HELL YEAH HISTMO

This is the most impressive and BEST SHORT that Pixar have worked on so far. I remember when i watched this in the theatres before Toy Story 3, I was so impressed and i felt that paying a S$6 student rate movie ticket for this, was worth it. I would pay a movie ticket just to watch this. After i watch this short, i was seriously so impressed to the extend that even if Toy Story 3 look bad, it was worth it. But well, Toy Story 3 was good so it was one of the really good movie experience I had and will never forget! This was a great eye opener for me.




The way this short is treated it’s just a mash of traditional hand-drawn animation, along with 3D animation. The characters, Day and Night, were both hand-drawn by the animators against the black background, which was simple. Then, 3D animation and modeling and particles was used to create the scenes happening within Day and Night. The effects were nothing to cheesey, it was just right. The 3D animation and modeling were also playing around the cartoon look.



This short relies mainly on sound and animation, it’s a very audio and visual driven story/short. I understand how Pixar refer to this short as being the most difficult to produce short yet and how it’s not a story you can explain. There’s a start, climax and end, which is the basic structure for any story, however, it’s really impossible to put it in words, or rather, it’d might just come out sounding super stupid.

I like how the framing of every scene that happens in Day and Night because, this whole short is just something so genius. The characters reaction is so smartly in sync with the scene within them. Even the sound effect, i.e. Day rubbing his eyes and the scene taking place within him is a girl riding a bike down the slope, does not really link, but the sound used suits both action.

The production of Day and Night have brought animation to a whole different level. I’m excited for the upcoming works from Pixar as I’m sure with preparing this short, they sure do have much interesting and great stuff up their sleeves for future Pixar productions!

Toy Story, all 1 to 3, is a great display of animated characters that humans can relate too though almost all the characters, other than Andy, are toys. Toy Story is not just another children’s movie. Though there’s 3 ‘episodes’ of Toy Story so far, I personally feel that it’s not draggy and made to please fans and audience, but a good storyline that sells to people of all ages, no matter what they are facing in life. Toy Story relates to anyone, and that’s what makes it a great animation movie!

I really like Toy Story’s character design. They look like common typical toys, some of them are just so simple, but yet at the same time, each toy character looks so special and unique.



The idea of Toy Story built on Pixar’s short film, The Tin Toy, which is the first CG Animation to win an Oscar.



The idea of giving toys a character, and basic human ‘presets’ such as emotions like fear, as seen in The Tin Toy, started from this short! After having the idea of giving toys these characteristics, Toy Story was born. Each toy was unique in their own ways, and i like the script in the Toy Story Trilogy.

Here’s one of the early test Pixar did before working Toy Story as a movie production. The small blue character is the initial character design for Buzz Lightyear!



Yes, this test looks really raw. The first Toy Story was made when CG animation technology just started up. Before that, animation was traditionally drawn, hence it was a very big thing for Pixar to pick up a challenging project such as Toy Story which relied on the growing techonology-then which was moving from hand-drawn animation to digital animation.

Rapunzel is Walt Disney’s 50th animated feature that took many years for Disney to prepare before the animators felt that they could make it work. One of the biggest issue that hindered the team from making Rapunzel was her very very very very long hair. Animators had to learn how her hair would flow, how it felt to have such a long hair, the weight factor, how it will move, or even how anyone would handle such long hair.

It took 10 years of playing around with computer graphics technology before film-makers felt prepared enough to commit Rapunzel, ‘and even with less than a year to go before the film’s release, we weren’t entirely sure we could do this,’ says Byron Howard. ‘The hair is almost another character in the movie and we needed to do it justice.’

A team of visual effects and hair experts developed a software, Dynamic Wires, that will help bring Rapunzel’s hair to life, making it look realistic and believable on screen. This software allowed animators to create 140,000 strands that all moved independently, which is crazy nuts work.

While watching Rapunzel, it didn’t dawn on me how hard it would be to animate such long hair. But it was so wonderfully done. The scene of weight of the hair, and sometimes seem as a burden for Rapunzel could be felt. I like how they were smart in making use of her hair in many ways, making it very believable that Rapunzel is a really smart girl who have been living with this long hair for her entire life.

This scene is one of my favourite scene in the movie! The thousands of floating lanterns being launched into the sky was very beautiful and it is said to be one of the hardest scene to film ever. Yes, it really looked very beautiful and great, seeing thousands of lanterns floating up to the sky, looking like stars as there was simply so many of them. But i guess coordinating the floating lanterns with the other animation that is taking place on that scene made it very challenging.

Overall, Rapunzel A Tangled Tale, is one of the ‘fairytales’ animation that I really enjoyed. I like this one more than the usual hand-drawn animation done by Disney. I guess partly is the combination of fantasy, fairytale, action and romance made this Disney animation alot more to watch out for and be excited for while watching!

I’m not a big fan of action-packed movies, but I really enjoyed this movie. One part of the movie that really surprised me was the scenes that had the pirates who turned into skeletons under moonlight.

So much effort in rotoscoping and compositing the 3d modeled ‘skeletons’ of the pirates whenever a certain part of their body is being hit by the moonlight, especially those in the fighting scenes. It was very well-done. The modeled skeletons was not the typical white skeletons but, also possess the rugged dirty look of that of a pirate. When the pirates were fully under the moonlight in some of the fighting scenes, they were animated in, as it saved alot more time than rotoscoping and keying each pirate out. The opposition of the pirates would have to act as if they were fighting with an ‘actual physical skeleton’ when there’s really no one there when the cameras roll, which I must say those actors and actress performed well because it really was seamless. You would not be able to tell that they were just jumping around and fighting with thin air.

For this movie, most of the sets were either real, or build. Other effects, such as explosions, were also done on set, not adding on in post. I believe the real physical set, like a real ship out in the Caribbean sea, was an important factor that the movie needed. The cast had to feel that real waves and tides and wind in their faces. It might have turned out very unbelievable it was done in post.

Edward Scissorhands. An uncommonly gentle young man, who happens to have scissors for hands, falls in love with a beautiful teenage girl.

Edward Scissorhands is a classic. It was a really great fantasy romance that people of any age would enjoy. I loved how it was very different from the typical fantasy movies. The treatment and setting and even dynamics was very different. I guess that’s where it won the hearts of many.

The opening scene shows a bird’s eye view of the neighbourhood the movie was set in.

It’s a miniature model, which I wasn’t able to tell when I watched it. It was pretty seamless. Burton had this whole new neighbourhood at Florida, which he rented the whole place down to shoot. Had every single house painted.

These hands that Johnny Depp wore through out the movie is controlled by the actor himself! Only for several shots that Edward was to make speedy fast cuts, these scissors were controlled by 4 puppeteers who know how to trim trees.

Many things worked out well for this movie, hence making it a hit classic. The storyline, the performance by the cast, the character design of Edward, and the great music written by Danny Elfman!

Beetlejuice, a 1988 comedy horror fanstasy film directed by Tim Burton.

I’m not a fan of horror but this movie was surprisingly very entertaining. It’s basically a Burton’s attempt in poking fun at afterlife, some parts even felt like a parody, especially the waiting room scene.

The effects in the movie was pretty cheesy, but it suit the overall look for the movie as it’s a poke fun and parody. The low-budget effects worked well with the world Tim Burton created.

There were some flying scene where the metal wires can be seen as the actor’s ‘floated’. This sort of blended well with the storylines as Barbara and Adam tries very hard to be scary ghost to scare the new family who just shifted into their home.

Other good simple visual effects used were also good, such as Barbara floating as she sleeps and when she does not see her reflection in the mirror.

Many things were exaggerated in a good way as no one really knows what afterlife really is. This is a great film for audiences to enter into quirky Tim Burton’s mind into his creative style and artistic approach.

For a person who likes the raw real stuff, I liked the small building models made, and the claymation/stop-motion of the various monsters/ghosts.

I really like how the story went though i feel that it was a pretty short film. However, I felt that more could be played around and more stuff could have been lengthen as the pacing for some scenes felt too fast.

A real good dance movie. The best Step Up so far. And the first Step Up in 3D. Woohoo!

I caught Step Up in both 2D and 3D when it was released in the theatres. I wouldn’t stay which one was better, cos both 2D and 3D was nice in a different way. But honestly, when i saw it in 3D, I was blown away. This is the first 3D movie I ever watched, and well, I only wanted to watch it in 3D after I saw it in 2D. I loved how the director put in so much thought about the camera angle, how the choreographer putting it in so much though in the dance for a 3D picture, cos everything that was ‘popping’ out of the screen, was fantastic. I believe it’s one of the best 3D stereoscopic films ever made as the ‘popping’ out of the elements in the scene was natural, not like other 4D movie I’ve watched which made things pop out for the sake for having a 3D movie.

They had dance scenes involving dust and water, which was good for a 3D stereoscopic film with the audience feel as if they were there in that environment with them, watching their competition.

Other scenes that made great use of the 3D stereoscopic was the Slurpee scene.

I really enjoyed the finale dance, World Jam which brought the show to a higher level. The glowsuit was seriously the best. The LED lights on the outfit and ‘lazer’ were all added on in post and it was really beautiful in both 2D and 3D.

Alice In Wonderland by Tim Burton. Love it. Yes, and I’ve rewatched it for about 3-4 times by now after the DVD was being released in stores.

I don’t understand why so many people disliked Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland. I’ve seen many friends shaking their heads when I mention how i love Burton’s take on this childhood story. I’m with Burton on this, cos honestly the ‘original’, always told storyline of Alice in Wonderland always didn’t make sense to me as well, so he’s not alone in feeling that Alice in Wonderland needed some rearrangement in terms of storytelling and plot. Don’t continue reading on if you’re shaking your head at my post till here. Haha.

Alice in Wonderland was mainly filming in the green screen studio, almost 90% of the film. There was alot of CGI involved for this film. When Alice dropped into the rabbit’s hole into Underland, most of the environment was CGI. Crazy environment.

What I love about this film is that, details for the film, at least for most of it, were taken in great consideration. Example would be the constant shrinking and growing of Alice into the many different sizes. Not only must the false perspective with the use of the camera direction be used on set, the props that Alice will interact with on set, and even Alice’s wardrobe must also be altered accordingly.

Another thing I really like is the looks for each character. They are all different in a artistic way. Mad Hatter is a live action character, the Red Queen had her head made bigger in post, White Rabbit and Dormouse are animated characters and Stayne’s body was completely CGI with his head being live action. Crazy stuff done there, which really helped made the Underland feel chaotic and crazy enough for the things that do happen in that rabbit hole.

Inception.
Till today, i still can’t figure out the ending, was it a reality or not? Honestly, when i was in the theater, i was pissed with the ending. Cause it made me super dreamy and i cannot stop thinking about it for the next 24 hrs. Other than that, Inception was a great show.

What i really really love about the visual of this film is that the digital effects were not too overdone as seen on many films these days. They could have went way crazier with the effects since most of the movie were made up of dreams, and anything can happen in a dream. But I’m glad Nolan kept the effects the way they were on the actual film, cos it really turned out great!

I’m can be considered as one of the more traditional kind in terms of visual effects. As in, I’m more for building the sets, building miniatures and blow them out, which worked out real well for both Inception and Titanic. There’s just something about building something up and blowing it into pieces physically rather than blowing it up with computer-generated effects. It’s the raw-ness of that simple explosion and crashing that makes it look great. Computer generated effects is more of an add-on, an enhancement to what have been already done on set, have already been done infront of the cameras, which many film makers have overlooked these days by spamming lots of CGI stuff.

Oh no, i just read this online! “However, Michael Caine has since revealed the “true” ending of the film, stating that, “[The spinning top] drops at the end, that’s when I come back on. If I’m there it’s real, because I’m never in the dream. I’m the guy who invented the dream.”
Damnn, so there it goes, i know the ending to Inception nowwww.

Yes, Titanic, the movie James Cameron made in 1997 before moving on to work on Avatar.

A sinking ship is crazy. But i must say that, the production for Titanic is way crazier. Considering technology in 1997, Titanic was a really well done film. Every small detail in that set, on that ship, in those props, is sick. I’m sure the Arts Department had a hard time with many things as it was to look and feel as close as to the real Titanic in 1912.

Production was crazy, especially those scenes where the water rushed into Titanic. Crazy planning to be done before hand, like the calculation to how people will fall at a certain angle and slide down the ship, making it look as real as possible without injuring any extras. James Cameron is such a genius.

I feel post production was pretty crazy for them considering the technology then in 1997! All the green screen, crowd extension, James had to do as many camera tricks as he could think of so the post production team wouldn’t die editing with those limitations back then!

Titanic will be one of those movies I wouldn’t mind re-watching because it seems like there’s a different thing to watch out for everytime i watch it! I watched the Making of Titanic on youtube, and it was really really goood. I never appreciate this movie so much until i saw the making. I don’t know who else would go to that extend and detail now with our technology, only James. Hahaha, but lucky for him, it was all worth it with the whole world watching Titanic.

Oh, and James Cameron is going to re-release Titanic with a 3D conversion in 2012. I’m really curious how it will look like in 3D, seeing those water rush in your face, and all the people dropping in your face. It might be scary though :/ We wouldn’t know if it’s going to be as successful as Titanic ‘2D’ (1997) until 2012! Maybe I should keep this post till 2012 and come back and do a post on it!