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ILM Showcases "Dead Man's Chest" Effects Work
bonniegrrl writes "The work of ILM folks (including VFX supervisor John Knoll) is being showcased in a site just launched to explore the mind-blowing visual effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (heavy Flash). Interactive clips at the site allow you to peel back layers of animation to see what ILM had to start with before transforming actors wearing tracking markers into astonishingly real characters. Test your effects awareness by making the call: what's real and what's ILM, rotate turntable models of the animated characters, and download some goodies." The submitter also claims that there are a few Easter Eggs of footage in there somewhere.
Pirates and Pirates of the Caribbean are two entirely different movies.
showcased in a site just launched to explore the mind-blowing visual effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
I don't know about mind-blowing, but I do distinctly remember quite a bit of "Snot"-blowing special FX at the end of PotC:DMC.
I suppose the mark of really good effects is when you don't notice them being used.
Oh You POS
10:15 Moviewreck
'...fun free footage of some whiny voiced special effects blubberbag in a Perfect Storm baseball cap taking us through a wireframe build of the spectacular finale again and again and again and again until the entire sequence is inorexably rendered so mundane and familiar the experience of finally seeing it... .. feels more like a lunchtime repeat of Knot's Landing than the white knuckle climax it would have been before the slickarsed marketing fucks responsble for tossing together this say-nothing advertorial assault on your dignity spoiled it all as part of their ongoing quest to bully the world into galloping down to the nerest multiplex to gawp at tits and explosions like the oblivious victims of a dystopian stupidity virus.'
Works fine on Ubuntu w/ FF.
This has all the earmarks of an AC troll, but I'd like to chime in and say .... agreed.
... you were supposed to want the characters to escape Davy Jones' ship. But all I really wanted to do was escape that scene, which was way to long a section of way too long a movie.
... enough already!! Give me 90 minutes of decent movie and save all that money you spent on these "gorgeous" effects (which Disney apparently feels so compelled to justify that it set up a Web site to promote them).
The first PotC movie was great fun, but the second one fell way short of the mark. And one of the main reasons was because they spent so much time showcasing effects and so little on story. I mean, the end... WTF?? Does that make any kind of sense to anybody? Are you really waiting on the edge of your seat to find out how that was possible or did you just roll your eyes?
All the scenes on Davy Jones' ship looked fake. Completely fake. It was as if the characters walked off the real world and into this alternate world where every single person or object is made out of CG. It felt claustrophobic. Maybe that was part of the point
Similarly, the scenes with the voodoo witch lady. Wow, way to come up with a cheap way to move the plot forward in between action scenes. All the characters miraculously appear in some green-tinged CG swamp where the voodoo lady is always up and waiting for guests. Almost as if she was, say... an Oracle?? Then we leave again and it's back to the rest of the movie.
It's the same thing people are always saying about videogames these days. Too much money spent on the look, not enough on "game play" -- or, in this case, giving you an entertaining movie to watch.
And what is the deal with making every movie three hours long these days? I'm sorry, but there was not enough movie in King Kong to last three hours. There wasn't enough in PotC: Dead Man's Chest, there wasn't enough in Casino Royale
Breakfast served all day!
While I can agree that flash-only sites are evil, you could always try the flash beta if you're desperate for the content. Works for me.
There is no news to be had on weekends.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
Keith Richards' personal special effects include "life after death" for over 30 years.
If you download Keef, realize that the music biz learned a long time ago that he's impossible to delete.
--
make install -not war
I'd have to agree with you, buddy.
The first PotC was such an awesome movie because Disney thought it would suck. They half-made it, and tossed it aside. Because they thought it would fail, they let the director and Johnny Depp do their thing - no market droids wanted to touch it.
Then, when it was all wrapped up and finished, they watched it and said "Damn, this is pretty good." But, before they could market the hell out of it and reinsert more special effects, the thing came out.
You could tell Disney's initial plan was to dump it because it was a "builder" - the thing made increasing amounts of money over the summer.
Goes to show how good movies can be if the market droids leave it alone.
Similarly, the scenes with the voodoo witch lady. Wow, way to come up with a cheap way to move the plot forward in between action scenes. All the characters miraculously appear in some green-tinged CG swamp where the voodoo lady is always up and waiting for guests. Almost as if she was, say... an Oracle?? Then we leave again and it's back to the rest of the movie.
Did anyone else think of the voodoo lady in Monkey Island II when they watched these Dead Man's Chest scenes?
They lost me at one of the first scenes... when they go "You're being arrested for assisting a pirate Jack Sparrow to escape" and they both correct him "Captain... Jack Sparrow". LAME LAME LAME. I really liked the first movie, but the second movie had a terrible script. I can only imagine the 3rd will be worse.
I liked the one where the whole pirate ship jumped over a giant shark.
The whole movie was just way over the top.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Don't bother looking if you're on Linux. The ILM page sent me to Adobe to get Flash, but even the newest version of Flash offered for Linux does not satisfy the requirements of the ILM page.
The whores get mad when the sluts give it away for free.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Actually, no. Having "grown up" in Southern California, whenever I saw the oracle, I thought of the Gypsy fortune-teller from the original Pirates of the Caribbean, which I believe was the intent.
I'd rather be an ignorant moron than an anonymous coward.
I had to hover over that link, just to make sure it wasn't a myspace profile.
In reply to your post, I disagree that the problems with this movie (similarly with the other movies you mentioned) that the problem was "lack of story" or some other such hand-waving. Some of them do indeed suffer from being "too long" or stretched too thin, but others suffer from pacing problems, problems with character empathy, anticlimactic directing, lack of subtlety, and as you alude for Dead Man's Chest, plot motivation. The swamp woman was indeed a cheap plot device that insults the intelligence of the audience. Be careful not to conflate all bad storytelling with "bad story". Many other factors affect the quality of storytelling in movies, games, books, an anything else.
In staying a bit more on-topic, I must say this: When I learned that Bill Nighy would play the roll of Davy Jones in the new movie, I was thrilled. It was an excellent roll for an actor with his ability to play genuinely dark, scary characters. And, he was hamstrung with effects. His face was covered up with digital prosthetics to the extent that his character was more crawly than creepy.
And I didn't get the sense that The Flying Dutchman was artificial; it was certainly no worse than its soul-less inhabitants. As you allude in at least three places in your post, pacing is the true problem with that scene and with long movies in general. (2: swamp woman breaks action; 3: King Kong / Casino Royale / PotC DMC too long) I call BS on "I could tell it was all CGI." There were very few visual mistakes, but many logical cues it was fake. The effects were well-done, but yeah, pal, everybody else could tell it was all CGI too. In that sentence, "tell" means "discern logically" and not "visually perceive". Of course it's not real. Go watch Office Space if you want a pedestrian setting with pedestrian props.
The important thing to see here is that technology is supplanting and not aiding the storytelling process. You might argue that in this case, the filmmakers' goal was to reduce the humanity of the characters in question. Whatever their motive, the result was that they nerfed the characters; they replaced character with nothing. I didn't think any of the bad guys had a soul except Will's dad. The rest, including Davy Jones (and despite great opportunity to show the nature of his tortured soul) were just CGI anti-mcguffins. Bad why? Bad how? Uhh, they just are, so fear them as the characters do.
I'm a different AC, fyi.
I just flew back from Japan. Due to a screw-up by Air Canada the same movies played on the way back as on the way: Dead Man's Chest and Toy Story.
The former I watched bits and pieces of but failed to get into. Swordplay on top of accidentally released water wheels? Please.
The latter I watched all the way through. Again. The dialog, the story, the characters, everything works.
"YOU - ARE - A - TOYYYY!!!!"
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Really, you could tell it was CG? Sheesh, you must have some keen eyes and a brilliant intellect, because I thought they had created a real mutant squid-man and taught him to act.
>All the characters miraculously appear in some green-tinged CG swamp where the voodoo lady is
>always up and waiting for guests. Almost as if she was, say... an Oracle??
It worked in The Secret of Monkey Island.
Say what you want about some of the effects, but the Davey Jones stuff, water effects and some of the matchmoving (the beached Pearl) were among the most impressive effects shots ever put on screen, and ILM deserves the right to brag a little. Their thunder has been stolen the past 10 years or so while having their A-teams working on the Star Wars prequels. Weta and Imageworks one-upped the masters at just about every turn.
The story may have sucked, but I don't think anyone can dispute that ILM's back on their game.
Disclaimer: I do this stuff for a living, so take comments as viewed from the inside.
As funny as your comment was, there was once a time when people created "rubber" suits and dressed actors in them. One of the many reasons why the original Star Wars trilogy is far better than the new episodes was the use of creature effects such as these. If you're looking to learn more look up Stan Winston to see a master of this craft.
That's exactly right.
And no, I couldn't give a shit what my karma is.
SHOW me, don't TELL me.
The problem is that the "logical cues" make you look for the "visual" cues
Movie MUST follow its own "logic". Even when that logic is not the same as the Real World's logic.
And the way you communicate that logic to the viewer is with pictures and sounds. And they failed to communicate that logic. They tossed crap in whenever they felt like it without tying it into the logic of that universe.
And that is what results when the logic is not established and nothing is tied into it. The characters have to keep TELLING you that they're afraid.
Yes! I thought it was hilarious how the setting could have been a rip-off. I kept watching out for a Guybrush cameo or a three-headed monkey!
Adventure, Romance, MAD SCIENCE!
As it happens I just went to see this at the local last gasp movie theater yesterday. I came away wishing I had checked the reviews first so I could have avoided that stinker, but when I later checked IMDB the overall rating was pretty good.
I was glad to read your comment since I was beginning to wonder if I was just in a bad mood or something.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
Am I the only one that liked the movie. I was looking for entertainment, and didn't play the "try to spot the CG". Sometimes I don't want substance, but just something to entertain me. And while this movie wasn't LOTR, it was good enough for me.
Here's BonnieGrrls's profile.
"It ain't a war against drugs.it's a war against personal freedom" --Bill Hicks
Actually the swamp wasn't CG. If you watch the making of you see them really in the set. In fact several things that I assumed were CG turned out to be real.
Wow, Comic Book Guy has an account on /.
The shark still looks fake.
It's truly amazing what ILM managed to do for Pirates 2. Too bad though that the producers chose not to invest in a similar amount of time and attention when they hired the screenwriters...
And ask anyone what they remember from the first, and it'll be Johnny Depp's character and the humour, not the special effects.
That's funny since I also remember the effects AND Johny Depp's performance AND the humor.
You guys are oversimplifying everything. "It's not about the effects!", breaking news: it's ALSO about the effects, it's about everything in a careful balance, that, if done properly is called "a good movie".
It's not as if they had effects, they had to have crappy script, it just happens so that when movies get involved, they try to stick everything to simple "secure" models just like you're doing here in your reviews.
Now this site in particular, is on ILM's site. ILM don't make movie scripts, they make effects. Don't bash them for showcasing their (amazing, in my opinion) work and willing to market themselves and their incredible skills in this area.
Look at the site as an achievement of arts and technology and forget the script.
I for one, really respect ILM for their hard work on this movie and just consider how fast CGI technologies are evolving: I mean they did THIS all with the raw footage from the film (mocap, camera tracking: all done on the spot, no additional footage).
Also managing all those little details in the character models looks like a hyper impossible tasks to me: but they pulled it off and pulled it off for an incredible amount of shots in the movie with consistent success. I applaud them for their participation in this project.
Until Adobe finally gets their Linux support done for Flash 9 (they skipped flash 8), websites should not be requiring anything later than Flash 7. That is the latest player available for Linux. Yes, they're working on it, and maybe it's even close to release, but ... horse, cart, etc. Sites should not be developing in anything later than Flash 7 until it's supported on the big three platforms.
One simple rule for its versus it's
Using the direct link works: http://www.ilm.com/theshow/pirates.swf
Ron Gilbert, designer of Monkey Island, commenting on the similarities between Monkey Island and Pirates of the Caribbean on his blog: http://grumpygamer.com/8123463
No, she was a clear ripoff off the Voodoo Lady.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
"One of the many reasons why the original Star Wars trilogy is far better than the new episodes was..."
What part of "one of the many..." did oyu have trouble understanding. Let me explain this in plain english. Lucas relied far too much on CG effects instead of models and costume effects like in his original trilogy. The many part refers to the fact that this is one of, well, many problems with the films. This could certainly include the writing, which was by the way horrible at best.
Amen to all that. I swear the more time and effort they out into all the effects the phonier the movie looks. I also think after all the money gets spent on those effects directors are reluctant to cut them out. I remember watching "Titanic" and realising that 15 or 20 minutes of the film showing lower deck activities on the sinking ship not only didn't add much to the film it was a void. I see a lot of extra minutes in films that don't add anything. I can't even go to effects heavy films anymore. They are like sparkly lights for dull people. I think "Donnie Darko" took around 3 or 4 million to make. Imagine if they had spent 150 million on it. The soul would have ben sucked right out of the movie with excess garbage.
Ron Gilbert has said himself that the inspiration for The Secret of Monkey Island|Monkey Island came from the Pirates ride. He then refuted the claims once he saw Disney making a boatload of money off the movies, and started claiming that they must've gotten the idea for the movie from him. One obvious example is the prison scene in MI2, complete with key-carrying dog named 'Walt'.
I'd rather be an ignorant moron than an anonymous coward.
Argh, you've hit it on the head: "Good enough." I have to admit I was entertained by the movie, but it definitely is not at the same level as the original. I feel like Disney makes this mistake all the time; they'll occasionally hit on a great movie, but then they reduce it to a formula and produce sequels or imitations with the formula. I can just imagine the Disney producers sitting down with a bunch of kids and asked them what they thought of the movie. They said, "oh the CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow things was funny" or "I really liked the whole 'rum is gone' thing" or whatever, and they just wrote all these little jokes or gags into the DMC and expect people to eat it up. I could stand a few of them, but the recycled stuff made up a majority of the movie. Unfortunately Disney is just trying to make money, and I don't think the people making the decisions truly understand what makes a good movie. PoTC:DMC was entertaining, but it could have been SO much better. Is that franchise not successful enough to take a little risk?