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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."

9 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Nice to see artistic innovation in CG by mao+che+minh · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The voice of "The Almighty" in 'Clip 1' has to be that of Keith David, who also did Okkoto in Princess Mononoke. Maybe I'm wrong (which is probably the case), but it sure does sound like him.

    Beyond that little insight, judging by the available clips, this movie is looking damn good (albeit remaniscant of old cut scenes from Play Station 1 games like "Legacy of Kain" - just cleaner). While it's premise doesn't appear to be completely original, it is certainly going to be a great piece of fantasy in of itself. It's style of art is also a rather refreshing departure from the main stream stock of CG films, which tend to be rather "cartoony" (not that this is a bad thing, but it is nice to see something new).

    1. 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.

  2. 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
  3. Wrong label by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think the term is "Freedom film."

  4. Re:Looks nice. by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What are you talking about? I read the summary as follows:

    "An anonymous reader submits a link to this Computer Graphics World article on a Freedom-made film to be released in June."

    Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish my Freedom Fries, and Freedom kiss my wife who's dressed up in a Freedom Maid outfit.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  5. Off the shelf software? by ScottGant · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, pretty much all animation/sfx is founded in "off the shelf software".

    Maya, Softimage/XSI, Lightwave...I'm sure all of these packages are on a shelf SOME where...

    Of course, when you read about movies that use such software, the fx houses always add "combination of Maya and XSI...with special software written by us". This usually is tacked on because they don't want ordinary people thinking they could do the same thing. They want to keep the apperance of wizardry like the old days.

    But the custom software is usually written in Maya script language and such...which is very powerful btw.

    --

    "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
  6. French, attack, attack! by rapett0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Their server is withstanding the initial onslaught, attack, attack!

  7. 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.

  8. Re:Off the shelf... by fishbert42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are seriously comparing Kaena to Final Fantasy and Spider-Man?! Yes, the animation in Kaena looks, as you put it, "very ghetto" in relation. But I think you need to consider the following.

    Spider-Man budget: $139 million
    Final Fantasy budget: $137 million
    Kaena budget: $27 million

    Kaena is also (supposedly) the first European CGI feature. You really shouldn't expect animation perfection in a first release like this.
    And, to be honest, a lot of the animation in "Spidey" wasn't that good either...

    Finally; why won't the story be the draw? What about Toy Story or Monsters, Inc.? I found the stories for those CGI features (among others) to be quite well done and entertaining. Just because a film is 100% CGI does not mean that it has no story. I'm not saying there will be a great story in Kaena; just that the two factors are unrelated.