That's pretty much all I can say after using the Motion Capture Lab today. Like, damn. I'm so happy I go to CMU and get to experience all these wonderful opportunities. As a semi-closeted geek, I have always enjoyed seeing the green-screen motion-capture work of Lord of the Rings and EA Sports games - seeing Tiger Woods in a black suit with lots of little reflective balls doing his signature swing in a film studio is quite the interesting image. However, I didn't think I would have the opportunity to have 1st-hand experience with this technology, and performance method, until much later on in my career, and so the work we did today was really special.
Because I haven't yet seen my stick-figure image of the blue heron yet, I can't really use that information to make an informed journal entry about how my movements have been matching up with how a blue heron moves in real life. However, I will discuss how watching other people's movements on screen matched up with what I have learned about animal movements thus far, and I will also talk about what can be learned from working in this type of environment.
The biggest thing I got from seeing the dots moving on screen was a really clear sense of how important Matt's undulations are in how an animal moves. When an animal is covered by skin, by muscle and fur and fat, it can be really difficult to see this undulations - it really just looks like one movement. But if you take that movement apart, study its various features, you will actually notice that the animal is using lots of different movements (sometimes contradictory!) to forward a single movement. Take a tiger walking, for example. It may just seem like the tiger is lifting his paw and moving it forward, in tune with his back paw - but in reality much more is going on. In reality, the tiger is often subtly moving side to side as he moves forward, especially when he walks slowly, and his opposite paws are being activated in movement as the "walking" paws move forward. So there is much to think about, and I think the Motion Capture lab can be a really good place to step back and look at all of this movement. When you have little balls all over your body, you can see how all of those balls are moving distinct from one another - so you can see when you're taking a step, for example, the way your static foot is moving. I use the tiger as an example because I saw the undulations particularly well with Zanny's animal. The way she moved her back showed up on the screen as this up-and-down movement that I had never really noticed before, and like I said previously, I noticed for the first time the way her paws moved as she took steps. With Jordan's llama as well, I noticed a different type of undulation going on in his shoulders - it was like his shoulders were moving forward and backward, propelling his forward motion. Perhaps he leads his animal with his shoulders? I'm not sure. What I can say is that I am excited to look at the display of my own animal and see where the hidden undulations are, because I know they exist.
In terms of how this experience was a taste of what I may get in the Business in the future, I am excited by the opportunities that computer technology provides for film. I can see this happening in most of the movies I see - special effects have become the norm for summer blockbusters, sci-fi flicks, action flicks, horror movies, vampire movies, werewolf movies, and other supernatural movies. But I have just begun to scratch the surface with where this technology is being used. Although you may not realize it, effects are used to remove camera crews from shots with mirrors, to color correct, and to put cities and skyscapes in where they don't actually exist. Matt told us to check out the effects reel of Black Swan, and I think it is a perfect example of the breadth of how this technology can be used. The video (check it out here: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/check-out-this-black-swan-visual-effects-reel) shows a range of techniques that sometimes contribute to the weird shit happening with Natalie Portman, and sometimes not. For example, the camera crew removal is a common effect, along with simple additions of audience members in a seating house that doesn't exist and smoothing over the floor of the dance floor to look more pristine. But then, of course, there are the animated feathers growing out of her back, the mirror shots in which she appears as someone else or her reflection turns suddenly in contradiction with what Nina is doing, and the various times in which she sees someone else who has her own face. The effects reel makes it look easy, and, although I am just starting to get a knowledge of how this technology works, I think it may actually be easy in this day and age. For example, the work that Justin and Mo are doing in the Mo Cap lab is already outdated, Justin said - for Avatar, for example, they did not use little reflective balls but instead an entire reflective mask that made the process much simpler and quicker. They were also experimenting with reflective paint and glitter that could be easily spread across an actor's body. So the point of this is that the opportunities for the work that can be done, from both a director and an actor's standpoint, are almost limitless; perhaps only limited by time and money given to the production. I would like to think that in the future, as a director, I will be given the time and money to work with these effects, because they are completely changing how the entertainment business is being run. It is no longer the case that we only see special FX in big summer blockbusters like Transformers; now we are seeing accomplished intelligent directors like Darren Aronofsky utilizing, in sometimes very subtle ways, the advanced technology to their advantage in movies where the special FX don't detract, but rather enhance, the story.
Oh, and one more thing I learned: when buying a leotard, try to buy one meant for both women and men.
No comments:
Post a Comment