Chapter 798： The technical difficulties of "Avatar" (middle)

Head to head Hollywood 798.2 Author Qiandixue Full text 3437 words

The technology of motion capture has a long history, nearly a hundred years. It has been used in all walks of life for half a century. However, they are relatively simple. Such as robot remote control, interactive games, sports training, sports tracking and other fields. Motion capture made its way into movies...only 20 years old. Of course, motion capture in the past mainly refers to some animation production, mainly simulating some of the most basic and simple character activities. For example, the image of "Gollum" in the "Lord of the Rings" series. This is a character made entirely by computer CG. Because of the breakthrough progress made by Weta Digital in this technology, when watching the movie, the character image of "Gulu Gulu" does not have any sense of incongruity, as if he should belong to Middle-earth. It is much more realistic than the "Master Yoda" in the "Star Wars" series, as well as many animated characters. However, there is a problem! The "Gollum" in "The Lord of the Rings", when the characters move... the movements are relatively simple and simple, and they look clumsy. The image of the characters is not inconsistent, but the actions of the characters are very inconsistent. This is the disadvantage of "Weta Digital" in terms of motion capture technology! The motion capture of "Gulu Gulu", even if the motion capture master Andy Serkis was invited, failed to achieve the desired effect. "ILM is an industry pioneer in motion capture technology, and last year, I even took two weeks to go to the set of The Polar Express," Cameron said. "The Polar Express? Robert Zemeckis's That cartoon?" "That's right. Although this is just a cartoon, it is very different from the past cartoons. Traditional cartoons do not require actors to perform, either hand-drawn or computer-drawn, and the actors are in the post-production stage. The dubbing is fine. But "The Polar Express" is different. The animated characters here, every frown and smile are performed by actors. The revolutionary motion capture technology and performance preservation technology digitize the live image. This will be a show The technological revolution of movies!" It is not difficult to hear that Cameron appreciates the new technology used in "The Polar Express", and then said: "Hanks does not wear costumes during the performance, but he has to wear a full sensor. At the same time, 150 sensors are glued to the face, and every expression and movement of his eyelids, lips, eyebrows and other parts can be accurately captured by the computer through the sensors." "150 sensors..." Dunn can imagine To the appearance of Tom Hanks's face covered with sensors, 150... That's not all the sensors on the face? Cameron said more and more excitedly, and said excitedly: "Don, I watched the internal preview of "The Polar Express", it is really unparalleled! Science and technology can really digitize the DNA of actors and put them on the big screen Go! As long as this film is released, I dare to say that it will be an epoch-making, and the holographic motion capture technology it uses will become a milestone equivalent to the first sound film "Jazz Singer"!" Motion capture technology has been used, but only a very small part, it works very simple. "The Polar Express" is different. All the performances of the film are completed through motion capture. This is a must-have for filming Avatar. Corresponding to this... is a high price! "The Polar Express" cost 165 million US dollars, and all the performances and shooting were completed in front of the green screen of the studio, and the actor's performance space was only 10 square feet in total. If Robert Zemeckis also pursues "film quality" like many old-school directors, well... The production cost of the film can't be stopped by 300 million US dollars! "I heard... "The Polar Express" uses the latest motion capture technology developed by Industrial Light & Magic? Not even "Star Wars: Episode 3"?" Dunn thought slowly. Cameron said disdainfully: "Who said no? George Lucas...hehe, he wanted to use "Polar Express" as a test field to verify the practicability of new technologies. Anyway, it was Warner's money, he didn't feel bad about spending it , this is different from shooting "Star Wars Episode 3"." "It turns out that the new motion capture technology is very successful?" "Perfect!" "So...you need me to help you get George?" Dunn seemed to laugh Looking at him nonchalantly. Cameron's face was slightly embarrassed, and he said as a matter of course: "Aren't you the investor and producer of "Avatar"? Isn't this your job?" Dunn nodded, and didn't say much, and got George Lu Cass, there is no difficulty for him. In fact, in the 1980s, Cameron and Lucas had a good relationship. In the 1990s, after the filming of "Terminator 2"... Cameron received great voices and market recognition, and it seemed that he surpassed Lucas and became a science fiction master. The great success of "Terminator 2" gave Cameron great confidence and ambition, and he really wanted to surpass George Lucas completely! At first, he wanted to make "Spider-Man", but later he felt that making other people's stories was too cheap, so he gave up. Instead, he wrote his own script - "Avatar"! What is the logic behind Avatar? It is Cameron who wants to create a sci-fi world beyond "Star Wars"! It is a pity that the technical level of that year was far from his requirements. Cameron took the next step and went to film "Titanic." To create the fluid effects of the sinking ship, Cameron turned to Industrial Light and Magic for help. As a result, the world's number one special effects company actually said it couldn't do it! How ridiculous? Cameron was directly furious, poached Industrial Light and Magic's special effects manager Kurt Ross, and pulled in Stan Weston to set up the "Digital Domain" special effects studio. Since then, Hollywood has begun the dual era of "Industrial Light and Magic" and "Digital Domain" in the special effects market. The competition between the industry leader and the industry leader is fierce. For many reasons, the relationship between Cameron and Lucas is very cold. Cameron wants to use the latest research results of Industrial Light and Magic to create "Avatar", but it is impossible to do it with his own face alone. Of course, there is no reason for Tang En to fail. What 20th Century Fox in the previous life could handle, the new Universal would have had an easier time. Cameron added: "In addition to Weta Digital and Industrial Light and Magic, we also need to get the 3D Shadow Motion Lab of Flower Crow. The technology they are developing to capture virtual synthetic buttons will promote our real-time preview and motion capture. It's all written clearly in the report." "No problem! You said that the "Polar Express" is an epoch-making technological revolution, but now it seems... "Avatar" is the true hero. It's an emotional admiration. This big director has done so much technical preparation in the early stage, he deserves all the praise. Cameron smiled and said: "Weta Digital, Industrial Light and Magic, Flower Crow, Digital Domain, these are not enough, we also need the latest scientific achievements of the Optical Laboratory of MIT." "MIT? "Yes, they improved the reflective optical motion capture system, and then developed a headgear type expression capture system. This is very important for the actor's nuanced expression capture." Differentiate expression capture and motion capture, and use two sets of technical systems?" "This is also impossible. Compared with human movements, the subtle changes in facial expressions are too complicated, even the most advanced motion capture system. It’s hard to be the best.” Having said that, Cameron shook his head, “It’s still “The Polar Express”, in pursuit of the ultimate performance capture, Robert stuck 150 sensors on Hanks’ face, densely packed with eyes. I don't miss it. But the final visual presentation... I'm not very satisfied. The changes in facial expressions are too complicated, just capturing 150 details changes... It's not enough." It's only 2004. Most of the technologies that have been rotten in later generations are still in the process of research and development, trial use and improvement. "Avatar" is a guinea pig for all kinds of high-tech assembly and trial. It is far from being a simple 3D straight shot that can be summed up. For fans, the 3D effect of "Avatar" is an intuitive reflection. For filmmakers, there are more sophisticated high-end technologies behind "Avatar" than 3D direct shooting. Of course, this is only limited to Hollywood, which pursues exquisite and perfect visual effects For the film industry of other countries... To put it bluntly, even the special effects craftsmanship of Hollywood 10 years ago can still be achieved. Continue to lead the world for 20 years in a general sense. This is the conclusion of the famous French "Cinema Manual", and there is a generation gap of at least 30 years between Hollywood and outside Hollywood. Dunn is half technically blind and doesn't understand very well. He asked, "The headgear expression capture system you said can solve the problem?" Cameron stretched out a palm excitedly. "What do you mean?" "At least five times!" "Five times?" Dunn's eyes widened. Cameron said excitedly: "Robert Zemeckis covered Hanks' face with sensors in order to capture the rich expression changes. However, if you rely on this headgear expression capture system from the MIT Optical Laboratory, As long as the actor wears a headgear, he can use the reflected signals from different angles in the optical effect to capture the subtle changes on the actor's face, at least... 800 can be captured!" "Okay!" Dunn was also quite excited. He could suddenly feel the thrill of Cameron's pursuit of the ultimate in technology. It's a feeling of creating a new era! "But..." Cameron paused, a little embarrassed and a little guilty, "It's a university and a science laboratory. Although I know some things, I want to use their research results in film production. There are still Some trouble. After all, that's not Hollywood, our way, there...it won't work. " Tang En immediately understood what he meant, and it was a little funny. Isn't the technology developed in the university laboratory just to be applied in practice? The problem that Cameron said was nothing more than money! Of course, it's certainly not a small amount of money. If it was just a few hundred thousand dollars, Cameron would have done it out of his own pocket. https: Please remember this book's first domain name: . Nine Heavens God Emperor mobile version reading website: