Who needs extras anymore ? get an inflatable crowd !!! (1 Viewer)

[montrealfilmguy]

Think i'm kidding ? This has been used in a spectacularly long list of films.Starting with Seabiscuit. http://inflatablecrowd.com/default/Home.html and the features resume of the company. http://inflatablecrowd.com/default/Feature_Films.html Imagine the savings on lunch now. What happens when you need the crowd to cheer for Seabiscuit ? (havent seen it yet ) On Cinderella man they had 11.000 of those. Here's the creepy pic http://inflatablecrowd.com/default/Images.html#5 why does that make me think of those smiling mannequins in that atomic test bomb footage .....

 

[MatthewA]

I'm just surprised they didn't think of this earlier. Heck, a lot of the dead soldiers in Gone with the Wind were just dummies.

 

[Ralphie_B]

I think I saw an article on this in a recent issue of Wired. Sounds like it supplements, but doesn't entirely replace extras. I think the proprietor explained that usually a certain ratio of inflatables to real extras was desired, to generate an element of the random/organic movement of real people. Nice thing is, unlike a CGI crowd, you still get the actual lighting/etc of the real location.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

Actual lighting (HDRI ) for CGI has been around for quite some time now,you can even do it in basic comsumer software like Poser. As shown here,you can even use a cheap mirorred xmas ball and import the data into your software which turns out very accurate since you are in effect getting an image from the actual location. http://www.effectsportal.net/index.php/hdr/ Im sure theres a bunch of behind-the scenes of big budget films that have a guy walking around with a giant grey or reflective ball.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah, the guys with those balls were seen in the various Star Wars prequel making-of docs.

 

[Ralphie_B]

How 'bout that -- it makes sense that the reflective ball method would be so effective, now that I think about it. I had just never seen/heard of it before!