One day we will have AVATAR Day as a national holiday, where we all get the day off from school, work, and religious services, so we may all go to the theater and see the latest development in entertainment technology. Of course the films will still be little better than Porky's XII, or Police Academy Seventeen: Police Academy on Pandora, or my personal favorite: Spaceballs 41: The Final Ripoff. Purchase the interactive lunchbox with a secret code for downloading an interview with the film's accountant!
@Crow-T-Robot: They do! And the thing chasing them through the forest even more so. I kept wanting to shout KITTY in the theater, but my husband doesn't like it when I do that (like during Eragon whenever I saw the dragon).
Well, I'm easy to impress, cuz I'm still comparing every bit of CGI I see to Babylon 5! ;o)
I watched the trailer frame-by-frame, mostly concentrating on the creature design, and I had a sneaking suspicion who was responsible, so I looked it up on IMDb and Yep, I was right!
None other than Mr. Wayne Douglas Barlowe!
For me, that's worth the price of admission right there!
I have a couple of concerns: One's been mentioned — "glasses on top of glasses", but nobody's talked about what's gonna happen when this is released on DVD & Blu-Ray!
I suspect the discs aren't gonna come with a pair of 3D glasses.
@cljohnston108: I compare everything to the puppets in Farscape. I tend to think puppets are still "more realistic" than most CGI - but I will go so Avatar with 3D in the theater.
@honeybee111: Glad to know I'm not the only Henson fan left. CGI should be used to accentuate, not replace a puppeteer's performance. Farscape is a great argument for this!
A friend recently pointed out the most obvious thing ever when we discussing the current rage in 3D movies. While I thought it was just a gimmick, he pointed out that the real reason Hollywood is nuts for 3D is much simpler than that- you can't cam them! Pirating a 3D movie is hell, because unless everyone sits on their computers with 3D glasses it will look like a total mess. Sure, I'm positive some geek can come up with a filter program to fix that, but for now it's a pretty good way to fight piracy and keep people coming to the theaters.
I heard that this thing has been shown in small parts to UK auidences on proper IMAX 3D screens. The BBC reported this the other day and had some reviews from people who had seen 15 minutes. The general over view was very good. Someone mentioned how the background blurred badly whilst the flying around Pandora stuff started and some of Camerons Jerky cam didnt fit well with the 3D. We'll see. My only concern, which has been brought up here already is the glasses on top of glasses. In other words, how are people like me, the optically challenged going to cope with the 3D glasses??
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CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) was starred
CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) was unstarred
The new 3-D is so far away from the cardboard glasses. The glasses just fit over your glasses. The noses pinch a little after a whole movie, but that's all.
@EthanRing: Actually, all human skin is slightly translucent, regardless of ethnicity. When light shines on a face, for instance, the photons penetrate the skin, and bounce around back and forth for some distance before re-emerging and propogating back to your eye. This has the effect of blurring the minute lines and pores on the face, making skin look smoother. Makeup works the same way.
I went to a talk by Rob Cook of Pixar a while ago where he explained this. If you create a CGI model of a human face with lines, pores, hair follicles, moles, whatever, and then make the skin completely opaque it doesn't look realistic, it looks too rough. Real skin diffuses the light that shines on it because it is translucent.
I think you may have been guilty of norming Lauren's behaviour, by assuming that her statements were racist, rather than technically correct.
Cameron is wrong.I have seen enough 3D films in my 53 year old lifetime that forces you to have to stick glasses over your prescription glasses and let me tell you it is such a comfortable experience I can not wait till the only way i get to see movies is to go to a theater and be forced to wear glasses over glasses.
i do want new and intelligent scifi but i am not going to have someone tell me how this is the future of film going......................
YEAH RIGHT !!!!
You want 3D then start thinking about how to do this without having to wear glasses.Every 3D film I even tried to watch looks like krap.weird colrs,headache,uncomfortable,blurry movements....you get the idea
@gorehound: I went and saw Up in 3D with my friend and she had exactly your experience and complaints. The poor woman's arm got sore from having to hold the 3D glasses up over her prescription lenses so they wouldn't fall off her face. Dirk Angry's solution might be a good one, though.
@Boas_MC: I've never had a problem putting 3D glasses over my prescription, even back in the 80's when I wore gigantic round glasses that took up half my face.
@Dirk Angry: Depending on the process used, the glasses can be anywhere from the cheap and uncomfortable (not to mention lousy 3-D) paper glasses with the different colored lenses, to the new Tru-D glasses which are more like a pair of sunglasses, or the IMAX 3-D glasses, which look, and feel like you are trying to mock Kim Jong Il from behind a pair of modern art windows. Your idea about taking tape is very good. My personal favorite is the Tru-D. VERY good 3-D effects, without too much discomfort.
"Rather than slightly translucent like human skin"?
Stop and think about what you've written. Most dark skinned humans do not have skin that is translucent. You are norming a feature of lighter-skinned humans.
How is that any different than Crayola formerly having a crayon called "flesh" that approximated the skin color of Europeans, negating the flesh color of those people of different backgrounds.
@EthanRing: "norming" ?? What the hell is "norming?" Is that some new PC speak??
Try this - stretch a black hand across a flashlight. Does that hand block out all light or do some of the photons bounce through the edges of the skin giving a slight glow around rim of the fingers? Congratulations that is translucency and all human skin has it to some degree.
@damndirtyape: Norming is when dominant groups in society construct their characteristics as *the norm*, like calling the human race 'man', or how when you buy sticking plasters they're the colour of white flesh. Piece by piece little things like this allow straight white men to assume the privileges they enjoy over other people are normal life to the extent that they don't think about them or even realise they exist. This then subsequently causes them to rage with uncomfortable defensive reactions when anybody points out the the things they always kind of knew were going on but never had to think about consciously.
@Jack_Ferguson: Just as I suspected - it's some sort of PC mumbo jumbo. Crazy kids.
Seriously.. who the hell goes around complaining about "norming?" Well I guess people like EthanRing do.. I have to wonder how old he is since that sort of thing seems to be the dominion of college kids. Never once have I encountered a person in my life who has a problem with "norming"
Besides, there are much more important things in the world to bitch about such as nitpicking effects sequences in movies like Avatar.
@EthanRing: Actually, no. Sorry. Everybody's got translucent skin *in some respect*, regardless of ethnic background. Subsurface scattering affects the appearance of everybody from Nunavut to Zaire - the only humanoids it doesn't are the ones made of particularly opaque ceramic. Even common plastic store mannequins are slightly translucent, and their appearance is affected by light rattling around inside their material and coming out somewhere besides where reflection or diffuse shading might predict. So, unless you're upset that we're excluding ceramic or chrome-plated robots from our dialogue, you're overreacting.
@damndirtyape: I've encountered lots of people who have a big problem with examples of norming. The thing about the sticking plasters is a real thing that upset a child and made them feel not normal.
The point of the concept is to give a name to something that is part and parcel of people's every day experience. Often they're hard to see because our worldview is encrusted under centuries of the ideological justification of oppression. That can make the underlying assumptions and processes hard to see even for the victims.
These little things may not be that important in and of themselves. But they piss people off because it reminds them about how other people, those constructed as 'normal' (whether that's in relation to their race, sexuality, gender or bodies), couldn't give a shit about the advantages they have over more oppressed people and aren't going to do anything to try and make life better for their fellow humans.
So I don't think calling it PC mumbo jumbo is really helpful.
Sorry everyone for distracting from the most crucial issue facing us in all our collective lives: will Avatar be any good?
@EthanRing: This is VERY common computer graphic knowledge. There are even documentaries about Shrek that point out that to get realistic skin they use at least three different translucent textures on every soft-skinned character. Without subsurface scattering, everything CG rendered looks hard and either plastic or metallic depending on some of the other reflective characteristics. Translucency softens the surface texture of the material, making it far more organic. If skin were truly transparent, we'd all be dark red due to oxygen rich blood (veins can appear blue because skin reflects most of the red light before it reaches the vein itself).
@Daveinva: well that's just a weird, factually wrong thing to say. also, norming is not a word, though the concept is easy to understand and has been a very public issue for many, many years (decades, at least); and all skin is translucent, coloring notwithstanding.
@adaorardor: This just in from Hollywood, CA USA. Director M. Night Shamalan has announced the name of his newest horror/suspense film: THE NORMING! Industry experts are already calling it predictable and overly complex with a disappointing ending. The tagline for the film is: "I see white people!"
This is kind of a big tangent, but I was recently watching a wee thing about the origin of 3D cinema in the 50s. It was an extra on the DVD of 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon,' which I'd never seen before and is an awesome film.
The creature, and other similar films at the time, were made in 3D as a gimmick because the film industry was terrified about being made obsolete by TV. However, it often didn't work because it was dependent on a human projector keeping both films in synch, so many people thought 3D was a rubbish technology when in fact it was the guy doing it at fault.
Now 3D cinema is making a comeback, I guess because it's much easier to make it work when you replace the human with a computer. I think now the thing that Hollywood feels threatened by is their own creative bankruptcy and inability to come up with new ideas, as well as a bit by the games industry, judging by how many movies just feel like a game as you watch them.
This isn't a comment on Avatar or on 3D as a technology per se. I haven't seen the trailer and tbh after reading the comments here I'll probably just wait until I can see the whole thing in IMAX before making a judgement. I just think that amazing technologies are only as good as the storytellers that put them to use. In the case of The Creature I thought it was a great wee movie, and actually would really love to see it in a 3D cinema now, the advantage of modern projector technology.
@Jack_Ferguson: I'm very hopeful that if they can really get 3-D right on video, we will all finally get to see The Creature, and also It Came From Outer Space, the way they were meant to be seen. FYI: Jaws 3-D isn't really worth the effort unless you really love seeing a severed fish head floating in the water for about fifteen seconds.
I haven't seen the full 16 minutes in 3D - showings in Melbourne, Australia were 'luck of the draw' as opposed to first-in best dressed - but after having watched the trailer at least 15 times, I can see exactly where they are leading us.
We are supposed to finish watching this teaser trailer wanting more. Watch it again and listen carefully: the oppressive noise of the music builds over the course of the trailer but never quite reaches a peak and the noise is only periodically pierced by selected elements of audio.
Surely this is a deliberate ploy to leave us wanting a deeper and more immersive experience of the film - one that only the big-screen 3D version can give us!
This first trailer does exactly what it is supposed to - 'tease' us - they don't call it a teaser trailer for nothing!
But I don't feel annoyed or cheated - bring in the full length IMAX 3D experience. I'll be first in line here in Melbourne!
As someone from a state that not only has no IMAX theaters, but is literally separated from the next closest state by this little stretch of land folks like to call CANADA, I feel like I'm getting the shaft on this whole experience. While we do have the latest DLP equipped theaters, showing 3D presentations of movies like Up and Ice Age 3, from all the forum postings I've been reading, it sounds like there is no point in going unless you can see it in an IMAX theater.
Am I the only one seeing this, or should I be more excited by the trailer to Delgo 2 then I apparently am?
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Smurf-porn in space?
3D Smurf-porn in space in IMAX
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I watched the trailer frame-by-frame, mostly concentrating on the creature design, and I had a sneaking suspicion who was responsible, so I looked it up on IMDb and Yep, I was right!
None other than Mr. Wayne Douglas Barlowe!
For me, that's worth the price of admission right there!
I have a couple of concerns: One's been mentioned — "glasses on top of glasses", but nobody's talked about what's gonna happen when this is released on DVD & Blu-Ray!
I suspect the discs aren't gonna come with a pair of 3D glasses.
08/23/09
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(edit: I can't get the image to work HERE - it's Christophe Vacher's Darklands. If you've seen it - you know it.)
08/22/09
@MISS MERCY STREET: I've got your back.
08/22/09
@Chimaera: I've always been partial to the Roger Dean floaty islands.
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I went to a talk by Rob Cook of Pixar a while ago where he explained this. If you create a CGI model of a human face with lines, pores, hair follicles, moles, whatever, and then make the skin completely opaque it doesn't look realistic, it looks too rough. Real skin diffuses the light that shines on it because it is translucent.
I think you may have been guilty of norming Lauren's behaviour, by assuming that her statements were racist, rather than technically correct.
08/22/09
i do want new and intelligent scifi but i am not going to have someone tell me how this is the future of film going......................
YEAH RIGHT !!!!
You want 3D then start thinking about how to do this without having to wear glasses.Every 3D film I even tried to watch looks like krap.weird colrs,headache,uncomfortable,blurry movements....you get the idea
08/22/09
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08/22/09
Clip-ons, like Dirk suggested, would be good.
08/23/09
I will take scissors and tape just in case when I go watch one of those movies
08/23/09
08/22/09
Stop and think about what you've written. Most dark skinned humans do not have skin that is translucent. You are norming a feature of lighter-skinned humans.
How is that any different than Crayola formerly having a crayon called "flesh" that approximated the skin color of Europeans, negating the flesh color of those people of different backgrounds.
08/22/09
Try this - stretch a black hand across a flashlight. Does that hand block out all light or do some of the photons bounce through the edges of the skin giving a slight glow around rim of the fingers? Congratulations that is translucency and all human skin has it to some degree.
08/22/09
To answer your question.
08/22/09
Seriously.. who the hell goes around complaining about "norming?" Well I guess people like EthanRing do.. I have to wonder how old he is since that sort of thing seems to be the dominion of college kids. Never once have I encountered a person in my life who has a problem with "norming"
Besides, there are much more important things in the world to bitch about such as nitpicking effects sequences in movies like Avatar.
08/22/09
08/22/09
The point of the concept is to give a name to something that is part and parcel of people's every day experience. Often they're hard to see because our worldview is encrusted under centuries of the ideological justification of oppression. That can make the underlying assumptions and processes hard to see even for the victims.
These little things may not be that important in and of themselves. But they piss people off because it reminds them about how other people, those constructed as 'normal' (whether that's in relation to their race, sexuality, gender or bodies), couldn't give a shit about the advantages they have over more oppressed people and aren't going to do anything to try and make life better for their fellow humans.
So I don't think calling it PC mumbo jumbo is really helpful.
Sorry everyone for distracting from the most crucial issue facing us in all our collective lives: will Avatar be any good?
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/23/09
08/23/09
08/22/09
The creature, and other similar films at the time, were made in 3D as a gimmick because the film industry was terrified about being made obsolete by TV. However, it often didn't work because it was dependent on a human projector keeping both films in synch, so many people thought 3D was a rubbish technology when in fact it was the guy doing it at fault.
Now 3D cinema is making a comeback, I guess because it's much easier to make it work when you replace the human with a computer. I think now the thing that Hollywood feels threatened by is their own creative bankruptcy and inability to come up with new ideas, as well as a bit by the games industry, judging by how many movies just feel like a game as you watch them.
This isn't a comment on Avatar or on 3D as a technology per se. I haven't seen the trailer and tbh after reading the comments here I'll probably just wait until I can see the whole thing in IMAX before making a judgement. I just think that amazing technologies are only as good as the storytellers that put them to use. In the case of The Creature I thought it was a great wee movie, and actually would really love to see it in a 3D cinema now, the advantage of modern projector technology.
08/22/09
08/23/09
08/22/09
We are supposed to finish watching this teaser trailer wanting more. Watch it again and listen carefully: the oppressive noise of the music builds over the course of the trailer but never quite reaches a peak and the noise is only periodically pierced by selected elements of audio.
Surely this is a deliberate ploy to leave us wanting a deeper and more immersive experience of the film - one that only the big-screen 3D version can give us!
This first trailer does exactly what it is supposed to - 'tease' us - they don't call it a teaser trailer for nothing!
But I don't feel annoyed or cheated - bring in the full length IMAX 3D experience. I'll be first in line here in Melbourne!
08/22/09
Am I the only one seeing this, or should I be more excited by the trailer to Delgo 2 then I apparently am?