"GODZILLA!!! Everybody, run!!!"
Redfern
Posts: 1,603
Though Skuts' started one in the animation sub-forum, I hope the moderators will not object to my efforts starting a similar topic in the "Commons".
With the release of Legendary Pictures' version of "Godzilla" today, I thought I'd start a thread in which members can discuss any and all things Godzilla related. well, maybe not "all" things. I don't think hardcore "rule 34 slash-fic" would be permitted on this board. (Hey, don't fool yourself into denying it exists. I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...to quote Roy Batty from "Blade Runner".) But short of that, this thread can serve as a general "round robin" discussion of the "Big G" and a spot to post and/or link Godzilla and other kaiju or giant monster based art.
There are several resources for Poser/DAz Studio compatible Godzilla and generic giant monster based material, both free and for purchase. English Bob hosts several figures sculpted and rigged by Scott Ayers upon his Morphography site. They include 4 different versions of Godzilla himself, the last being a conceptual design declined for the (in)famous 1998 movie. There's also a King Ghidorah, a Gabera and a collection of real dinosaurs that can be readily adapted as B-movie monsters.
http://www.morphography.uk.vu/dlscott.html
I hope this does not come across as bragging, but I humbly offer a custom .CR2 "figure" that can be used with Scott's "Final Wars" Godzilla that reshapes the head and gives the skin a "displaced" bark-like appearance. (Because it uses Poser based "Material Room" nodes, that feature is useless to DAZ Studio, but it should be able to use the .CR2 that modifies the skull.) It can be found here...
http://www.sharecg.com/v/64864/gallery/11/Poser/Godzilla-FW-X-treme
Scott Ayers also modeled the creature from the 1998 movie some fans endearingly call "G.I.N.O." (Godzilla In Name Only). Little Dragon took the base mesh and rigged it. The figure can be found here...
http://littledragon.francemi.net/misc_01.htm
Then, there's this Japanese site that offers a variety of monsters, some from the Gamera (a giant rocket propelled flying turtle) movies and others associated with the vintage UltraMan television series. There's also a more robust King Ghidorah that uses ERC for the three necks and two tails and two versions of Gigan.
http://h5n.jp/posernyan/monsters.html
MightyLady offers several versions of UltraMan and UltraWoman along with some of the monsters they defeated.
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?search=mightylady&expression=artist_name
Then there are some figures for purchase, most notably, Valandar's "Kaiju", a purposely "generic" looking theropod with a stout frame that can be morphed into some different forms. Valandar also offers an "add-on" set of fins and spikes to add even more variety. These can be found right here at DAZ.
http://www.daz3d.com/kaiju-the-giant-monster
http://www.daz3d.com/monster-maul-kaiju-add-ons
Speaking of "add-ons", Gareee sells a package of morphs and conforming spinal plates that are for use with Digital I's T-Rex, turning a realistic tyranosaurus figure into a movie monster. Again, these items are sold here at DAZ.
http://www.daz3d.com/tyrannosaurus
I'm sure there are other resources available, but these are the ones I readily remember.
Anyway, let's share our renders and anecdotes about the "King of the Monsters".
Sincerely,
Bill
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No renders yet, but our family went to see the movie together this afternoon, and it was a hit. Nice nods to the original films, as well as plenty of destructive stomping in a variety of modern cities. I was mildly worried when the first monster images showed up, as they weren't at all what I was expecting for The Big G, but my worries were soon banished. :)
I need to find time to render some Kaiju this weekend! :lol:
Edited to add: thanks for all the links-- especially Gamera. Anyone know where I can find Mothra? ;)
From what I've learned, it certainly appears as though this latest adaptation will be strong on personal drama and emotional turmoil, elements that made the original movie the classic it is.
Alas, my initial exposure to Godzilla (nearly 40 years ago) did not leave me very impressed. You see, the first Godzilla film I saw, which happened to be in the theaters rather than television was..."Godzilla vs. Megalon", a film a sizable percentage of fans consider one of the lowest points in the series.
In the United States, the lobby poster used most depicted the titular monsters atop the World Trade Center Towers as they faced off each other. In my ignorance of the franchise, I honestly expected the setting to be New York. But no such sequence took place. In fact, most of the combat took place in the wilderness, away from dense population centers. True, the beetle inspired Megalon blasted a few buildings and factory centers, but for the most part the creatures fought in a region of rolling hills devoid of human habitation. Thus, there was little sense of impending peril.
Also, being a kid "raised" upon films featuring the the otherworldly quality of "stop motion" puppet animation as used in "King Kong" and the Charles Schneer/Ray Harryhausen "Sinbad" series, I expected something akin to that. Instead, I witnessed what were obviously performers in elastic costumes "wrasslin'" upon a sound-stage festooned with railroading type models. Godzilla did not arrive until the final quarter of the film and his visage was almost puggishly "cute"! What on earth?! I found "Land of the Lost" more frightening!
Needless to say, that movie-going experience "put me off" the Godzilla concept for several years.
Fast forward five, maybe six years and I found myself thumbing through the TV listing in the paper. I noticed that a local UHF channel was going to broadcast the "original" Godzilla one evening. Now, when I say "original", I actually mean the version with the inserted scenes featuring Raymond Burr. I was doubtful, but I had read some retrospectives about the franchise since my Megalon disappointment. Various articles claimed the original movie was a very different, ahem beast from the material produced during the 70s. So I decided to give it a chance.
I'm glad I did! Given the subject matter, it was very serious. It exuded a definite sense of impending menace as this "force of nature" first threatened and later destroyed Japan's largest city, Tokyo. This creature did not look like some wide eyed "foo dog". Instead it possessed a very crocodilian face, coldly reptilian. And while its initial reveal happened during the day, the devastation was depicted at night, so the costume was considerably in shadow and "spotlit" from below, giving a better sense of implied scale. Plus, unlike many US produced monster films in which the featured city usually experiences at most relatively little damage, Tokyo was razed to the ground, consumed in a city wide firestorm. The scenes of the aftermath, survivors stacked like firewood in the few intact buildings was a bit more graphic than most American made popcorn cinema would dare depict. And yet, I read this was partially edited from the Japanese original.
I suspect what some of you may be thinking. "Bill, as impressed as you seem to be with the "Raymond Burr cut", you would probably enjoy the the "original Japanese "Gojira" even better. Well, thanks to Turner Classic Movies, I've had that opportunity, and yes, I enjoyed it more that the 1956 American cut. About two years ago, TCM broadcast the original "Gojira" (no Raymond Burr inserted footage), subtitled rather than dubbed. That pleasantly surprised me as it allowed me to watch it without being distracted by awkward voice-overs that didn't quite sync with the mouth movements. I was smart enough to record it upon my DVR and still retain that "feed".
Yeah, we may joke about the later Godzilla films that became more "kid friendly" with more, say we say, "frugal" budgets. But the creators took the original film very seriously and that earnest approach comes across in the final production. I think (okay, hope) that the upcoming Legendary Pictures release will recapture some of that original atmosphere.
Sincerely,
Bill
The property damage was very convincing. The death toll was also fairly high. Mostly off scene, sometimes not. The essential message of the original films was, I think, accurately conveyed.
I don't want to spoil anything for you. I will only say that in a way, this is a sequel to the first Gojira, though it is assumed that almost no one knows about the earlier appearance(s) of the King of Monsters. I think some of the footage used is actually from the early films. There is also some historical footage of nuclear tests, which is fitting, as that's part of the Gojira mythos.
I'll be very interested to hear what you think of it, once you've had a chance to see it.
Yeah, I've been trying to avoid spoilers as best I can, so I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
But what good is a thread like this without art of some kind. So here's something I put together a few weeks ago. It’s Scott Ayers’ “Final Wars” Godzilla with my custom morph and procedural material set listed in the opening post. The “water” is one of the “toppers” from AntFarm’s display stands. I doubled the “Y” scale and plugged the watery “foam” into the displacement channel. The threatening sky is from AntFarm’s “Twister”.
Sincerely,
Bill
I grew up watching Godzilla on Saturday afternoons. Even as a kid i thought they were a bit cheesy but i still enjoyed them. The low budget look was part of their charm. A few years ago I rented a Godzilla movie ( don't ask me what one, I don't read Japanese ) and i was rather surprised. It was all in Japanese, so none of the lame dubbing, I don't remember and subtitles, so following the movie was a tad difficult at times. This was def a later Godzilla, probably from mid to late 90s. It surprised me as being a much darker more gritty film than the stuff i watched as a kid. The really great thing was on the DVD they had a behind the scenes vid on how they film a Godzilla fight scene. I was really impressed with how much they achieve in camera. I was really impressed with the puppetry. We tend to think og Kaiju as guys in suits, but there are about 5 or six guys on the outside of each suit making things work with strings. Kind of makes you wonder how some of those fight scenes were done. If you have 2 or more monsters fighting that is a lot of string to get tangled up. anyway it was an odd find at my local video store out here in the sticks. Any time you get a chance to see an un-dubbed Kaiju or anime film, do it, it will change the way you view the films. I can't remember who said it, but there was a quote i once heard, "when you dub an actor's voice, you rob them of their performance" i think this is very true.
Nice job! That's a very similar face and body shape to the one they went with for the new film.
Needs a couple of destroyers and battleships being tossed about in the water to give a sense of scale, perhaps. :)
As for the puppetry, there's a long tradition of complex puppets in Japanese theater, so I'm not surprised that technique was used in Kaiju films.
And I definitely prefer subs to dubs, whether for anime or live action. Even if the anime is technically adjusted to match mouth movements, I can count the "good" dubs I've seen on one hand. Voice acting in the US just isn't taken seriously enough-- the actors are alone in a booth, fast-forwarding to their isolated lines, rather than interacting with the rest of the cast (as they would in Japan), and the style is usually goofy and exaggerated. I'd rather watch video "raw" (no translation) than put up with a bad dub.
This Godzilla movie gets around the sub problem by having Americans interacting with English-speaking Japanese characters in most of the story, but several of the American characters also speak Japanese. I was interested to see that the Japanese dialogue wasn't subtitled. There isn't a lot of it, the content isn't critical and is easily inferred by context, but still, I think it was fairly brave move, and a nice touch.
My Hubby is a huge Godzilla fan. He has infected the kids, but my daughter will defend Mothra to the death against her dad calling her a big useless sissy! oh the fights of the fans, got to love. I my self enjoy most Godzilla films but I have to admit, Final Wars is my current favorite. It was the first time that I actually found the people just as interesting and fun as the monsters. Love the camp! We are going to go see it this Sunday.
I should note my Kaiju and its add-ons are on sale this weekend... :D
Noted and buying, Thank You, Val!
Since Valandar has kindly alerted us that his Kaiju and add-on set are on sale, here's what can be achieved with a little ingenuity.
The figure here is his Kaiju, obviously. I achieved the distinctive bark-like scales by using a variation of the turbulence node based material I developed for Scott Ayers' "Final Wars" Godzilla. I used the bump map from Valandar's figure and plugged it into the main diffuse channel to given the skin "highlights".
The spinal plates come from Gareee's "RexPlus" set. They wouldn't conform to Valandar's figure, so I separated the pieces into individual props that I "parented" along the length of the Kaiju's back and tail. I created a "masking" texture that when plugged into the ambient channel would allow only the outer edge of the plates to glow. (In most movies, just before Godzilla unleashed his atomic breath, his spinal plates glowed as though "charging".)
A friend recommended that I plug a "gather" node into the alternate diffuse channel of the skin and mouth parts so as to "capture" a bit of the ambient glow from the plates and the vapor prop (one of the props from Blondie999's SFX set) I positioned in the mouth, creating the illusion they were true light sources.
I placed the customized figure within a grouping of StoneMason's greeblie props "canopied" by the sky dome from AntFarm's "Twister" set. Finally, I positioned low range point lights above each of the lamp posts and a much stronger orange one just out of frame where the vapor prop intersects the ground, suggesting the radioactive vapor has exploded something.
Sincerely,
Bill
i soooo want that set, but i am seriously broke right now, maybe next time its on sale
I picked up both sets some time ago. :lol: But I thought it was a perfect time for them to be on sale!
...very impressive, I especially like the glow on the spinal plates, Looks like it could be a still from one of the films.
Godzilla !!!
http://youtu.be/ZVJInwekSl4
Yup, one can't have a discussion about Godzilla without reference to the Blue Oyster Cult classic song. ;-)
Here's a render I made (several days before composing the refinery scene) to test the "gather" node trick. You can better see how the skin close to the spinal plates captures their ambient glow, creating the illusion they are true light sources. I even applied a "gather" node to the plates themselves since they should be casting light upon the fins next to them.
Sincerely,
Bill
that looks wicked
and yeah i knew sooner or later someone would post something referring to BOC so i figured, might as well be me
Oh, no! There goes Tokyo! Go-go-godzilla! :)
...there are a few places I wouldn't mind seeing him stomp into the ground.
ok...one version of my own...thanks Redfern for the links ;)
We need a big ugly buggy critter for Gojira to fight... Anyone have any suggestions?
I finally saw the movie today. Last weekend I had other things I needed to do and yesterday my stomach was cramping. Without revealing spoilers, I'll just say I enjoyed it.
I reworked my earlier render to make it look like an "often played" vintage print. I also added some "layered" explosion effects and for the "cherry on top", I have the gang from the Satellite of Love "riffing" the scene.
You can provide your own clever "zingers". ;-)
Sincerely,
Bill
Ah, a fellow MSTie! :lol: Where is the Prince of Space when you need him?
"Gamera is really neat,
He is made of turtle meat..."
Hmm, I thought RawArt would have popped in to promote his "Zilladreki" morph and texture set for the new DAZ Dragon 3.
Sincerely,
Bill
Wow Isikol... that poster rocks!!
You know how tempting it was when this thread first showed up to want to say something....but I could not because of NDA :P
But I am not the kind of guy to shamelessly promote myself................
............oh wait...yes I am :P
http://www.daz3d.com/zilladreki-the-monster-dragon-hd
wow!!! this really is a great thread, thanks redfern for starting it and the links :)
Necromancing an old thread, I thought I'd mention a cable based network recently completed what may have been one of the longest Godzilla marathons ever broadcast, at least any of which I know. The channel is called "El Rey" and starting last Thursday, December 24, the commercial financed network aired and then repeated the following movie over the course of 4 days, (96 hours!!!) concluding Monday, December 28.
06:00 am Gojira
08:15 am Godzilla: King of the Monsters
10:00 am Rodan
11:45 am Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster
01:45 pm Godzilla Raids Again
03:30 pm Godzilla vs. Monster Zero
05:30 pm Mothra vs. Godzilla
07:30 pm Godzilla's Revenge
09:00 pm Terror of Mechagodzilla
11:00 pm Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
01:30 am Godzilla vs. Mothra
03:30 am Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
06:00 am Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
08:15 am Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
10:30 am Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
12:30 pm Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus
02:45 pm Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
05:00 pm Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
07:00 pm Godzilla: Final Wars
09:45 pm Godzilla: King of the Monsters
11:30 pm Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster
Yes, several productions are missing from that lineup, such as "Godzilla vs. Hedorah", "Godzilla vs. Megalon" and "Godzilla vs. King Kong". But that's still nearly 20 hours of back to back kaiju craziness! Yes, the network, called "El Rey", showed the original "Gojira" as well as the more familiar "Godzilla, King of the Monsters", but apparently just one time while most of the others had repeat showings. Getting ready for work at that time, I didn't get to see it, but I assume it's the subtitled version with the original Japanaese dialog.
Speaking of "...Megalon", I used to think that was the weakest movie in the "series", but until this weekend, I never saw "Godzilla's Revenge". Hoo boy! It's basically a "clip show" with most of the the kaiju sequences lifted from previous films. Also, Godzilla and the other kaiju depicted are not real (within the context of th film). They are just the dreams and daydreams of a schoolboy wishing he could stand up to the bullies who torment him. When fanatsizing, Ichiro repeatedly meets Manila, the infamous "son" of Godzilla, who has the power of speech (and sounding a bit like Beaky Buzzard from the classic Warner Bros. cartoon shorts in the english dub. The "third act" of the film is more akin to a "Home Alone" scenario with Ichiro confounding a pair of bank robbers within an abandoned building. "...Megalon" is "King Lear" in comparison!
Sincerely,
Bill
Sounds like it would have been a fun time for anyone who didn't already own all those titles on home video. It's a good time to be a Godzilla fan, though, with at least three new Godzilla films coming out over the next couple of years - with Godzilla Ressurgence from Japan in 2016, and Godzilla 2 and Godzilla Vs. Kong from Legendary Pictures.
Actually, a fairly good-sized chunk of Megalon is made from recycled footage as well, as is Godzilla Vs. Gigan. And yet... I find myself prefering even the lowest points of the Showa films like Godzilla's Revenge to some of the better budgeted entries in the Heisei series that followed.
To date, Final Wars is my absolute favorite of the series. And no human character in ANY of the movies beats Captain Gordon for sheer badassitude. :D
Nah. No out of work wrestler out bad-asses the only human character to ever take out the Big G by himself... it's clearly Dr. Serizawa for the win.