James Cameron's Avatar

  On 1/4/2010 at 3:10 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 1/4/2010 at 2:08 PM, karmakramer said:

animation is pretty much flawless

 

that's mocap. They do a great job with mocap. There are only a few problems - when blending between mocap anims, when blending between mocap and keyframe anim, and when it's pure keyframe. For example take the sequence in the thanator chase where he gets grabbed by his backpack and has to unbuckle it. It's possible that parts of that were handled by mocap - for all I know they rigged a stuntman up to some metal bar and flung him around - but it can't have been perfect. And I don't think it was actually handled that way, it would just be too challenging to have a rig swinging some guy back and forth in a harness in a realistic manner, have him unbuckle himself at exactly the right moment to fly across the room and land on some pads. I think it's far more likely they just keyframed the whole sequence, and it shows. The guy is all "floaty" in the backpack straps; the weight of his body is not convincing.

that's all true and i agree with all that. but it's still the first time i'm genuinely impressed by the general feeling of computer animation in a movie. you know, like after the movie ends and the good moments so severely outweigh the bad ones that you completely forget it's not just perfect.

Its funny how this gif looks better to me than the real thing in the cinema. Maybe its the altered feeling of the sandy-like picture

Haven't seen it, expecting it to be average blockbuster shit.

guys this movie has only made a billion dollars

we need to go see it again or Jimmy wont get his golde toilet on his private aircraft carrier

  On 1/4/2010 at 3:41 PM, gaarg said:

Its funny how this gif looks better to me than the real thing in the cinema. Maybe its the altered feeling of the sandy-like picture

it is funny, because to me the gif looks exactly the same, just worse. seriously. you've hit your head on your way out of the cinema or something.

  On 1/4/2010 at 3:41 PM, gaarg said:

Its funny how this gif looks better to me than the real thing in the cinema. Maybe its the altered feeling of the sandy-like picture

that's not surprising, somethings can be more aesthetically pleasing when they aren't so clean. some movies/music producers make everything too clean and plastic, literally and figuratively speaking.

  On 1/4/2010 at 3:34 PM, kokoon said:

 

that's all true and i agree with all that. but it's still the first time i'm genuinely impressed by the general feeling of computer animation in a movie. you know, like after the movie ends and the good moments so severely outweigh the bad ones that you completely forget it's not just perfect.

I hear you - hey, you're talking to a guy who loved the Final Fantasy movie when it came out, despite all its glaring flaws. I'm going to take our entire team of 53 employees out to see Avatar next week and pay for it from my own pocket :-)

lol, awesome :D

  On 1/4/2010 at 3:10 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 1/4/2010 at 2:08 PM, karmakramer said:

animation is pretty much flawless

 

that's mocap. They do a great job with mocap. There are only a few problems - when blending between mocap anims, when blending between mocap and keyframe anim, and when it's pure keyframe. For example take the sequence in the thanator chase where he gets grabbed by his backpack and has to unbuckle it. It's possible that parts of that were handled by mocap - for all I know they rigged a stuntman up to some metal bar and flung him around - but it can't have been perfect. And I don't think it was actually handled that way, it would just be too challenging to have a rig swinging some guy back and forth in a harness in a realistic manner, have him unbuckle himself at exactly the right moment to fly across the room and land on some pads. I think it's far more likely they just keyframed the whole sequence, and it shows. The guy is all "floaty" in the backpack straps; the weight of his body is not convincing.

Okay, okay, flawless is stretching it abit. I too found moments like that, but it's really damn good. And the way they used mocap and image metrics for facial animation, it simply hasn't been seen before. It hasn't been available in the digital industry before, so alot of these things people are nitpicking on, I'm just not sure what their frame of reference is.

  On 1/4/2010 at 4:01 PM, lumpenprol said:

I hear you - hey, you're talking to a guy who loved the Final Fantasy movie when it came out, despite all its glaring flaws. I

Shit, I thought I was the only one.. High five!

I probably would have enjoyed the first final fantasy movie in perfect 3D just as much as Avatar

THIS MOVIE WAS A LOAD OF CRAP !!!

--

finally watched it, yes in 3-d and yes with a silvered screen, i did everything right, it was the movie that blew. might write up a few bullet points when i'm not so pissed off, later.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Haha ok, what if we simply say that if you want some good old blockbuster no-brainer the movie is great, but if you approach it critically it fails? I'm prepared to settle it at that.

i'd say that's accurate if you include the star wars trilogy, aliens, terminator 1 & 2 in the category of a good ole no brainer blockbuster

I wouldn't say Aliens was a no-brain Blockbuster

neither would i , i was trying to illustrate thedouble standard when people label Avatar as 'no brainer' but seem to love and be very forgiving to other forms of popcorn scifi /action.

  On 1/4/2010 at 9:53 PM, Awepittance said:

i'd say that's accurate if you include the star wars trilogy, aliens, terminator 1 & 2 in the category of a good ole no brainer blockbuster

Ok, I do. All these movies are pretty much no brainers. They however try really hard to look very complex and deep lol.

  On 1/4/2010 at 10:24 PM, encey said:

C'mon James Cameron.

We went and saw it in non-3D, non-IMAX on New Year's Day, and I must say, I really liked it, and was very impressed by the CGI - certainly the best I've yet seen in a movie. I liked the story, and my only real complaint (minor) was the fact they didn't chase after the hot Latina girl after she stole the helicopter - I mean, did you see them tittays? I'd chase after that fo sho.

did you go see it with the fam? how did they like it?

  On 1/4/2010 at 10:24 PM, encey said:

  On 1/2/2010 at 9:17 PM, doorjamb said:

(FERN GULLY + WORLD OF WARCRAFT) x VOYAGE OF THE HERO = DANCES WITH THUNDERCATS

 

Q.E.D.

ftfy

  On 1/4/2010 at 11:17 PM, Awepittance said:

did you go see it with the fam? how did they like it?

My wife really liked it; my son and his friend and his friends' girlfriend thought it was 'OK' - my daughter thought the same.