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3D Computer Generated Movie From France

Posted by timothy on from the silicon-cinema dept.

An anonymous reader submits a link to this Computer Graphics World article on a French-made film to be released in June. "A film by Xilam, Kaena is a full length feature film, entirely made from Off the shelf software. The previews looks amazing."

3 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by General+Sherman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Using just off-the-shelf stuff, that's really amazing. I wish I could be that good with Bryce =/. It looks like the storyline could be equally amazing, but I'm wondering if there will also be an english release around the same time. It looks that way from the site, but I hope to see this in a theater near me.

    --
    - Sherman
  2. Re:Nice to see artistic innovation in CG by terrab0t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought the same thing about Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but the major downfall of that movie was that their characters were so detailed that people looked at them and expected to see the performance of an actor, which made the characters seem like zombies in their computer animated facial expressions and movements.

    Cartoon characters (even human ones) don't suffer from this because they are stylized enough to allow us to suspend our expectations of reality and just see them for what they represent. This is the main reason the big companies stick to stylized characters in cartoony situations; they don't have to worry about trying to simulate reality.

    Whether intentional or not, the characters in this film all have a very nice stylized look that may allow us to just see them as characters and not zombie like humans. It looks like a pretty beautiful film, and if it fails in the US it won't be for the same major reason Final Fantasy did.

  3. Off-the-shelf software is pretty good today by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Really. You can do at least TV-quality work with stock Max, Softimage XSI, or Maya. On reasonably modest equipment, too.

    The limitation is talent. Few people can drive these tools competently.

    I've done software for high-end animation. I can run the tools myself, but I can't get the results that the people with real talent can. Watching a good artist running an animation system is striking. They work quite differently from amateurs running these programs. They draw far more than they edit. They're fast. They have a clear picture in their mind of what they want to see on the screen.

    There aren't many people like that, which is why most amateur 3D animation sucks.