Happy Thanksgiving - Global Thanks to CG!!!
Dartanbeck
Posts: 21,543
I would like to wish everyone (Everyone) a Happy Thanksgiving!
Beyond the normal meaning and history of the celebration, I'd like to extend it into more of what we do here, and how we were able to get here (3D CG).
To begin, let's go back to what helped launch this whole craft of Computer Graphics in the first place - and they didn't have their sights set on computers. In fact, they (PCs) didn't really exist yet - at least, not as we know them today.
The History of Special Effects - Part 1
The History of Special Effects - Part 2
What a wonderful trip through how things were done, and those videos are really quite old now. This is another beautiful piece of nostalgia:
Classic Monsters and Creatures
I've always been a big fan of the Creature from the Black Lagoon!!!
George Lucas, and his need to create his epic Space Fantasy really played a major part in getting the technology we use today in place, simply by hiring people to create. His visions and demands have always been, and still are a good ten years ahead of what can be done, which not only helps to drive this technology, but to force it forward.
Still, his big first epic may have never left his notebooks if it wasn't for the visionary art of a recently lost legend, Ralph McQuarrie
Ralph McQuarrie Slideshow Tribute "Your artwork has inspired us forever!" - played to The Battle of Hoth music, by Joh Williams! :)
Now that Mr. Lucas' epic did get to the screen, let's take a small look at some of the amazing "thinking" that he has paid people to do since then. This is a feature from Star Wars Celebration 2016: The Star Wars Archaeology Panel. The splash screen holds on for a few seconds. Don't worry, the video commences soon after. The opening speaker, John Knoll and his brother were the innovators who created and released the very first version of Photoshop. Yes, it was very different back then, but so was John. He has led many brilliant minds to new heights of Genius ever since, and is still doing so today!
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Comments
What does this 'movie stuff' have to do with digital art? Well, pretty much everything.
George Lucas may have gotten a great deal on cinematic film equipment back when he made his initial Star Wars movie, but his demands pushed the team of his newly formed company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create computers to store and replay camera movements consistently. They couldn't go out and buy a computer off the shelf - they weren't there yet. They had to buy microprocessors and build the computers themselves!
In order for this to survive beyond this single movie, the company had to create these things in a manner that could be used for other filmmaker's work as well.
Giving jobs to folks in the field is what helps to drive these sorts of technologies to advance and thrive - which is much healthier than simply surviving!
College professors and their students work in earnest to create newer, better possibilities. The publishing of their papers trickles down the pipeline - even into the hands of the incredible minds driving the advancement of Daz 3D.
Digital art has blossomed and grown, yet movie makers still seek newer, faster and more believeable ways to achieve their visions on screen. It might not have been George Lucas who created this stuff, but his demends for progress and putting the right people into the right places of employment - did. Yes, there are many other genius minds driving this stuff now - and for that, I am eternally grateful!
I love doing computer driven graphics and sound! Oh... and George Lucas also dreamt that they could, one day perform sound recordings and edits using computers - and so it came to be.
Thank you to all of you genius people who create this stuff, and a big thank you to all of You who help them to be employed in what they do by continuing to have a Need for this awesome technology!
Weta Digital Tissue System Technology
Want more? Have a look through my various Inspirations collections at Dartanbeck.com!
What? Using thousands of LED screen to simulate HDRI lighting on a film stage?!!! Let's just keep driving/pushing this technology forward, shall we?!!!
But their technology is in place, and shall continue to drive further advancements as we hunger for more!
Rock On, my Friend!
This thread is all about a Global Thanksgiving for Everyone! We're all on this same planet together - and I'm thankful to be acquainted with All of you!!!
Let's take a three-and-a-half minute look at what went into creating Alita Battle Angle.
In this very short reveal, the narrator explains the technology that they (Weta Digital and Lightstorm) created to make this amazing, touching story come to life, when the star actress is fully CG, while most everyone else is live action, or at least partially so.
The rendering technology advancements are very cool and very much over my head.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, Dart.
And Canadians who celebrate in October? Have a second happy Thanksgiving.
And Happy Birthday to the November birthdays.
RE: Special Effects
Here is an article that has some tips from the Silent Era. If you ever wondered how Chaplin did the blindfold rollerskating scene.
https://fstoppers.com/education/behind-scenes-special-effects-used-silent-films-161538
Happy Gobbles Day
can smell the upstairs people cooking tummy gurggle
gettin redy for a dvd marathon
battleship Yamato
Yes! The first video I show above starts with that stuff. Although many of those techniques are still used today, they truly helped to drive the modern digital era, which bled wonderful trade techniques into the modern home computer - eventually!
Very interesting stuff!
Wow! That looks Fun!
Wow. Speaking of "Pushing Technology", Weta Digital just released this Special Presentation five days ago - I only discovered it just now:
...and now we see the incredible Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) looking back at its earliest years for their newest work! So Cool!!!
~ will have to drop by and look at these ~ r Happy Holidays ~
Thanks for posting these Dartanbeck, watched a few already today. Very cool, inspirational and...very humbling.
That Unreal work is incredible.
Just fascinating! I love watching those older techniques and workflows, and then to get a good look at what they're working on/with now!
I do truly enjoy the tools that I have. Carrara - especially with all of the plugins is more advanced than I really need it to be. I'm still really just scratching the surface. I've been giving Daz Studio more of a try lately, and when I give up and come back to Carrara, I feel so "At Home" and comfy once again! :)
The Weta Digital Tissue video (above - look for Golum's eyes) is Incredible! Geniuses!
Weta Digital 2019 Showreel - Awesome!!!
In the evening of Thankgiving, I created a wealth of inspirational videos like this on my site in the Gallery > Inspiration section. Now there's a place to discover all kinds of cool and inspiring within a few clicks. I know I'll be making great use of these, so I thought I'd share it with all of you too.
A few highlights:
Carrara Users:
More of these to come. I ran out of time! LOL
I'm subscribed to a whole bunch of Carrara artists, and I want to pay homage to them all!
After work, I just didn't have any creative juices flowing. So I spent the evening studying up on the Free Standalone Particle Illusion.
I've learned some really cool things to work into my renders tomorrow, so I'm glad I did it!