Four*7

More slackness on my side for neglecting this progress blog. But never fear, that doesn't mean nothing has been happening. I finished the animatic a week or so ago, I gives a fair indication of the timing. Very basic mind you. Looking at it I think that it will run a bit longer than this, closer to the 5 - 6 minute mark - but that is something that will be decided on how much interesting footage I can get as well as the pacing with the actual shots. I have filmed some basic tests and will be playing with them over the next couple of weeks - doing basic comps of exported 3D cubes as well as 2D elements into scenes. I'll post up some screens of those as they come. I will be posting actual examples of my program tests soon but I thought I may as well wait till the end of the month and throw up a big reel of them then - I should have some actual comped examples by then so then you will be able to see how it all comes together ( sort of =p). Still playing with the visual style - at this stage take my word and assume it will be a mixture.

Heading off to see Scott Pilgrim vs the World tomorrow (release day and all!) which should provide some excellent inspiration.

Animatic (P/W - "meAGAIN2map") :

Animatic. from Dane Kirkland on Vimeo.

Two*1

WRITTEN COMPONENT ENTRY The Spine – Landreth notes.

The Spine, exploring style as a story telling technique.

Landreth has been drawn to his unique style because it is something that he doesn’t see very often – using animation to tell emotional or psychological-based stories of people who are otherwise real and amongst us.

The story was personal – came from observing relationships, wondering why people remain in poisonous and destructive relationships. Landreth feels it is psychological-driven and these feed people identities (as stunted as they may appear externally).

Landreth feels that the style must be used sparingly – it’s possible to bring out a new layer of story telling to get the idea without being too literal. Representing something psychological or emotional – then you may tell as story without over-powering/extensive dialogue etc (visual story-telling technique).

http://www.fxguide.com/modules.php?name=News&fiel=article&sid=580

Two*0

WRITTEN COMPONENT ENTRY  Visual Effects Milestones Summary.    

-       “The Horse in Motion” (1878)

Series of frame-by-frame photographs of a horse, showed how all 4 hooves actually leave the ground at the same time. Photos by Eadweard Muybridge.

-       “Primitive Motion Studies” (1884 - 87)

Test Footage of motion including “The Human Figure in Motion – Descending Stairs and Turning Around”.

-       “Monkeyshines No. 1” (1889 - 90)

First experimental kinetoscope film.

-       “The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots” (1895)

First in-camera special effect.

-       “La Voyage Dans la Lune” (1902)

(“A Trip to the Moon”) Developed special effects in film such as animation, matte painting, miniature, compositing live action footage.

-       “The Great Train Robbery” (1903)

First cross-cuts.

-       “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” (1906)

Historically, technically the first animated short film – the first known attempt at animation. First cartoon to use stop-motion animation. Projected at 20 fps.

-       “Fantasmagorie” (1908)

First fully animated film.

-       “Gertie the Dinosaur” (1914)

First major animated character.

-       “Ben-Hur” (1925)

Notable use of a miniature to achieve part of its crowd sewuences.

-       “The Lost World” (1925)

Pioneered the first major use of stop-motion animation in a feature film.

-       “Metropolis” (1927)

Significantly advanced the art of miniatures, as well as matte paintings and compositing.

-       “Steamboat Willie” (1928)

First cartoon with a post-produced synchronised soundtrack.

-       “The Invisible Man” (1933)

Early attempts at visual/special effects; overlaying elements together (+ double-exposing).

-       “King Kong” (1933)

Synthesized matte paintings, miniatures, rear projection and stop-motion animation.

-       “The Rains Came” (1939)

First awardee of the Academy Award for ‘Best Achievement in Special Effects’.

-       “Citizen Kane” (1941)

Reinventing camera techniques.

-       “Blue Skies” (1946)

Duplicated live action performances.

-       “Mighty Joe Young” (1949)

Smoothly composited stop-motion animation and live action/rear projection. First film that Ray Harryhausen worked on assisting Will O’Brien. Academy Award awardee.

-       “Ray Harryhausen’s Films” (1953 - 81)

o   “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” (1953)

o   “It Came From Beneath The Sea” (1955)

o   “20 Million Miles to Earth” (1957)

o   “The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958)

o   “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” (1974)

o    “The Three Worlds of Gulliver” (1959)

o   “Mysterious Island” (1961)

o   “Jason and the Argonaughts” (1963)

o   “The First Men in the Mood” (1964)

o   “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger” (1977)

o   “Clash of the Titans” (1981)

-       “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951)

First film to feature ‘flying saucers’.

-       “Bwana Devil” (1952)

First 3D feature film.

-       “The War of the Worlds” (1953)

Vibrant colour sfx. Academy Award winner.

-       “Mary Poppins” (1964)

First winner of the Academy Award for ‘Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects’.

-       “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)

Academy Award Winner. Featured revolutionary use of miniatures. Primitive version of ‘Go-Motion’ used.

-       “The Andromeda Strain” (1971)

Possible first use of computer rendering, as well as advanced computerised photographical visual effects.

-       “Westworld” (1973)

First significant film that employed CGI.

-       “Futureworld” (1976)

First use of 3D CGI. Also used 2D digital compositing to composite characters over a background.

-       “Close Encounters of a Third Kind” (1977)

Notable use of a large scale model in a feature film.

-       “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” (1977)

First extensive use of animated 3D CGI. First winner of renamed category “Best Achievement in Visual Effects”.

-       “Superman” (1978)

First use of the Zoptic camera as well as its innovative 3D-like effects in its title sequence. Academy Award Winner.

-       “Alien” (1979)

Similar achievements to Star Wars in visual effects. Alien chest burst sequence was notable for special effects. Academy Award Winner.

-       “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979)

Wormhole Effect.

-       “An American Werewolf in London” (1981)

Wolf transformation sequence.

-       “Dragonslayer” (1981)

First real use of ‘Go-Motion’.

-       “Looker” (1981)

First CGI character. First shaded 3D CGI in a feature film.

-       “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981)

Lengthy matte painting. Face melting technique. Academy Award winner.

-       “Blade Runner” (1982)

Cityscapes.

-       “The Dark Crystal” (1982)

Combined use of puppets, miniatures and matte paintings.

-       “E.T the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)

Academy Award Winner.

-       “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982)

Featured first entirely computer-generated sequence.

-       “Tron” (1982)

First major application of CGI used in conjunction with live-action footage.

-       “Where the Wild Things Are [test]” (1982/3)

First test footage of Disney’s attempts at combining 3D environments with 2D animated characters.

-       “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi” (1983)

Similar achievements to the original film, featuring more extensive CG effects. Academy Award Winner.

-       “Zelig” (1983)

Technical achievement of blending new footage with period film.

-       “The Adventures of Andre and Wally B” (1984)

First CGI animation (Pixar).

-       “The Last Starfighter” (1984)

First to extensively use CGI for spaceship models and planets in place of models.

-       “2010: The Year We Make Contact” (1984)

First film to combine fluid dynamics with CGI.

-       “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985)

First fully CGI photorealistic character in a feature film. First composite CGI > live action.

-       “Aliens” (1986)

Combined numerous in-camera effects with post-production techniques.

-       “Flight of the Navigator” (1986)

First films to use ‘reflection mapping’. Later used in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on the Naboo spacecraft.

-       “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986)

First incorporation of 3D backgrounds with 2D.

-       “Howard the Duck” (1986)

First film to use digital wire removal.

-       “Labyrinth” (1986)

First CGI animal.

-       “Luxo Jr” (1986)

First fully computer generated short film with CGI shadows (courtesy of Pixar’s Renderman).

-       “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986)

First groundbreaking use of 3D scanning.

-       “Robocop” (1987)

‘Outdated’ stop-motion techniques used.

-       “Tin Toy” (1988)

First CGI character that had realistic human qualities (animation).

-       “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988)

Matched 2D animation with live action footage. Academy Award winner.

-       “Willow” (1988)

Digital morphing (first).

-       “The Abyss” (1989)

First digital CGI water simulation.

-       “Back to the Future, Part II” (1989)

Computer controlled camera work.

-       “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989)

First all-digital composite shot.

-       “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” (1990)

First instance of digitally manipulated mattes.

-       “Robocop 2” (1990)

CG Digital Puppetry to create a characters face.

-       “Total Recall” (1990)

Motion capture for use with CG characters.

-       “Backdraft” (1991)

First photorealistic fire (CG).

-       “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” (1991)

Major CG character with morphing Academy Award winner.

-       “Death Becomes Her” (1992)

Photorealistic CGI skin. Academy Award winner.

-       “Lawnmower Man” (1992)

Early use of a sensor covered suit to capture an actor’s movements (precursor to the techniques used to create the character of Gollum).

-       “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992)

First use of green instead of blue screen.

-       “Jurassic Park” (1993)

Seamlessly mixed CGI and animatronic techniques. Academy Award winner.

-       “The Flintstones” (1994)

First digital fur rendering.

-       “Forrest Gump” (1994)

Removal of legs, digitally composited new footage with archived, compositing (large scale), crowd scenes. Academy Award winner.

-       “The Mask” (1994)

Combined live action with cartoon effects.

-       “Babe” (1995)

Lip sync for animals. Academy Award winner.

-       “Batman Forever” (1995)

Digital stunt doubles.

-       “Casper” (1995)

First film CG character as lead.

-       “Jumanji” (1995)

Mass scale CGI animals.

-       “Toy Story” (1995)

First Feature length CG/3D film.

-       “Waterworld” (1995)

First photorealistc water.

-       “Dragonheart” (1996)

Very complex CG character.

-       “Independence Day” (1996)

Academy Award Winner.

-       “Twister” (1996)

Notable atmospheric fx effects.

-       “The Fifth Element” (1997)

CGI environments – motion controlled.

-       “Starship Troopers” (1997)

First large scale CGI battle sequence.

-       “Titanic” (1997)

Digital passengers, underwater shot, CG + miniatures. Academy Award Winner.

-       “Godzilla” (1998)

CG Monster.

-       “Mighty Joe Young” (1998)

Furthered ‘hair, fur & feathers’ technology.

-       “Fight Club” (1999)

CGI image-based modelling.

-       “The Matrix” (1999)

Bullet-time effect. Academy Award Winner.

-       “The Mummy” (1999)

Most realistic CGI character.

-       “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999)

Jar Jar Binks character.

-       “Hollow Man” (2000)

3D model of an anatomically correct, ‘functional’ model of a human body.

-       “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (2000)

First all colour-graded feature film.

-       “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” (2001)

First hyperreal CGI feature film.

-       “Lord of the Rings Trilogy” (2001 - 2003)

Balrog, Moria, Gollum, Helm’s Deep, crowds, Minas Tirith, Black Gates. Academy Award Winner (all 3 films).

-       “Shrek” (2001)

Advanced liquid and fire.

-       “Waking Life” (2001)

A Scanner Darkly effect (pre-decessor).

-       “Matrix Revolutions” (2003)

First realistic detailed face deformations.

-       “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003)

Undead pirate effect.

-       “The Polar Express” (2004)

Further developed motion capture tech.

-       “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2004)

Big budget CGI backgrounds.

-       “King Kong” (2005)

Expanded Gollum-tech.

-       “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (2006)

Davy Jones – motion capture to CG advancement.

-       “Beowulf” (2007)

Motion capture/CGI (furthered).

-       “Spiderman 3” (2007)

Sandman particles effect.

-       “Transformers” (2007)

Highly complex transformations.

-       “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008)

Aging, warping etc.

-       “Watchmen” (2009)

Dr Manhattan LED capture suit.

-       “Avatar” (2009)

CGI, motion-capture, 3D. Academy Award Winner.

One*7

Story Progress notes.

I have been struggling to get started with developing the story for this project from a base idea into an actual working concept. It's an understandably difficult thing - deciding what it is exactly that I want to focus on, what kind of story I want to tell, the mood of the film, the target audience, the stereotypes to avoid and those that are unfortunately inescapable. There is also the prospect of taking a stereotypical idea and approaching it in a way that is new and refreshing but based on previous attempts of such an approach my track record is nothing marvelous - therefore that is an approach that has been scrapped as I write this.

I must keep in mind that there is a requirement to produce a written companion to this new body of work that must reflect my objectives with this film (project). Thus my contemplation has been following these lines; what the objectives will be and many that I have thought about are important in regards to creating the film - but not necessarily a factor into my MAP specialisation (visual effects). Therefore my ideas/concepts/thoughts on all possible objective require rational sorting of this random collection and identifying which directly regard my specialisation.

Important Concepts (so far)

- Shoot the film using alternative filming methods.

- Achieve a unique visual style; evident in the characters, the world and involving the implementation of CGI elements into live action.

- Create characters with emotional depth.

- Create an environment which is both alien and familiar to the audience in both tone and physical appearance.

- Develop a story which provides a rich history to the story.

- Develop characters 'look' in an efficient way which incorporates visual effects in collaboration with existing elements.

Obviously some of the concepts in the list above do not relate to my area of focus for the MAP, from this particular list those would be;

- Achieve a unique visual style; evident in the characters, the world and involving the implementation of CGI elements into live action.

 - Develop characters 'look' in an efficient way which incorporates visual effects in collaboration with existing elements.

These two as well as the development of a 'familiar alien environment' and of course the story will be the focus of my project. Dependant upon consultation with my supervisor my main area of focus will revolve around developing a unique visual style which is evident in the film's visual effects and their implementation. Their implementation of course will depend upon what filming methods are decided upon, but finally narrowing down a goal excites me! Particular inspiration for this line of thought have been the appearance of Tim Burton's films and in particular Tron - a style which is instantly recognisable. The style of these films are there identity and it is interesting to note how the audience perceives a film based purely upon it's appearance.

Many can misinterpret the film's tone or intentions due to the style of the effects implemented. Film's such as Avatar approach visual effects with aims to achieve complete realism from unrealistic concepts and are received favorably. Other films such as those set in the real world (i.e. Die Hard, V for Vendetta etc) aim to achieve an 'invisible' extension of reality with their visual effects. Then of course there are the films such as Toy Story, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Coraline etc which aim to create a completely fictional world which will never be believed as 'real'. These 3 approaches are typical to visual effects, but there are those that attempt to blend the barriers such as Final Fantasy which strive to create a fictional world with complete realism and fail to trick the audience into believing that it is 'real'.

To get back on topic - it does sound strange, but I believe the style and approach to the visual effects of a film can play a unique role in the identity of a film. The fact that Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks feature animations may be identified by the styling of their characters is proof of this. My aim is to develop a style of visual effect which is uniquely my own.

I do not mean in the sense that the CGI Characters appearance will reflect my personal artistic style - I mean EVERYTHING will. The way that thing's move and interact with their environment. I wish to create a film that represents my emotions, my thought processes. The way things move may not necessarily be how they move in reality, although I am sure some will be. I want the film to reflect my personality and how I perceive the world.

Throughout this process I will develop the style, review how I may achieve the style and investigate alternative methods in which to achieve said effect. This will undoubtably involve research into various plugins, various artistic methods in regards to 3D modelling, digital art and digital compositing. I am sure there will be many more aspects to this challenge but I do not want to get ahead of myself until I consult with my supervisor.

After discussion with my supervisor, pending his approval I will rapidly move ahead with the story/screenplay as well as concept art.

One*5

Reulf from Charlesque on Vimeo.

It's projects like this one that is why I am struggling to decide upon what direction to take my film. I have the option of following the 'Connected' line (refer to a previous post) or something like this. It's difficult. At this point I'm going to go ahead and say that I most likely follow something closer to 'Connected' rather than 'Reulf' BUT I do want the art direction to be a bit brighter and 'lighter' than 'Connected's'.

One*1

DKirkland Showreel March 2010 from Dane Kirkland on Vimeo.

One*0

 I discovered this short film 'Connected' a couple of days ago. It's very cool, quite niche - they have done alot with not very much at all. 3 actors, essentially 1 location in Denmark (w. some very nice matte painting & colour grading) and created something that I find really appealing. It also helps me on the road to creating my short film (currently writing the script). I am reassessing the base story - trying to think of EVERYTHING, so that I am not making too much work for myself for the next couple of years.

 The film is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and is a story of survival in a wasteland and the greed that comes with desperate need to survive. It's eerie, full of the flaws of human kind and quite compelling. What is most interesting to me is what they achieved with their visual effects - they achieved the entire sense of the wasteland with some spectacular matte paintings, some colour grading and some particles around the place. This provides some food-for-thought for me in regards to the visual effects side of my own film, and very possibly the story. Seeing as my film is in it's beginning; existing as a rough outline of the story - very susceptible to inevitable change. I just need to narrow down the key elements of my story and what I want to achieve with the film and go from there!

As for Connected, unfortunately it is not available for embedding, but here is a link to their site - which includes the production blog;

Connected