"What do you mean by painting?" Ronald had no idea about this ancient stunt.
"Matte painting may be the earliest stunt technique..." Cameron thought for a long time, but couldn't think of a way to describe it, so he simply dragged Ronald to the office building of Twentieth Century Fox.
In the most famous "Star Wars" scene display in the reception room, Cameron pulled Ronald to look carefully at the scene of the Millennium Falcon being pulled in by the Empire's Star Destroyer with a tractor beam.
There is a detail in this scene that is ordinary to the audience but seems weird to the filmmakers, that is, the top, bottom, left, and right of the tractor beam are empty. But in the real world, there is no such tractor beam, and other things must be used.
How did Lucas photograph the model of the Millennium Falcon?
Cameron pointed at the picture and explained to Ronald that it turned out that the Imperial Star Destroyer in this scene was not a real model, but a painting painted by an artist and placed behind the Millennium Falcon spacecraft as a camera.
The fake background during the shooting. Even the groups of white stormtroopers were obtained from paintings.
This painting had to be done very carefully, so that all the perspectives and lighting were exactly the same as those in the studio, so that the audience would have the illusion that they were seeing a huge Star Destroyer on the black sky.
In the original shot, there was nothing in the distance beyond the Millennium Falcon. With the addition of a background painting made with matte paint, when illuminated by the light, it looked almost like a normal scene.
Finally, by letting the camera mover zoom in and out, the originally stationary background painting can have the effect of moving like when we are watching the scenery outside the window while flying on an airplane, so that the audience cannot tell that this is actually a painting.
It sounds simple, but it is quite complicated to implement. The first thing you need to do is find a suitable painter who has the skills of sketching and gouache painting. No one in the film industry has used this ancient technique for a long time. Can you find a high-level painter?
is a problem.
Second, if the camera moves beyond a fixed length, the perspective of the background will change. The traditional Hollywood method is to draw several matte paintings on the background, so that the puzzle pieces can be carefully connected according to different scenes.
Because the slightest discrepancy will be noticed by the audience, it requires experienced people to carefully handle the interface between the real background and the fake painting. This is why this type of work is called "interface".
The reason for the landscape architect.
Likewise, there are not many experienced set-takers because this technology is gradually dying out. Even a big studio like 20th Century Fox may not be able to find anyone who can still do this job.
However, the same matte painting and scene-joining technique, when done well, also has advantages that other special effects methods do not have, that is, painting can handle details and perspective very realistically. Compared with the current computer special effects, and
Shots taken using other methods are even more invisible to the audience.
And compared to setting up scenes and shooting on location, the cost of setting up scenes is almost one-tenth of the cost of the first two.
The benefits are so great, anything can be done in Hollywood.
Ronald called Joel Silver and told him his special effects ideas. Joel Silver watched the Star Wars video tape carefully and found no flaws. He waved his hand to let the flesh bombs pass.
Myra Anderson leaves to have a private chat with Ronald.
"Ronald, I have no doubts about your technical judgment. But after all, Fox paid the majority of the money for this movie. Such a cheap special effects method, the budget is only..."
"Who said it's cheap?" Ronald understood the thinking of independent producers like Joel Silver, who could deduct a little from production costs. He continued, "This method is almost extinct in Hollywood.
It's not that easy to hire experienced painters, you still have to let them practice and trial production. Moreover, our movie special effects shots are very long, so we need to paint many pieces.
Can these matte landscape paintings be combined with real shots to achieve our effect? Do we need repeated experiments? Do we need to adjust our ideas based on the effect?"
"Hahahaha, you are so right. We are also making important contributions to retaining traditional craftsmanship in Hollywood..." Joel Silver was prompted by Ronald and immediately came up with more than a dozen ways to cheat money.
There is no problem if the budget is five to ten times higher.
"That's still the old division of labor. I'm responsible for the technical implementation, and you're responsible for the budget..." Ronald also smiled, just in time to find someone to come over and experiment with some other special effects. Anyway, he wouldn't use them much.
The two co-producers still have a specific division of labor. Joel Silver is in charge of the money and doesn't care much about the filming situation. Ronald is in charge of the filming and doesn't care about the money.
…
The search for suitable matte painting talents went particularly smoothly. This was because George Lucas, the boss of Industrial Light and Magic, the largest special effects company in Hollywood, admired Ronald. He told Ronald that Industrial Light and Magic
After 1985, I also did the matte matching work for two blockbusters. I was able to find probably the only experienced painters and supporting photographers left in the industry.
"I have maintained a small team at Industrial Light and Magic, which specializes in matte painting and setting work. However, recently, only a few small productions such as Steven (Spielberg)'s 'Young Sherlock Holmes' have done this kind of work.
Yes, you can use this technology, just so I can maintain this small team."
George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic has many strange technical teams. Except for some popular special effects teams, such as explosions, aerial combat, and matte scenes, there is little demand for niche special effects. They all rely on
The boss supports the team.
Lucas was actually very happy that Ronald was able to get them to start work this time. Otherwise, it would have been quite a financial pressure just for him and Spielberg to start work.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Hello, my name is John Knoll, I am happy to serve you." The people from the special effects team quickly left Lucas's Star Wars estate.
Rushed to Hollywood and met Ronald. He worked in Cameron's "Abyss" special effects team, and Ronald looked familiar to him.
"Hello, I think we have met before. I have a big project here. The longest continuous shot takes 3 seconds. Come and take a look at the schematic diagram I made."
Ronald made a small model of the airport scene at the end of "Die Hard", showed it to John Noll, and asked him how difficult it was technically to realize it.
"There isn't much of a problem when it comes to shooting. It's just that the matte painting is larger, the hole in the middle is larger, and more support is needed. It just takes some effort."
The scene needs to leave a place for the actors to perform, so a hole will be left in the painting for them to perform in the hole. When the camera shoots, it will create an illusion and blend the picture and the characters into one.
With such a large scene and such a long lens, the painting will be several meters high. The painting will take a long time to complete. After completion, it also needs to be fixed in many ways to prevent it from accidentally collapsing during filming.
This part is just time-consuming. We are still a few months away from shooting, so there is no problem in trying it slowly.
But when the Japanese-born Yusei Kamishiro, the most skilled among the last few matte scene painters in Hollywood, came over to take a look, he raised a question.
"This scene is too big. I can't draw it by myself. I have to double the size, otherwise I'm afraid the drawing won't be accurate." Shangshan Yusheng complained about the difficulty. This kind of scene-taking scale is rarely done even in old Hollywood.
Maybe except for Kubrick, who played a few scenes on such a large scale in Spartacus. But that was the golden age of painting and setting, with many people and experience.
"However, if the frame is smaller, the holes in it will also be smaller. We need to have a large panorama during shooting, so it cannot be smaller. The rest of the shots can be shot in smaller versions." Ronald opened the script to him.
Look, this shot would have lost its magic if it hadn't been zoomed in from a close shot to a distant shot.
Ronald didn't agree to remove the biggest lens, but Yusheng Shangshang still shook his head. Today's painters are not as good as they were in the past. If several people work together, the style cannot be completely unified. He has never dealt with such a large-scale special effect. For a moment, he
I dare not promise that it will definitely work.
"Excuse me, is John Noll here?"
During the stalemate, a young man wearing jeans and a baseball cap came to see the special effects supervisor of Industrial Light and Magic.
"He was changing the camera's track in the back. Do you have anything to do with him?" Yusheng Shangshan asked.
"I am his brother Thomas. I came to see him for something... Oh, are you using landscape painting? Not many people practice this craft now."
"Why, you know this too?" Ronald was a little surprised.
"This is a technique, which means we cover the outside of the real scene, replace it with a picture, and open a hole in the middle for the actors to perform inside. This technique is very classic, and the new software I developed uses this idea.
"
"Software, what software?" Ronald seemed to have some inspiration.
"It's a small software that Thomas and I wrote that can modify photos on an Apple computer just like in a darkroom. I wrote the first version of the program with him. Later, both Apple and a company called Adobe took a fancy to it, and we
We sold the software and came back to do the special effects in movies we like.
However, there is still a lot of programming work to be done in the follow-up. I am mainly upgrading the main program. My brother is busier at Industrial Light and Magic, so he writes some small functional plug-ins. This time I come here to show him what will happen after the upgrade.
Main program."
…
It happened that Ronald bought a lot of Apple computers last time and invited the Noel brothers to demonstrate the software to him.
On Apple computers, this software called photohop was installed quickly. The icon is a human eye and a color palette.
Thomas Knoll was more familiar with the program, so he opened a picture, added a channel to it, and clicked the mouse. After more than ten seconds, a hole appeared in the middle of the landscape painting.
Then he opened a picture of a character, shrunk the character, and put it into the hole in the landscape painting. The effect was the same as that of matte painting.
"So, we can transfer the special effects of matte painting and scene matching to Apple computers, and let the computer handle the process of cutting out the middle of the picture, retaining the surrounding background, and adding the actors' performances to make them fit together perfectly."
"Oh, this computer is really good, so I only need to draw a matte painting that is much smaller in size, and then use..." The painter Yusei Shangshan also watched the entire demonstration, and his work became much easier.
"Then we will find a way to turn the painting into film, and we can use photohop to synthesize it." John Noel continued. He developed the plug-in for this channel. I never thought of using this method to process it before, so
Brother Thomas had an idea.
"So, the next step is to make a few frames to verify whether this method can be successful..." Ronald calculated that if this computer synthesis method is used, the savings will not only be the labor cost of painting.
Shooting will also become very simple. There is no need to set up a large drawing board on site and ensure that it does not shake when the blower blows to simulate the strong wind when the plane takes off.
Just simply shoot within the designated area without leaving the circle.
"This is much simpler. Do you have any way to turn paintings into film?"
Although the idea is very good, the final step of format conversion is still a big problem. It is impossible to achieve the resolution required by the film using ordinary printers or film reproduction. You must have professional equipment to store it in
The digital pictures on the hard drive are converted into 3mm film that can be projected.
"It also needs to have enough resolution to meet the high standards of the film industry." Thomas Noll added.
"I know that Industrial Light & Magic is jointly developing a film machine with Kodak that can convert computer images into a four-hole 3mm film format."
"Four-perforated 3-film film?" Ronald was a little dissatisfied. The final shot was very amazing. If only standard four-perforated film was used, it would not be able to fully express the explosive scenes of explosions and action.
Generally speaking, in the production of special effects shots, they will use the vitaviion format invented by Paramount Company. Each frame occupies eight holes in length. Any shots that require particularly high image quality, or scenes with rich details such as explosions, will
Use vitaviion format film for better results.
"If we want to convert it to Vitaviion, the graphics department of Industrial Light and Magic is developing a laser film scanner. It still has some shortcomings. Every minute or so, a frame failure will occur, and no one knows where the problem lies.
"
"Whatever, let's try both methods."
Ronald hung up a phone call to George Lucas on the spot and said that he could provide some money to increase the research and development costs of two technologies so that he could actually use them in film production. He would first build two prototypes...
"That's great. I said Ronald, if you have any special effects shots in the future, remember to come to me. As long as you have money, I will get them for you." Lucas laughed out loud. It is a good thing for someone to give money.
.The Star Wars series is no longer being produced, several of its own special effects movies have not done well at the box office, and the research and development of various technologies has stagnated. After all, it is still very difficult to support it all with its own Star Wars income.
"Very good, George has agreed. I have a few Apple computers here. You will experiment here. If you need more computers, just tell me..." Ronald came over and announced the good news to the three of them.
Who knows, the two brothers Noel looked at each other, as if there was something wrong.
"What's wrong?"
"Adobe is definitely willing to let you use it for free. This is a living advertisement for the photohop software we will officially launch next year, but now Mr. Lucas..." Thomas Noel was a little hesitant.
"Mr. Lucas is a little dissatisfied with some of Apple's practices after acquiring his animation department. We at Industrial Light & Magic have fully cooperated with GI. Now the company uses Apple computers internally, which is a bit sensitive... We don't care, other engineers
You may not be able to accept it emotionally."
"What are you afraid of? Just use it..." Ronald took out a GI workstation from the corner. It was expensive and often crashed. He hadn't used it much since the last time he bought it.
Click, Ronald took a knife and pried off the Ilicongraphic logo on the GI workstation, "I'll have the props copy some, and you can just paste them on your Apple computer."