Slashdot Mirror
Report From The Land of SFX
prostoalex writes "MIT's Technology Review takes a look at the world of digital special effects, the industry worth half a billion dollars per year, according to the authors. It talks about the role of SFX in movie production nowadays and comes to the connclusion that while might not 100% computer-created in the future, we'll see more of realistic-looking special effects in future titles."
It talks about the role of SFX in movie production nowadays and comes to the connclusion that while might not 100% computer-created in the future, we'll see more of realistic-looking special effects in future titles.
More realistic effects in the future, huh? Boy, they're really going out on a limb this time.
GMD
watch this
"We call them 'invisible effects,'"
And that is exactly where they should stay (barring of course the Pixar style total 3d animation stuff).
Why is this? Look at Star Wars EP2 for the obvious answer. Even with Lucas Arts churning out some of the best 3d in the movie business, there are still some amazingly obvious 3d effects (Anakin getting on and riding the creature... where Anakin becomes a 3d model getting tossed like a rag doll). And this obviousness seriously hinders the overall movie experience. Anything that pushes the viewer from the imaginary world back to realising he/she is in the theater is a bad thing, and in this case, I found myself thinking, "That doesn't look real," and bang i'm back in the theater.
So what am I say? Well, 3d should stay in the background. Until they can make it look exactly like the actor and have it move exactly like the actor, they shouldn't put it in the center of the action in a film made with real people. It is far too obvious. Though sometimes this is done pretty well.. such as Spiderman, the costumed one. The part with him in his hooded sweatshirt is also pretty obviously 3d.
But all these amazing secondary effects are just incredible, such as the backgrounds in Cast Away. Sometimes you have no idea, and that is the point of the game. Not that you can look and say, damn Lucas Arts has just made some cool 3d stuff, but to do a double take 2 months down the road when someone tells you it actually was 3d in the first place.
So basically, in the world of realistic 3d... the less recognition they get, the better they did their job.
"He's a mulatto at best! Isn't it ironic that he's the one pushing the "skin color means nothing" propoganda in his music. Guess he doesn't buy that bullshit either."
If memory serves, he suffers from a fairly common skin disorder called 'vitiligo'. Basically, it's a light splotchiness in the skin that gets bigger and bigger... He probably lightened his skin so you couldn't see the splotches.
Nose jobs and plastic surgery are all about vanity, but making fun of a guy for his skin disorder is not cool. Celebrity or not, he is a human being and can suffer from the same ailments that you or I could. He chose a unique way of dealing with his problem, but people still trivialize it. I'll tell you something: Whether he has the illness or not (there's debate about that), he certainly didn't have the technique done in order to contradict himself.