Link from Toxi
I love 3D. I wish I had spent my time learning Maya instead of Flash. Greener grass and all. Part of the fascination is the ‘magic factor’. Not sure of the exact name of the phenominon or if it is a phenominon at all but I kinda remember the gist. Something about showing a calculator to a caveman and him thinking you are god. Or an evil spirit. Cant quite remember, but it was definitely something big. I am the caveman and really damn good 3D is the calculator. Ok, not the best metaphor. Or is it a simile. Sigh, I digress.
I love 3D, not because it is pretty or lush or convincing. I love it because I just have no idea how to do it. Maybe ‘wow factor’ would be more appropriate. I see good 3D rendering and I think “Wow! How the hell did they do that!” I think we all do this to some extent. The danger with this line of thinking is if you are unfamiliar with the tools, then you cannot fully appreciate the amount of work that was put into a piece. The first time someone showed me photoshop pre-packaged lens-flares, I probably said something like, “Oh my holy freakin god! How did you do that?! It’s like I am looking directly into the sun!”
But it was just a single button press. The filter did all the work. But if you did not realize the simplicity behind the flash, you would be impressed. Magic.
So, when I see something that makes me say ‘wow’, I force myself to sit back and think. Is this actually something to ‘wow’ at or is this just a prepackaged effect that anyone in-the-know would realize took all of 2 minutes. After seeing the 1st Ave Machine video, I could easily tell that this was something special. Check out the videos on the ‘projects’ page, particularly the Sixes Last video and the propaganda piece.
The light-matching alone is impressive. Combine it with some spot-on camera tracking and you get near perfect integration of realistic 3D into a filmed scene. I say ‘near’ only because something seemed off. I couldn’t say what, exactly. Cannot put my finger on it. I am going to go watch the videos again. Maybe I will figure it out. But man … Wow.
>> UPDATE
I got so excited that I didn’t realize Toxi had mentioned what this ’something seeming off’ might be about. Its the uncanny valley. Google it. Some interesting reading.
Heh, one of the big reasons I got into programming after several years of doing 3D (3DSR4 to Max) was that with 3D you’d spend six months full time producing something that runs for ten seconds, but with programming you could spend one day producing something that lasts for years.
Also I sucked at 3D.
That is a good point. I imagine I would suck at 3D as well. I am not a patient man. I wonder how architects deal with this? To design a building and not be able to walk through it for years takes a level of patience that I might never achieve.
And I didn’t realize you were the mastermind behind the DuctTape mod. Nice work!
It’s pretty incredible how well the CG in Sixties Last is matched to the environment. That must have been pretty hard. Definitely that’s the frustrating thing about 3d. You still have to pay attention to all the details of a shot for so long..
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Really nice article. Made my day. Very funny and well written.
I have some architects in my neighbourhood and they really spend much time on this tools. I think this is quite amazing and I appreciate their works. They just use the tools, and I am not a tool user, but sort of tool-abuser. I think that is a fine line. Depends on personal preference.