ST What nods to the PT do you want to see in TFA?

I thought it looked glorious tbh, but I'm never that fussed about compositing so much as overall look and vibe. I've never liked the digital clones that much so my own preferences come into play a fair bit.

 

hey everyone I just want to say that most people aren't against using CGI we are okay with it being used in the prequels just not to the point where it looks like a really bad animated film just with a few live characters two-thirds of the time.

some of the worlds were really imaginative, but poor execution. Coruscant sometimes looked good but certain areas (especially the Jedi Temple and Senate chamber) are so fake and lifeless. that's really the only PT planet I'd want them to revisit and only briefly in IX if they do at all. some of the other planets deserve better justice but it's not worth it for the ST.

also I'm down for CGI in the ST, it's just all about taste. obviously a lot of that trailer used CGI and other digital methods but it was tastefully done, which is the difference. it's clearly not real, but believable, if that makes sense.

 

Not even close, IMO. The above looks like a live action film (though it's not my favorite shot of the teaser) while the below looks like a fully animated feature. Good animation, but still, entirely animated.

 

It would be better to compare it to the extreme long shots in the prequels, and also the jet zooms which were identical in the Geonosis battle. Makes more sense in war footage too. Lucas did it first, and more often. JJ hardly ever does that sort of thing. He's more of a closeup, medium shot director. Long shots are in this because that's what Star Wars always had, and likely because JJ is not composing the shots or storyboarding. Lots of experienced Star Wars vets at ILM.

 

Completely agree with that.

 

Then we indeed have differing tastes. The TFA one looks unfinished. The lighting is poor and the perspective is so forced as to make it seem totally unnatural. Don't get me wrong... I like all the other effects shots in the trailer, but you are in denial if you think this is a good example of digital compositing...

 

I didn't say anything about it being good digital compositing. As I mentioned, it's not my favorite shot in the teaser (possibly my least favorite, having looked through the screenshots).

However, the TFA shot actually does look like it has real elements in it. Real actors, and a real background. A little awkwardly composited, but still composed of elements that look natural.

The AOTC shot is, IIRC, 100% digital and it shows. The troopers are clearly animated, the destroyers are clearly animated, the buildings in the background are clearly animated, and the sky looks suffocatingly digital. And then there's a digital filter on the image that gives it what I describe as "shorthand august glow." In the few months of my life that I spent animating, it was one of those filters that was very easy to use as a crutch. With one click, you can bathe anything in digital augustness!

I suppose what I would ask you, is: Do you simply like the digital painterly-ness of the bottom shot, or do you actually think it looks more real than the TFA shot? If the former, we just have different tastes. If the latter, we actually may see things differently on a physical level.

In closing, I would love the AOTC shot if the film was an animated feature. I would embrace it. But as a scene from a live action film, it's deeply disappointing.

Another reasonable comparison:



Vs.



IMO, no contest in terms of realism. Not even marginally close.

 

that close up shot of AOTC actually looks really good- a good animated film. the sequence as a whole looks like a really bad animated film though.

 

that' your opinion though.

 

Amen. For balance, I'd just like to big up the Podrace, which I think is stunning to this day and aside from some cartoony racer designs, one of the highlights of the saga.

 

Podrace was cool. Much better use of CGI than most of AOTC and ROTS (though that's true of TPM in general, IMO).

But there were still too many digital natural formations that were very unconvincing to me (and unnaturally lit).

 

some (not all) of the backgrounds look really good in the prequels.

but the ships and basically everything that is meant to be in focus or pop out is so painfully fake looking. podrace is best use of CGI in the PT, but The Phantom Menace also has one of the biggest offenders- the Naboo battle with the Gungans and droids. it's soooooooooo fake. the animated feature films of the time looked so much better than that. a good film can be timeless despite antiquated technology, TPM just looks bad in both ways in most parts.

let me remove us all from the Star Wars context so we can let go of our emotions. the prequels are like a bad shoegaze band just drenching everything in reverb in a bad attempt to give the illusion of emotion and depth, while the other Star Wars films are like a good shoegaze band using light reverb to enhance the sound rather that ruin everything.

 

This is in danger of descending into one of those "PT fans bash TFA out of spite" threads. Look, how ever much you critique JJ Abrams or TFA, you are never going to change the fact that a lot of people are of the opinion that the prequel trilogy is really not very good.

If you like it, great: I personally love a lot of old, sub-par Chevy Chase movies which I know many people don't - it doesn't bother me what others think.

But picking holes in an as-yet-unreleased film based on quick cuts of scenes without context is beyond absurd.

 

Maybe not in TFA but in a future sequel Luke reminiscing about his childhood on Tatooine.

 

You all want to know what this reminds me of? ****ing Lego Star Wars lol. I love that game where it's fake in a charming way, but you wouldn't want that look in your actual films. I mean just look at those structures. they look kind of like plastic. that's the closest real-looking object I can come up with. a lot of things in the PT just look like the same plastic.

again I'm not trying to just do the same old bashing that we've been seeing for 16 years now but I am not sad that we won't be "seeing nods" to this animation style.

lol IDK

 

I think its perfectly justified to poke holes in the Disney films....the irony is fans of the disney star wars get annoyed and upset, never realizing they are getting the energy they themselves put out there. So yes pick TFA a part. Thanks

 

The fact that TFA is episode VII is a direct nod to episodes I, II, and III... while also providing the fan service of being a direct nod to episodes IV, V, and VI... and that's good enough for me!

But seriously, nothing too specific in my mind; creatures, aliens, ships, planets... that sort of thing, used sparingly between all the new stuff.

 

I would love it if Emperor Palpatine is referred to as Darth Sidious.

 

Maybe some pod racing somewhere.

 

Jesus are we really talking about realism in adventure fantasy films inspired by 30´s adventure sci-fi and fantasy serials and cinema of Hollywood Golden Age?
What about all those by today standards also unrealisticaly looking special effects shots in IV-VI? Why won´t you bash them as well?

 

By that standard, why not just have the films consist of animated stick figures?

 

"Compare that to the opening scene of ROTS, where the camera follows close behind Obi-Wan's and Anakin's ships the whole time."

 

That´s not what I ment and you know it.