main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Did AOTC turn Star Wars into a science experiment?

Discussion in 'Archive: Attack of the Clones' started by CMoney, Oct 12, 2003.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Darth_Insidious

    Darth_Insidious Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2002
    That's it? "I know you are, but what am I?"

    *yawn*
     
  2. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    *sniffle*

    Hey! At least you finally have something else to talk about...

    Now, others might actually want to hear from you... ;)

    And, if you need to focus on me to have an original thought come out of you, well, I'll be happy to be the fall guy.

    Tolerating you is probably a tax-writeoff, anyway... not that I expect you to understand adult things such as tax-writeoffs...

    Great hearing from you, tonight!
    And, congrats on your first non-whiny post! ;)
     
  3. Darth_Insidious

    Darth_Insidious Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2002
    Oh rest assured, I'll get back to slamming George and the prequels soon enough. But please, do go on. The slobbering Phanboy Menace telling someone else to come up with an original thought is just as hilarious as Louie Anderson telling someone to lay off the cupcakes.

    But what's really interesting is how you can bring yourself to drag your lips off George's ass long enough to type up your posts.
     
  4. Lady_Sami_J_Kenobi

    Lady_Sami_J_Kenobi Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Let's cool down the flames and stay on topic, please. :)
     
  5. Darth_Insidious

    Darth_Insidious Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2002
    Better call in the Coruscant Fire Department. Assuming they weren't CGI too. ;)
     
  6. Lady_Sami_J_Kenobi

    Lady_Sami_J_Kenobi Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2002
    I have a 'fire dept.' that's a little closer and not CGI, if you catch my drift.

    Just cool the flames down, discuss the arguments, not the person making the arguments, thanks!
     
  7. Lars_Muul

    Lars_Muul Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 2, 2000
    I know you said the CG looked like a video game, Sami, but you´re simply wrong. No video game looks that good.
    You´re trying to say that the FX in SW isn´t used to tell the story? Wrong again.
    I´m not really interested in hearing what anyone else thinks, cuz that doesn´t matter to my SW experience. I was just discussing this for fun. Now I´m tired of it. Bye! :)
     
  8. Quixotic-Sith

    Quixotic-Sith Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 22, 2001
    Myke & Insidious - 48 hours for both of you for flaming and flame-baiting. Enough is enough.
     
  9. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
  10. Krash

    Krash RSA Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 11, 2000
    The arena scenes and the clone wars battles were too heavy in CGI
    One point of clarification...there wasn't much CGI at all (with the exception of battle droids/Geonosians) The actors were filmed on a blue screen, which was matched up to a scale model of the arena (you can watch the process on the AOTC DVD documentary) It would be way to expensive and impractical to build a full sized arena set; they used simliar techniques in the making of "Gladiator"

    Besides, you spend millions building a full sized arena for the Geonosis sports teams...and we all know they'll never pass a school levy for the Geonosian school system ;)
     
  11. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    Krash, you're right, but she may have been talking about the CG characters(droids, geonosians, beasts, etc.)
     
  12. Lars_Muul

    Lars_Muul Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 2, 2000
    There is indeed much CG at Geonosis. Hundreds(thousands?) of Geonosians, their beasts of burden, the acklay, the reek and the nexu.
    Then the battle droids arrive, which brings even more CG. However, most of the Geonosians flee the arena as soon as the Jedi ignite their lightsabers. And enter the clones!
    Outside the arena, it´s the actors against bluescreen and hundreds of added CG characters, probably CG backgrounds, some fullsize vehicles, some handbuilt models and some CG models.
    In my eyes, this isn´t anything negative. They´re simply using CG were traditional FX wouldn´t be sufficient. I´ll grant you that they could have used actors in clonetrooper armor and duplicated them(and made CG clones for backgrounds), but GL felt like experimenting a little and I think the result is P-R-E-T-T-Y convincing. Plus, it was cheaper and allowed them to do painless and not very time-consuming manipulations of the shots.
     
  13. Jedi_Master201

    Jedi_Master201 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    May 5, 2001
    "Outside the arena, it´s the actors against bluescreen and hundreds of added CG characters, probably CG backgrounds, some fullsize vehicles, some handbuilt models and some CG models."


    SOME CG backgrounds, maybe, but weren't most of them actually snap-shots of scenery in some south-western states?
     
  14. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    Snap-shots from my backyard actually. 8-}

    Yeah, they used actual photographs to create a background plate for the shots of the battle showing the clones advancing.

    Lars, there were no full-size vehicles. They were mostly CG along with a few models rigged with pyro to blow up.

    Real pyro still looks better than CG fire.

    The closest thing to full-size vehicles was the interior of the gunship that Kenobi, Skywalker, and Naberrie hang out in.
     
  15. Cometgreen

    Cometgreen Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2002
    They did do some pyro? I thought that, since the DV cams could only record at 24 or 30 fps, they had to go digital for all explosions and fire effects. But some of those explosions in the Clone War battle weren't slowed down, so I guess they could have been real.

    Krash-finally someone said it! *stops laughing* I personally thought that Sami was talking about how the environments were too CGI, when in fact they were models. Can you clear this up, Lady_Sami? Were you simply annoyed by the amount of CG creatures, like the battledroids (which are hard not to do convincingly), the Geonosians, or the clonetroopers? I believe all of the environment was either models or plate photography. I think Pablo whats-his-name mentions that, when Dooku and the TF guys are leaving, they used real footage for the background.

    Cometgreen
     
  16. Lord_Hydronium

    Lord_Hydronium Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 11, 2002
    They did do some pyro? I thought that, since the DV cams could only record at 24 or 30 fps, they had to go digital for all explosions and fire effects. But some of those explosions in the Clone War battle weren't slowed down, so I guess they could have been real.

    In one of the DVD documentaries (don't remember which), there's a bit showing the FX crew blowing up an AT-TE in front of a blue screen.
     
  17. Lady_Sami_J_Kenobi

    Lady_Sami_J_Kenobi Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Let me clarify, I watched AOTC three times on Sunday and it's the battle scenes where there are mostly clones and battledroids. Then the sequence towards the end with the clones and the Star Destroyers. I know most, if not all, of this had to be CGI, but this is what looked exactly like the video game to me. I don't know if it was the lighting, the dust that was blowing around or what, but it looked really fake.

    There were places in other scenes in the arena where the actors had to act against bluescreen and I felt this hurt their performances.

    Also, for Gladiator, they did build a coliseum. The last few stories were CGI, but I think the first two or three were real. When I have a chance, I'll watch the extras on my Gladiator DVD again.
     
  18. Lars_Muul

    Lars_Muul Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 2, 2000
    ShaneP: That´s what I meant with fullsize vehicles :) I thought that the gunship interior had to be fullsize.
    Oh yeah, I forgot the pyro-thingies!

    And thanks for correcting me on the backgrounds, guys.

    EDIT: Darn, I can´t stay away from this thread! I guess I´m just too interested in modern FX making.
     
  19. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    This is a good thread to address concerns some people have with the effects of AOTC.

    Personally, I wanted to see guys in trooper armor running around instead of mo-capped and key-framed CG guys, but that's just me.

    In the end, what matters is: Does it work? I think for the most part, the CG troopers work very well.

    The problem I have is their nemesis: droids.

    They were made out to be idiotic in TPM, so why not upgrade to cyborgs or something?

    I want Braveheart with lightsabers!

    8-}

    BTW, on the pyro they had to modify the digi-cams in order to shoot not just pyro, but the models.

    Everything ran real hot because of all the lights.

    There's a great article on it that ran in last years American Cinematographer on what the ILM FX Photographers had to do in order to shoot the miniatures and stage elements.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.