The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
I spent the weekend that just passed in Winnipeg. Among all of the shopping, I managed to take in the new movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I've been reading a lot of science fiction and cyber punk books lately so I thought this movie would be right up my alley. I also was interested in it so that I could see the technology involved. The man who conceived this movie, Kerry Conran, started at night in his own apartment after work about eight years ago. Looking for a new hobby and being interested in computers, he began to design his own movie sets and eventually convinced a few friends to do some acting so he could incorporate live characters into his feature. Toiling away at nights, after four years of work, he found himself with..... six minutes of film! Talk about a labour of love. Eventually, one of his friends began showing around this short work of film, a film studio picked up the idea, and the rest of the two hour film was designed in several years. I say this film was designed quite purposefully. This is the first full length feature film made entirely in front of blue screens. The actors are real people, featuring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie, however, all of their acting was done in front of blank blue screens and all of the effects, the sets, and the backgrounds were put in by computer. Actually this film was made backwards, the entire movie was designed as a digital animation, and then the actors were added later, after the animation was completed. Everything was designed using Apple computers and extremely powerful 3-D animation programs such as Adobe's After Effects, and a program from Alias called Maya. Available for sale at high end computer shops specializing in digital photography or online, it is the industry standard for producing digital effects on film; but it will cost you up to $7,600 U.S. for the top end version. While this is a lot of money, for a person with a passion to learn, Alias offers a complete version of Maya at their website as a free download to anyone who is interested in learning about 3-D animation for themselves. The product is complete, full version available for as long as you want to keep it, this is not just a 30 day trial. The only catch is that finished products have a Maya watermark layed over lightly in the background. In fact, many new video games are designed using Maya. Doom, Halo, the Medal of Honour series and the Call of Duty games were all made using it. The designers of many of these games have put a version of Maya on their CD's somewhere so that people who buy the games can take the time to design their own levels. Movies like Sky Captain are the difference that having digital tools available on the market for "regular" people to buy makes. It is no longer just the professionals who can produce high end products. Stories abound of people who have created their own films (animated or not), their own animations, their own video games, ? which have gone on to be picked up by studios and turned into products. Professional grade tools are available for all of us to learn how to use. There is no use any longer to just be a "closet" artist of any type. Photographer, musician, filmmaker, animator, ? they are all within the reach of regular people, no matter where we live. Our geography is no longer an excuse. Learn something new, you'll never regret that you took the time. ([email protected])
