Polar Express (merged) (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

If I understand it correctly this is called rotoscoping (which was used heavily in the animated Lord of the Rings). In one sense I see motion capture as glorified version of it.

EDIT: Found this:

http://www.3drender.com/glossary/rotoscope.htm

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I watched the teaser and it had several shots that had Robert Zemekis written all over them. The first outdoor shot that pulls back and becomes a view out the frosted window, and the shot of the kid opening the door.

CGI animation of human figures is definitely getting better.

 

[Steve Felix]

If I understand it correctly this is called rotoscoping (which was used heavily in the animated Lord of the Rings). In one sense I see motion capture as glorified version of it.

I'd say it's rotoscoping in spirit, at least. Instead of compositing footage on top, it's compositing motion within.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Then this isn't animated either, because they're shooting digital video with motion capture sensors on the actors.

Do you have a link or anything that shows this? I'd be interested to read why they chose this method over standard CG. Thanks

 

[Steve Felix]

Here's an LA Times article via BTTF.com.

I'd say the reason is that it's nearly impossible to create a natural, spontaneous human performance with pure CG.

 

[PaulP]

So there will be no live action whatsoever?

But this being a Robert Zemeckis film, I nave no doubt it will be a visually astounding experience.

 

[Ray H]

I don't get it though. Why go to the lengths of shooting real actors like Tom Hanks who would have a pretty substancial fee and just animate over him? That's what confused me when I first read a news report on the film a couple of months ago. And according to the article I read, doing this will be very expensive. So why not just do it live action?

I'm sure this'll be a great movie and I loves the book as a kid, I just don't know what the advantage of doing this in CG would be.

 

[BrianShort]

Ray H: I think because they'd like to make something that looks like the artwork in the book, and the best way to do that is with animation.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Which looks better:

1)A totally CGI movie

2)A live action movie with CGI on top of it (LOTS of CGI on top of it)

Most people would prefer the first one. Imagine if they made Toy Story with CGI, but only for the toys. If the backgrounds were live action, and Sid was a real boy, and so on, it would have looked bad.

Using motion capture (mo-cap) is a way to get the actual movements of a person and then use those to animated a CGI character. If they want a CGI character to do something that the actor voicing them can't do (like martial arts, super jumps, etc.) then they have someone else do the mo-cap and then they animated the character around it.

This method is also used a lot for videogames. It's more or less a way of saving time that would be spent on animating characters by hand.

 

[ChrisMatson]

I saw this interesiting story today:

 

[DaveF]

The Polar Express trailer left me unimpressed when I saw it at the theater last winter (or earlier this year). It was technically well done, but it felt dull. The artwork lacked style. I didn't see the movie mimicing the book's artwork. I hope the movie is good, but the trailer was sterile.

Though Final Fantasy was a bomb, I really liked it. It's got great style, with fantastic artwork. The world is wonderfully realized and the Spirits are the most creative aliens I've seen in a long time. It's just beautitful to watch. Polar Express' trailer gave me none of that.

But here's hoping

 

[ChrisMatson]

New info and a new trailer coming:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...-express_x.htm

I am still very interested in this one.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

The article in USA Today is the first time I ran across this film. The print edition has more pictures that look really good. This one, at the least, has gotten my interest piqued.

~Edwin

 

[Steve Phillips]

If they follow through with the plan, POLAR EXPRESS will be the first feature length film released in IMAX 3-D.

That will get me to go!