Hey folks, Harry here with a glimpse from the Purple Headless Guy of some of the shorts that played at SIGGRAPH this year. Thanks to the recent HOLLYWOOD REPORTER SIGGRAPH ISSUE, I am able to accompany his piece with a few images here and there. These first two images though are from a couple of projects I'd love to see. The first one is from something called MOEBIUS-THE CITY OF FIRE. I've been a fan of Moebius work for a very very long time now. He's been influencing the looks of films for a good 25 years now... From ALIEN to FIFTH ELEMENT you can see his design style at work, either from his fingertips or his influence upon others. And then this.... NIGHT OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN short from Computed Animation Technology looks friggin killer!
A few days ago I was in sunny California and I got to see the yearly Siggraph film show. You know what it's about, but just in case you don't, it's a collection of the best computer graphic movies from the last year. These range from short movies to dissections of how a computer created the images in a movie to showing off about what new technology can do for CGI. There were fourty-three short movies showing, but alas, my memory is not what it once was, so instead of the full list and descriptions, it'll have to be highlights.
Tokitama Hustle
Directed by Koji Morimuto
This was a very Manga-esque short featuring amazingly well done two-dimensional animation about a small and very mature Japanese boy and his hyperactive robotic parent, 'Mama-Papa'. The boy goes out of the room that both characters are in and says, sarcastically, that he will be back in three hundred years. Mama-Papa takes this seriously and kills itself trying to get out. Thirty minutes later the boy returns to find his parent(s) dead. This could be a step forward for anime movies, but I'm not sure what else.
Wild Card
Directed by Van Phan
This short showed off some good two/three dimensional graphics in a small tale about how a Queen (from a pack of cards) realises that she doesn't want another picture card for a partner, she wants the joker.
Saving Private Ryan
This was a small dissection of how they put several pieces of one of the opening shots together to create a spectacular effect.
Breaking objects
This short was designed to show how far physics-based animation has come. It just showed objects being hit by a ball or being dropped and breaking (hence the title). This could be immensly useful in the world of video games, and in movies it could help a lot of people along the way in action or sci-fi movies. This sort of thing could have worked well in 'The Matrix'.
The Fort at Mashantucket
Produced by Raymond Doherty
This showed how a computer digitally recreated a destroyed Native American fort perfectly. This could have applications in surveys of historical sites, and could even make historical movies more accurate...
Body Story
Art Director: Chris Hart
This short showed a girl getting her arm broken. The intesting thing about it was when she fell off, they simulated her breaking her arm through a small x-ray segment. This could have a place in Paul Verhoven's 'The Hollow Man'. Hmmm...
Tightrope
Digital Domain
You previewed this quite a while ago, when someone gave you a zip disk with a couple of pictures of this on it. Well, if you've seen the pictures then you'll have an idea of how cool this looked. The characters moved so fluidly and looked so amazing that I have trouble describing it. If you ever get a chance to look at this at an animation festival or on an animation video or DVD, you should at least take a look. You WON'T be dissapointed. This is another feather in Digital Domain's cap.
LIDAR: Reality Capture
Directed and produced by Eric Wong and Dennis Martin
This was a really quite amazing piece of technology. It captures large objects by shooting light off them and reflecting it back into the memory of this machine to produce an amazingly lifelike image.
Wild Wild West
Dissection of special effects in the movie, but we all know that's not important about this movie. What is important is that Jon Peters must be put to death before he pollutes the film industry with any more shit like this. If he ever makes the Sandman movie anything less than a classic, I swear I'll incinerate his hairdressing ass.
To build a better mousetrap
Digital Filmworks
Average CGI, but for some reason I get a particular thrill about seeing CGI gore...Mice being cut into pieces, crushed, thrown into blenders etc. If only Peter Jackson's 'Dead Alive' had been made now...
The Jester
Directed by Paul Charette and Mark Sagar.
This is the beginning of the end for real actors in movies. This is also the first step towards seeing the 'Avatar' movie made. A completely realistic CGI head kitted out with a jester's hat spouting out pseudo-profound bullshit. The thing was, this head was created entirely by a computer and it looked absolutely real. Scary, really.
Bjork: All is full of love music video
Directed by Chris Cunningham
Glassworks Ltd.
This was a very cool piece of CGI. Chris Cunningham mapping Bjork's face onto a robot body.
Bunny
Directed by Chris Wedge
Blue Sky Studios
This was rightfully nominated for an Oscar last year, but it lost out to the equally-great 'Geri's game'. This really was a fantastic piece of CGI.
HARRY HERE: Actually this is incorrect. BUNNY did win the Oscar for best animated short in 1998. GERI'S GAME won in 1997!
I'm sorry I couldn't go into more detail but I'm suffering from chronic jetlag. There really was a hell of a lot of cool stuff there, and you should probably keep your eye on some of the techniques used in them. Also, did you know that the South Park movie is getting released in Britain as a 15 certificate, completely unedited from the original version? Meanwhile in the 'land of the free' the MPAA is saying that it should have been a NC-17...Disturbing, to say the least. I'll write again if I have something worthwhile to say,
Purple Headless Guy
