Through the Looking Glass Summery
This article is discussing how art and science are connected more than ever. It also says we are in an era that is similar to when movies were first invented and how movies are made for our entertainment rather than the story. This article starts by comparing visual effects to science, where he talks about how software engineers work with scientists to get the most realistic looking images. For example, how Stanford’s researchers studied the swirling effects seen when water crashed into solid objects such as rocks. They then worked with ILM to develop software that can mimic this so they could use it in future movies. He compares this to when cinemas were first invented and scientists would create cameras. Then filmmakers would use the cameras to create movies which were made for entertainment. Another point he made was how some movies would stop the narrative for the spectacle. The example he gave was Jurassic Park where he said that the story stops so the viewer can look at dinosaurs. He compares this to when movies were first invented and they were
completely made for entertainment because people had never seen anything like it before. He compares this to Jurassic Park where people had never seen a dinosaur before and visual effects had allowed for that to happen.
What is Digital Cinema? - Lev Manovich
This article discusses the history of digital cinema and how VFX has changed movies. He starts by talking about how “digital media is understood as something which will let cinema tell its stories in a new way” (Manovich). However, he said that this is not as important as you might think as this is only one part that makes up the overall narrative. He then goes on to say that VFX is making movies lose their identity. “But what happens to cinema's indexical identity if it is now possible to generate photorealistic scenes entirely in a computer using 3-D computer animation; to modify individual frames or whole scenes with the help a digital paint program; to cut, bend, stretch and stitch digitized film images into something which has perfect photographic credibility, although it was never actually filmed?” (Manovich). He also talks about the history of digital cinema where everything was hand-painted, and now VFX artists can simulate photorealistic environments.
Lev Manovich (no date) Compression. Available at: http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/what-is-digital-cinema (Accessed: 14 October 2020).
Comparing the Articles
Both of the articles compare what movies are like now to when cinemas were first invented. However, Stephen Prince was more positive and Lev Manovich was more negative. The example Stephen Prince gave was Jurassic Park where he said that the story stops so the viewer can look at dinosaurs. He compares this to when movies were first invented and they were Stephen prince gave an example that completely made for entertainment because people had never seen anything like it before. He compares this to Jurassic Park where people had never seen a dinosaur before and visual effects had allowed for that to happen. In comparison, Lev Manovich talks about how “digital media is understood as something which will let cinema tell its stories in a new way” (Manovich). However, he said that this is not as important as you might think as this is only one part that makes up the overall narrative. He then goes on to say that VFX is making movies lose their identity.
Essay Plan
How Real-Time Rendering Will Change The VFX Industry
Photographic Truth Claim
Photographic truth claim is an idea that the only way you can prove that something is real by showing someone or taking a photo. For example, a painting of Big Ben. If you showed someone a painting of Big Ben it does not prove that it is a real place as the painter could have just painted something that was made up. However, if you showed someone a photo of Big Ben it does prove that it is a real place because a camera can only capture things in real life and cannot create fake images. However, with the advances of VFX, it is a lot harder to see what is a
photo and what is real. For example, The Lion King. If someone had never seen the movie before and you showed them an image from the new Lion King, they would think it’s real because it looks like a photo. However, it is 100% CGI. In contrast, if you showed the same person an image from the original Lion King then they would know that it is animation because it doesn’t look like a photo.
Compositing is when a VFX artist combines different elements together to create the final image. One example of this would be if someone created a CGI image and the compositor would have to combine it with a real-life background. Another example would be to remove a green screen backdrop from an image and replace it with a different background. Compositing allows your final image to be something that could be too hard or impossible to be filmed through a camera.
To make a composite look real you will have to match all of the different elements together. There are lots of ways of doing this but the most important way is the colour. You will have to make sure the highlights and shadows are the same as the rest of the image. You will also need to make sure the white balance and saturation are the same. Another way of matching the different elements is to match the lighting. For this, you will need to make sure the shadows are going in the same direction.
What is Compositing?
Essay Presentation
Essay Proposal
Will Real-Time Rendering Change the VFX Industry?
I have picked this title because I have noticed that the way games look has improved a lot recently. However, the way films look has not. After some research, I discovered that CGI in moves has improved, but not in the way I thought. This is because when the original Jurassic Park movie was made, the only thing that was CGI was the dinosaurs and the rest of the image was real. But with Jurassic World most of what you see in the final movie is VFX. A big reason for this is because CGI can now be created and rendered a lot quicker. For example, the dinosaur shot in Jurassic Park took hours to render one frame. But, with games that use very similar rendering techniques can render at 30 frames per second (33 milliseconds). This has allowed VFX artists to switch to different rendering methods such as path-tracing and also render a lot more objects in one shot. This is why believe the next step in 3D rendering is the switch to real-time. This is because computers have got so much faster and we can now create photorealistic images that can render in real-time.
I am going to do my own research to find out what the difference is between using an offline render engine and a real-time render engine. To do this I am going to 3D model a scene and render it in Arnold and Unreal Engine. I will then compare the differences in the final render. I will also talk about the differences in working with both render engines. Another thing I will do is create shader balls and add different materials to them. I will compare what the materials look like in both of the render engines and how easy it is to get that result.
I will also talk about new technology’s that we can now use because of real-time rendering, such as Virtual Production and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using it. Some examples of Virtual Production include the 360 screens for The Mandalorian, and a virtual camera which was used for the Lion King. I will also talk about blenders new real-time render engine called Eevee and the advantages and disadvantages of using it. Another thing that I will talk about is what ray-tracing is and how it will improve real-time rendering.
Bibliography
Martin Lister / Jon Dovey / Seth Giddings / Iain Grant / Kieran Kelly - New Media: a critical introduction
William Mitchel - The Reconfigured Eye
Photorealism
For and image to be photorealistic it needs to look like it is 100% real. A photorealistic image can be made in various ways but the most common are made using VFX. This can be done by either composting or by making a scene in full CGI.
The benefit to compositing is all of the elements are real. This makes it a lot quicker to get to the final image. However, the downside is that all of the images will not match each other. You will have to match the colours and brightness. You will also need to make sure the elements are tracked perfectly otherwise when the camera moves it will not look correct. You are also limited in the images you can use as they will have to have the same perspective.
The benefit of creating a scene in CGI is you will not need to worry about the perspective because the 3D program will do it for you. This allows you to have a lot more freedom over the final image. Another benefit is that if you are skilled enough, then it is straightforward to get realistic lighting and reflections. However, the downside is you have to create everything accurately in 3D. This includes modelling and texturing. You will also have to make sure the materials are realistic. This makes it a lot longer to get the final image.
Reality Capture
Reality capture is a way of transferring something from real life into a computer. The best example of this in a photo. However, the downside to this is that it is only 2D.
There is a new technology called 3D scanning that allows you to capture something in 3D and then view it on a computer. The most common method of 3D scanning is Photogrammetry. This is the process of taking multiple images around an object. Then you import them into a program on the computer and it will use the perspective to create a 3D model.
This can be used for individual objects, such as a cup. It can be used for people if you have multiple cameras set up to take a picture at the same time. You can also use it to capture an environment.
Essay Schedule
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