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Mind-blowing special effects and the ravages of time
- Thread starter XANDER CAGE
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Battle of Yavin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KdFvZr0Lc (cannot find the original version without CGI... but it isn't that bad compared to the Jabaa scene...)
Old as it can get, still better than movies today.
I'm still not decided on which space battle, Yavin or Endor, is the best in the series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KdFvZr0Lc (cannot find the original version without CGI... but it isn't that bad compared to the Jabaa scene...)
Old as it can get, still better than movies today.
I'm still not decided on which space battle, Yavin or Endor, is the best in the series.
lastplayed
Member
Battle of Endor for me. I loved all the co-ordination between the guys doing the tunnel run, the capital ships taking on the star destroyers and the destruction of the shield generator.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Endor. It's still probably the best space battle put to film, period.
XANDER CAGE
Member
The shot of the Falcon escaping the explosion is probably my favorite effects shot of all time.
The agent was chasing her. She jumped out of the window to get away from him.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Probably? It has no competition.
There are a number of shots in Zodiac that are clearly CGI and I can't believe people can't tell, even today. The one that really stood out even the first time I saw it was a shot of a car driving down a road with nothing but corn fields around. If you couldn't tell just by how everything looked, the camera shot was impossible to do in anything other than CGI.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Endor wins. Hands down. It is just mindblowing to think that they pulled off something of that scale using motion control cameras and models. The sheer volume of ships on screen and the motion of it all still impresses to this day, and is more impressive when you realize how it was pulled off.
Endor is still the high water mark for a big space battle for me.
hooijdonk17
Member
The feeling I get from watching the Battle of Endor has only been surpassed by playing Freespace 2..
Did the visual effects houses upgrade to PS4's?
XANDER CAGE
Member
The long moving shot where the car drives up to the truck and someone walks towards it is particularly jarring. It's often passed around in impressive-making-of threads and stuff and it's like, really? What about this needed to be composite/CGI?
angular graphics
Banned
Not sure if serious. Or maybe you are overthinking it because the answers are really simple.
Trinity jumped hoping she would somehow escape. She did kind of the same thing in the first movie, although there she jumped in a building through a window instead of the opposite. Let's say this time she was more desperate lol.
The Agent jumped after her to make sure the job is done.
Indeed, it certainly looks a lot better than the Advent Children. (always has.)
Well, It's been a while since I've seen the movie. But jumping out of a building seems like a terrible escape plan. Alright, maybe she was desperate. But the agent could just look out of window and watch her fall to her death. Why would you jump after her. On the other hand, he is an Agent, why not.
In the first movie she jumps through another building and not to the ground. Way better plan.
I remember thinking this looked terrible when I saw it in the cinema. I was 10 years old.Oh man, Harry Potter is a goldmine:
It was never good.
angular graphics
Banned
The answer in both cases is really "why not"? Trinity couldn't possibly survive against two Agents, and the Agent couldn't care less about getting his host killed if it meant he could ensure Trinity's death.
In fact Trinity had a better chance to survive the fall than surviving from two Agents. In Final Flight of The Osiris Jue successfully bent the rules of the Matrix and survived her fall;
XANDER CAGE
Member
Speaking of once-incredible looking CG, The Animatrix's CG shorts don't hold up too well.
What surprises me is how well War of the Worlds holds up. It's from 2005 and some effects can look a little dated but I also wouldn't be surprised to see a movie with the same quality of effects being released today.
lol that fifa 98 grassOh man, Harry Potter is a goldmine:
game2brain
Banned
True Lies - James Cameron
The mix of miniatures and blended effects are still mind blowing and believable. Some shots are poorly done, but mostly the lightning does not match the backround.
blended:
miniatures:
no effects at all, mind blown
The mix of miniatures and blended effects are still mind blowing and believable. Some shots are poorly done, but mostly the lightning does not match the backround.
blended:
miniatures:
no effects at all, mind blown
For me the beauty of practical effects is that they place limitations on the director that require some creativity and enhance the viewers imagination. For example, the monster may have to be mostly off screen, ships can't move blindingly fast or the camera can linger a bit since the model is done, no need to rush the shot. CGI lets directors get sloppy, they show too much, have crazy detail that overwhelms or resort to crap editing. Transformers is like this. Without CGI the robots wouldn't have those gears within gears motions and models would have more recognizable shapes. Think about Jaws versus some of the later shark films. Showing the entire shark doing silly stunts looks dumb (Deep Blue Sea and Jaws 3, I'm looking at you), the effect is better when you don't see it much, don't see it well, and the director has to deal with a real thing.
Sax Russel
Banned
Here's another RotJ gif cause dat Battle of Endor
XANDER CAGE
Member
Here's another RotJ gif cause dat Battle of Endor
It probably helps that the backdrops are always space/otherworldly ships, but I still think Star Wars has some of the best composite jobs ever.
Hell yes, the OT looks amazing. Love those miniatures and composites.
Like the hat?
Banned
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Before or after they cleaned up the matte lines?
Not surprising ever since the whole "Hollywood Doesn't Get Technology" article.
lastplayed
Member
Here's another RotJ gif cause dat Battle of Endor
Got one of the Falcon entering the tunnel? That's the best moment.
XANDER CAGE
Member
I actually don't know, I've only owned the OT on VHS. I missed out on the DVD run of the untouched versions.
Sax Russel
Banned
Part of the problem I have with modern CGI is how directors use that shit. Fuck man, does the camera have to do fucking somersaults through a scene? How about composition, framing and shit. And film today looks so fucking clean...even movies that are meant to look gritty look sterile...too crisp. Take some CG and make the movie look like it was filmed on some old film on an old camera with a great classic lens. That would be something.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Word is that Abrams is actually trying to create a post-production filter that will make the stuff he's shooting for Episode VII look like it was shot on the same film stock as Star Wars back in 77
ScottSullivan
Member
I think this movie mostly holds up well, including that scene, the only part that I remember looking cheesy is when he slides off the trunk after killing it. THAT looked fake even at the time
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Some actually try to do this. The issue is with a lot of films using digital cameras, there isn't any film grain to try and match.
lastplayed
Member
Fuck yeah. So seamless.
Here's another RotJ gif cause dat Battle of Endor
Okay I approve, Endor wins.
vas_a_morir
Banned
This is from the remake, I take it?
fizzelopeguss
Banned
The mummy hasn't aged well at all.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Here's another RotJ gif cause dat Battle of Endor
Droool.
All they did in that sequence for the Special Editions was clean up some matte lines. Other than that, it is still just composite work using models and motion controlled cameras. Insane when you realize just how much they had to do to pull that off.
Grimm Fandango
Member
XANDER CAGE
Member
I remember going into that movie after reading an interview about how "most of the special effects would be practical" or whatever BS the producers had spun. I actually remember thinking that chase looked pretty okay at the time, but watching it now on Youtube, eurrrgh.
Did you expect something stillborn to age?
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
I actually tried to watch Crystal Skull for the first time not too long ago.
(Gave up after the scene where they fell down a dozen waterfalls)
It doesn't really count but the "50s-style" post-processing is absolutely awful.
There was also a shitty cgi rodent I believe. What the fuck were they thinking?
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