Monday, July 13, 2009

Well transformed | Well appreciated


Watched the Transformers 2 last week, pretty awesome movie to me. My first sentence to my buddies right after the movie was "lots of ass kickin hardworks have been done in it, respect". Workin in the same line vfx and post production built me a solid reason to say that. But somehow i've heard plenty of negative feedbacks about the movie which is pretty sad. Bad storyline, overlong effects and so on.......

Hey people, what would you expect from the 11 bucks you have paid... From the moment you dig out the 11bucks before paying, you should already know that you are getting ur ass inside to watch a 70% vfx film. Expecting a perfect storyline i dun think this is an ideal movie for you, follow the series is a better choice i guess or i would suggest the movie named "eight below", awesome story. Of cuz comments can be made by anyone who watch it but before that, try to understand what have been done behind. This would boost up ur interest and intention to watch Episode 3 wihch is coming in few years time i guess.

Those who said about the overlong effects, can't be blamed anyway unless you are in the post production line or creative field, I feel ashame if you say so because you should have a better understandin what need to be done to create a film piece like this. Below is an good example to show the hardwork, a 40 frames (less than 2 seconds on screen play) needed 3 months to be completed.


This scene is done by Digital Domain, one of the leading vfx companies worldwide. This is the final outcome, lots of shitz need to be done before this.


After shooting the film, a laser scan tracking is required to the movement of Alice in order to map and animate the 3d model in later stage. Build the 3d model according to the secments.


Key out the original background, left the face for 3d mapping purposes.


Map it into the 3d as texture and animate the breaking pieces frame by frame dynamically.


Put in the animated face and ready to composite.

Lighting up the 3d model could be heaven could be hell because gotta follow the scene lighting and blend them well so it looks realistic. With accurate lighting and rendering, composite the robot into the face and do some hell rotoscoping (so call "masking"). Replace with a new background. Color correct and do some finishing touches, the scene would look awesome with a realistic render. A very painful 40 frames.... source : Gizmodo

What ever mentioned above is just one and a half second of the overall movie, imagine the 2 hours plus with extreme fighting scene and camera movement. Jobs are done by few ass kicking studios like ILM, Digital Domain, BFS and many others. They were in hell while producing it but they are in heaven now by lookin at the piece they created. Great job.... gained my respect and works had been are well appreciated by those who understand what vfx & post production is all about.

Friday, July 3, 2009

PLAY IT LOUD | KISS ME SOFT


My first ever ebay item is finally here today.....Miriam's impactful album Play it loud, Kiss me soft. Released in year 2000 and was sold out all around asia until the 2nd batch released in a format of box set. Was looking for it since long long time ago and someone promised to get for me but end up nothin turns up...as usual!! You know who you are... The first batch is an rare item, most of them in ebay are 2nd batch and the price is ridiculous since this album was sold well last time. Lucky enough i found one guy selling lots of old goodies and bought from him at an ultimate reasonable price....10usd only!! Paid last friday and got it today, efficient seller.... will give you a thumb up when i'm free to log into ebay later.


Overall design of the album is rather simple with polaroid photos in the lyrics booklet. 2cds with different themes, one with "Play it loud" and the other "Kiss me soft". Altough i have most of her song but this album is just worth my pay for it without doubt, listed as a collection item to me anyway....Satisfied!! Now hunting for her 2004 HK concert which is not easy to find too.