29 August 2008 @ 09:46 am
Down to Earth  
I had totally forgotten about it until, uh, I walked outside and saw all the people outside, but we had another Pixar event at school yesterday! /o/ David Munier, who was the set director for WALL-E, came and gave a presentation about building and dressing the sets for the movie, and asdkjsdksja I could barely wrap my head around it. o_o I have no clue how these artists and TDs are smart enough to do this, but they somehow manage to write displacement shaders that a) simulate tons of small collected trash, b) add in larger bits of poking-out trash, c) compact the trash down so that it looks worn, d) add age to the trash so that it looks like it's been there for hundreds of years, e) blend the trash into normal dirt, and f) randomize the effect so that it looks natural and not like a texture. And that's just the work that goes into ONE GROUND SHADER. And in his presentation, he managed to make it funny, too. XD

He talked about the trash-covered earth for awhile before moving to showing the scale and layers that went into creating the Axiom. Aside from the exterior (which they color-coded multiple times to demonstrate age, shininess, etc.) they also showed how they had to create dozens and dozens of animated moving billboards for the interior of the ship, and then animate THOSE so that they looked like they were holographs that had been running for hundreds of years. Perhaps most amusing was when they decided to integrate Massive for all the crowd scenes inside the Axion (Massive being the software they use for AI crowd control; think Happy Feet and the armies of LOTR), only to have the director go "Let's have all of the hoverchairs and robots move about the ship on FLOOR LINES!" Which is...exactly what Massive is NOT meant to do. XD;

Every time they do these presentations, even though it's often the technical supervisors talking tons of CG jargon, I'm always amazed at the time and effort they put into all the little details of the movie in order to tell the story best. None of the people there, from artists to TDs to effects people, really don't skimp on any part of their job...and the sad thing is, because they're doing their job so well you never even notice it! And David seemed really excited talking all this techie jargon on how they problem-solved these ridiculous sets. Work flies when you're having fun. :O

And it just made me wanna see Wall-E again. EEEEEE-VAH!


Drawing: New LG page; almost done with boards. Not a drawing, but I'm almost done with Brawl!Phoenix, too. :3

Writing: Not much.
 
 
Current Music: Mr. Bones - The Village
Current Mood: listless
 
 
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yuukihikari: Life's Good - Beach[personal profile] yuukihikari on August 29th, 2008 05:48 pm (UTC)
XD Wow that sounds facinating and exciting. I wish I could have seen that presentation (even though the jargon & programs would go over my head, it still would have been neat *poor-mans understanding of CG animation - but enough art understanding to hopefuly get it!*)

I wanna see Wall-E again XD I wonder when it comes out on DVD *puts on list*
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[identity profile] lynxgriffin.livejournal.com on August 29th, 2008 07:08 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I wish I could invite anyone who loved Wall-E to those kinds of presentations, but they're so full of specific techie jargon that I can barely get it, sooooo...yeah. XD (Plus they are sadly not open to the public; at least I don't think so).

I think it comes out in November! I also really need the soundtrack...
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[identity profile] chobit001.livejournal.com on August 30th, 2008 12:13 am (UTC)
GAH WALL-E fangirlspasm!!!!!

Mind if I link this journal entry to the WALL-E fan comm?
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[identity profile] lynxgriffin.livejournal.com on August 30th, 2008 01:08 am (UTC)
FangirlismWEEEEEE

Sure ya can. :D
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[identity profile] disembodied-cat.livejournal.com on August 30th, 2008 06:16 pm (UTC)
That's really awesome - and quite hilarious ... I love when they have stories about how difficult something was that to us would be hardly noticed otherwise .. like in The Incredibles commentary, they all moan about when Edna puts her hand through the cloth of Mr. Incredibles torn costume .. or when they're at the dinner scene they start ranting about the food on the table. Complete proof that Pixar is amazing at what they do because they pay attention to ALL the details.
Also very cool that you go to Gnomons! The films that come out of that school are amazing! :)
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[identity profile] lynxgriffin.livejournal.com on August 31st, 2008 05:43 pm (UTC)
(Awww, M-O in your icon!) And yeah, I remember hearing that commentary too, and now I can totally feel that pain. XD I don't know how some of the effects guys problem-solve this stuff, but it is amazing.

Yeah, it's a lot of work, but lots of fun, too! I've been learning a bunch. :D
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[identity profile] netbug009.livejournal.com on September 1st, 2008 12:35 am (UTC)
ANOTHER Pixar event? Wow. 8D

Some of this goes over my head, but I get enough to be wowed by it, but not surprised. I mean, I first noticed the rediculous background detail was rewatching Cars. During the scenes in the raceway, with a bazillion cars in the audience MOVING AROUND IN DIFFERENT WAYS. By then, I had tinkered a little with 3D, and was in the middle of a year long crash course in flash animation, so I was like "......I feel REALLY sorry for whoever had to animate any of these shots." I mean, maybe there was some automated crowd programming used, but still.... for the love of Pete man...

Hearing the little story of the change from automated to moving on lines reminds me of the Monsters Inc commentary. They're talking about when the were describing the door room to the set designers, and you could hear a pin drop. XD
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[identity profile] lynxgriffin.livejournal.com on September 1st, 2008 04:44 pm (UTC)
Yeah, last year we had some effects people come in and talk about Ratatouille, which was equally mind-boggling but fun!

Sheesh, the more I learn about 3D, the more it boggles my mind how good they are at nearly every aspect of their movies. It's almost kind of sad how much work goes into the backgrounds and sets, and you never even really notice because the characters have your attention so much! Although thinking about the crowd scenes in Cars, they probably did use Massive; it sounds like that's the default for large crowds nowadays. :O
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