#Animations
7 messages in this thread
Hi there all you animation experts! I need to ask you all a real
life question. How does one as a company make a bid for a movie?
For example, if Spielberg was doing another Jurassic Park II, and of
course Industrial Light and Magic went broke (NOT!) how would I be
able to reach them to let them know that I was interested in working
with them in the movie? I thank you all in advance. Alex K.
Interesting that yo ask. I too am getting into that business and have
quite a few contacts. It is NOT easy! The folks at PDI, Video Image
and ILM are very sophisticated. Do you have all the equipment it
takes to generate 4K computer graphics and combine them with film? If
so, try advertising in ON PRODUCTION magazine or FILM and VIDEO
magazine. Good luck!
Well, can you be more explicit about what it takes to build 4K
computer graphics… I have a 486-66 16MB RAM. 1gig HD. Tape backup
250MB. ATI Local bus ultra pro w/2MB RAM. 17' MAG Innovision monitor.
Is this enough to make these graphics? I'm not sure it is, but I
thought it was worth a try (g). Alex K.
Hmm.. I'm not a hardware expert (or animations expert for that
matter) but it's my understanding that if we're talking film quality
here (not just video quality) at several thousands x several
thousands lines per frame resolution.. It would probably take
several hours to render one frame, several megabytes to save it, and
several more megabytes for the swap space probably required!
— Steve (sticking with video for the time being! <g>)
You probably won't do much 4K rendering with only 16MB RAM. I would
look into at least 48. Also, for complicated sequences, you will
probably need a rendering farm of at least 10 similarly configured
machines. Then you need the capability to digitize film stock at
4Kx3Kx48 bit rez (ok, sometimes 2k is good enough) accurately overlay
the computer graphics onto live action and go back out to film
through a solitaire film recorder (or equivalent). All under
ridiculous time constraints. If you just want to do CGI commercials
(which is where we are going) it is much easier since you only need
video resolutions (756×486). For this you probably need a VISTA board
(5-6K) and some decent single frame recording equipment (15-20K). I
just use Grey Pyros' shop. He has laser disc recording and the whole
sheebang. If you just wanna be the guy creating the graphics, then
keep in touch with firms like GRAFX, Pyros and others. We are always
looking for freelancers to help with projects. You might also be
interested in full digital editing which is available only on MACs
for now, but should be on the PC soon! Hope this helps!
On what it takes to output 4K computer graphics for film, IMHO you
need to start in the $150,000 to $500,000 price range, for minimum
configs, then you need the operating knowledge to produce the work.
You're not going to find this type of hardware or knowledge in the low
range of the CGI.
If you're really interested, you should probably start by locating
someone locally who is running a four perf studio enviroment. I just
saw a piece that was done on a standard four perf Polaroid
environment with custom triggering handles, and it looked pretty
nice. Technically the output can be sequenced with less than $20,000
worth of hardware (not including the computer equipment) but it takes
a deep understanding of the mechanics and elctronic aspects.
As Doug said, it's not easy, and it's also extremely hard to do on a
PC platform. Our current goal involves making the transition into the
film market and we've been investing alot of time and effort into the
transition. Making contacts with the right people is obviously a step
in the right direction. Another major step is making the transition
to film itself, and hiring the people who have solid backgrounds in
film and film production.
When you see work from companies such as ILM, you need to keep in mind
that the vast majority of their film work is custom composited with
"one of a kind" film units such as the L.S. Optical Printer, or their
Quad and Anderson Printers. These companies aren't just generating
computer graphics, they're custom building the film hardware and
electronics to composit the work. Couple that with great matte
painters, motion control equipment, great minature technicians,
pyrotechnic experts, sculptors, etc., and you just start to scrape
the surface of what's involved.
That doesn't mean that it's impossible! We have two great film techs
who we've been working with to make the jump to film. We also have a
phenomenal elctronics tech who spent 8 years of his life working on
Hollywood productions, and a myriad of others with unique talents, to
aid us in making the jump to the big screen. Some of the bizarre
things that we're currently playing with includes a custom triggering
device to allow us to dump images one frame at a time directly to
film. We even have a local theatre to use to check out our attempts.
It is extremely useful to see the work in the environment you hope to
reach.
But I digress……. the point is film work involves a heck of alot
more than industrial or broadcast animation and unless you're
planning on making Bugs Bunny type work, you need to have a crew that
has solid film experience. Not to mention a constant source of
funding to throw at the development.