CompuServe Messages

dear all, last night I attended the cast and crew screening of "Virtuosity" at 7pm (and then again at 9pm <g>) and was pleasantly surprised that it was an excellent movie for the genre. Admittedly, it was probably the most violent movie in quite a while (a la "Total Recall") but it was presented in such a cartoonish, humourous way that it didn't seem that offensive. Denzel Washington put in a great performance as the hero (jailed ex-cop given second chance), but the show was somewhat stolen by the talented Aussie newcomer Russel Crowe who plays SID 6.7 a wacky VR character used in a VR police trainer. SID gets too smart and escapes VR into a nanobot (advanced android) and causes mayhem with Denzel hot on his trail. There's a clever ending so it's not the usual predictable dross that Hollywood produces. I have a feeling this one will be at least a moderate to good hit …. we'll see. Anyway, it's a 3d Studio graphics extraveganza with boatloads, just boatloads, of cool graphics that look great on the big screen. 3d Studio specifically got a mention in the end credits: "the Producers gratefully acknowledge the following: – Autodesk 3d Studio Software" How about that? Gary and the rest of the Yost Group and Autodesk should be very proud. It's almost like 3d Studio is no longer the poor cousin of the industry. The marketing types at Adesk should be frothing at the mouth about now <g>. Anyway, I got 2 credits, 1 for animator on the L2 interactive screen graphics (look for Manson, Hitler, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer CGI heads which I modelled/animated) and as CGI supervisor for MetroLight Studios. I'm so proud – most of my shots remained intact in the movie. I'll try and upload some samples around or after Siggraph. Unfortunately, a couple of deserving folks were arbitrarily cut from MetroLight's credit list by Paramount without consulting us. So for the record I want to state that Ralph Frantz (forum regular) was a senior animator on the film and we'll do everything we can to get his name on the video credits. Just like everything with the studios, though, there's no guarantees, sadly. Ralph was a key member of the team and it really dampened my spirits to see that his name had been left off when others less deserving had been included. Bummer. Anyway, I'd recommend people try to catch the movie and take note that the vast majority of the graphics were 3d Studio based, with the exception of the nano-tendrils body part regeneration sequences, and I think this is probably unprecedented for any PC graphics. Martin