray 3D doesn't hit the streets officially until next week, but you can get a look at one of the special features early right here. In this video clip director Michael Bay and other members of the production team explain some of the special challenges that came with shooting the special-effects heavy movie in 3D. It required changes to his usual frenetic cutting style with fewer pans and longer shots, as well as extra work by the editors on each element of animation overlaid on each frame. For a longer discussion about the background of shooting the flick you can check out an interview featuring Bay and 3D-master James Cameron here, otherwise just press play, or check out the press release after the break for a full list of special features included when he disc debuts January 31st.
Sin City Recut, Extended and Unrated Blu-ray special features previewed
A highly stylized flick like Sin City is sure to look great in high definition, so you're probably already planning to grab when it the Recut, Extended and Unrated version hits Blu-ray this week. For those who can't wait or are on the fence, MovieWeb has this quick snippet (embedded after the break) of Cine-Explore Bonus View special footage from the home version that shows off how the special effects were done while the movie plays on in the background. Other than that, the disc packs a couple commentary tracks, a 5.1 audio track including audience reaction (apparently so you can pretend you're at one of those movie theaters you no longer go to) and an interactive comic book.
EVE Evolved: Making EVE beautiful
When it was released back in 2003, EVE Online was one of the most visually impressive games on the market. Over the coming years, the graphics aged gracefully next to competitors on the market and all seemed well. Nonetheless, CCP were not content to let their flagship game's graphics eventually go out of date. In true CCP style, they developed a long-term staged delivery plan for the complete overhaul of the game's graphics. The first stage of delivery came with the Trinity expansion, in which a premium client was launched with incredible high resolution ship models. This was just the first stage in a plan to keep EVE graphically ahead of any competitors. In this technical article, I look at the science of making EVE beautiful and examine CCP's plans for the future.
Mechanical heart built from Sony gear still pines for AIBO
As much as we'd like this to be a still from a new, secretly-in-development Cronenberg movie, it's actually an image of the nightmare-inducing mechanical heart that stars in a new series of Sony ads set to air during England's World Cup qualifying campaign on ITV. The hook, of course, is that the heart is apparently built (by special effects house Artem) almost entirely from Sony gear, including parts from BRAVIA TVs, Blu-ray players, VAIO laptops, Cybershot cameras, PS3s, and even the odd Walkman. No word of any public showings of the heart just yet, but you can check out one of the commercials after the break, and another by hitting up the read link below.
