Avatar - A new Era of Cinema begins
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What is REALLY cool is the director talking about how they made Avatar. I saw a quick video clip and 'behind the scenes' making of Avatar while I was watching Autodesk University Virtual. To quote him "Avatar would not be possible without Autodesk software" They used Autodesk Motionbuilder and the actors had all kinds of sensors all over they body and a green screen behind. They could not even see the finished product. The director had what looked like a small video monitor that showed him what the scene was going to look like (rendered and all).
It is quite a great feat that others will be clamoring to embrace. I have yet to see the movie, but I will sometime soon.
Rick
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I know!
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And ZBrush
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Darn, those 3d glasses don't work for me. I guess soon we'll even see them and some sort of VR modeling tools someday.
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Just watched it last night in a RealD-equipped theater. Visually amazing. Story-wise, rather predictable and boring.
Note to Cameron for any future stereoscopic movie he might have in mind: Please use a higher framerate to avoid the strobo effect.
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I also saw it on 3d IMax. I was very impressed! I thought the story was good. Sort of obvious, but still good.
I was not very impressed by any of the previews I saw at all. But the movie as a whole is quite impressive. The 3d aleins do become very believable, which I was not expecting. Perfect 3d? No. But a great step in the right direction! And see it in huge 3d if you get the chance!
Chris
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Well, the story line is kind of a mixture of "Dances with wolves" and the Little Big Horn battle.
But where have native Americans ended up afterwards?
Anyway, I enjoyed the movie - as well as its "predecessors" so not complaining. And as I heard, we may even have a 3D cinema here where I live (would've never though)
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I finally got to see it last night and was impressed. The visuals were fantastic. Even though the plot was way too predictable I would see it again no problem. Right after we saw it we went back to the theater and saw Sherlock Holmes, that was good as well.
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And yesss! As it turned out, we also have a 3D movie here where I live (so much about me and going to the cinema - I haven't been there for years now)
Anyway, it's going to be tomorrow when I watch it!
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I saw it in 3d today...and I was blown away. It was just amazing. What a treat.
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I want to go and watch it in 3D, but as I wear glasses I'm wary of whether the 3d glasses will work properly over my glasses. Has anyone used the 3D glasses as well as their normal glasses?
I tried using the free glasses given away for Channel 4s 3D week, but they were a complete waste of time.
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My wife wears glasses and she said it worked just fine over the top of her glasses. I don't know if different theaters use different glasses or anything though.
Also something interesting about the 3D in this movie is that it was used largely to add depth to the screen, instead of making things pop out at you. So it was a bit different than anything else I had seen in 3d that treid to bring the action into the theater. This really just tried to add depth to the world you were immersed in. I thought it was very well done.
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I have to confess that I haven't seen Avatar yet, as it tends to be the type of film I avoid.
I know I shouldn't really say it, but I'm far more of a Wallace and Grommet, 'stop-frame' type of guy. The first 3D film I saw (of the new 3D generation), was "Coraline", by Henry Selick, which I thought was awesome. Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr Fox" is also awesome!! Anyone seen these?Here's the stop-frame master, IMHO, Jan Svankmajer, at work;
and if you liked that....
and
Happy new year!
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Well, I like fantasy films, I like Sci-fi, western and action.
This is all in one (after all, those aliens are just masqueraded Indians...) -
@johnsenior1973 said:
I want to go and watch it in 3D, but as I wear glasses I'm wary of whether the 3d glasses will work properly over my glasses. Has anyone used the 3D glasses as well as their normal glasses?
I tried using the free glasses given away for Channel 4s 3D week, but they were a complete waste of time.
Yes they work fine over regular glasses - also they are polarised light ones - not the old style red/green type.
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Like Tom, I'm not into this type of film much but would enjoy the 3D experience. Anyway, I checked my local cinema and they are only showing it in 2D!!! I wonder is it that they have not got the special 3D glasses of is there a special projection system involved?
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I think there is a special projection system involved. The theater I saw it at was using 2 digital projectors for it, mounted on opposite back corners of the theater. Go find it in a neigboring town if possible Mike, its really cool in 3d
Chris
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@gaieus said:
Well, I like fantasy films, I like Sci-fi, western and action.
This is all in one (after all, those aliens are just masqueraded Indians...)Well, who exactly are aliens in the Westerns? I guess it's the POV of the film makers.
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Hi folks.
I just saw it yesterday in a 3D digital equipped theater. The only word that come to my mind is WOW !!!
Of course the plot is not new but the attention given to details is awesome.
I will never get the same complete trill when watching 2D movies, even on a big screen.
I was with my wife and she did not like the experience. She walked out of the cinema feeling dizzy.
I think that, since we were quite close to the screen, we where completely immersed in the 3D pictures. With all this action and all these movements, added to the lack of a fixed and known static reference, like the wall of a theater, it is possible that some person's equilibrium system may get affected. To day, I heard that one of my wife's sister got the same effect.
Hey, this is just an idea, as usual.
Some will remember how 2001 a Space Odyssey redefined Science Fiction movies, how Star Wars improved on it, how Alien added the dark side to it. Now, AVATAR add the complete "out of this world experience". It will be quite a challenge for other film makers to use 3D in all movies but I might see this as a coming standard, at least for films with out of this world stories, or even music shows, and, after all, why not every movie.
But, for me, again, WOW. A big
for Mr Cameron and his team.Happy new year 2010 to all. Hey, this will be the year used by Arthur C. Clarke for its second story "2010 Odyssey 2". Are they due for a remake of the previous version that was not that bad but ... in 3D .. well ... one can hope. And I can also dream that some days, a film maker will create a set of movies based on another incredible A. C. Clarke work, the RAMA tetralogy (four books in total).
Just ideas.
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@gaieus said:
Well, I like fantasy films, I like Sci-fi, western and action.
This is all in one (after all, those aliens are just masqueraded Indians...)don't forget the little bit of love story - to please the female customers!
(although I have to say, I found the 4m high, blue-skinned, long-tailed Na-ví to be quite attractive...
)@mike lucey said:
Like Tom, I'm not into this type of film much but would enjoy the 3D experience. Anyway, I checked my local cinema and they are only showing it in 2D!!! I wonder is it that they have not got the special 3D glasses of is there a special projection system involved?
actually, you need a digital projection system to show these movies in 3D. and they are rather expensive still - something around 100 000 $ as far as I know. so not every cinema will be able to invest that sort of money.
but for several reasons all movies (2D and 3D alike) will be projected digitally eventually:
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one copy of a 35mm film is several hundret bugs (depending on the quality even something like 1000$ as far as I know). so if the producers want a movie to start at many cinemas at the same time, thats a lot of money just for copying the movie.
with digital projection the cinema just has to download the movie (or get it via post on a hard disc).
and the projectionist doesn't have to drag huge film reels around, that easily measure 1m in diameter (and isn't in danger of dropping it - to have a kilometer of film in a mess on the floor ) -
the digital copy doesn't lose quality during usage. it will always maintain the same high quality, whereas the analog copy will gain scratches over time.
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35mm film has been around for quite some time now and probably is as good as it can get by now. the resolution of this sort of film is equivalent to 3000 lines on a digital image. but during the process of making the movie (cutting, copying, etc.) the quality is reduced to about 2000 vertical lines. therefore most movies, that have a lot of digital effects, get scanned with a 2K scanner (which is 1080 lines), digital effects are added in the same resolution and it is finally printed again in the same resolution.
digital cinema projectors however can already cope with a 4K resolution (4.096 × 2.048). therefore a digital image can already seem sharper and crisper, than an analog one.
(I hope I have got the numbers right here. but I've seen digital projections of 2D movies on a big screen. and it is very crisp and colourful)
and bear in mind, that the age of digital projection only just began. so we can await huge improvements on that front. -
the job of a projectionist will become a lot easier. he just has to assemble commercials, trailers and the main movie to a nice programm on a computer and assign it to a projector.
he can't make any mistakes when initially preparing the movie (the analog copy arrives at the cinema in several little reels, that the projectionist has to glue together to one big film).
and the projectors having no moving parts appart from the cooling system means a lot less maintennance and little danger of the lens getting out of focus.
(of course there are downsides as well to this technology. when I watched 'New Moon' for instance there were several interuptions, when image and audio froze for seconds, like with a scratched dvd)
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