Chapter 450 Computer simulation of great white shark on land
"This is a Jaws on land, and it's been a long time since Steven made a movie like this, which he's best at."
After seeing the latest version of the high-power lightning lamp that Ronald took out and showing it several times, Sheinberg was very satisfied and rented several units for use on the spot. It had been a long time since he had personally managed the shooting of a movie.
This time he will create a miracle again.
The Japanese people didn't fully understand his importance to a company. So he wanted to cooperate with Spielberg again to make a movie like Jaws, which would shock the entire Hollywood.
"Hi, Steven..." Ronald saw Spielberg discussing with some special effects people and stepped forward to say hello.
"Stan?" Ronald accidentally discovered Stan Winston, the special effects supervisor of Cameron's Terminator 2, an expert who had just won the Oscar for visual effects.
"Hi, Ronald. Your lightning light has been sent. Let's go take a look..." The two of them attached great importance to the special effects of this lightning. They personally watched Xiao Yan use it several times in the sun and took pictures with a camera.
I went back and forth with a few samples to confirm.
"Why are you here?" Ronald whispered to Stan Winston.
"Everyone is here. I'm here to try to make a model of a dinosaur. Special effects experts from all over Hollywood have been invited by Sheinberg..."
"Huh?" Ronald felt unusual.
"Steven felt that the dinosaurs in this movie must be an animal, not the monsters in previous Hollywood movies. I was also asked to make the dinosaur machine..."
"I've been so busy these days that I've forgotten to be polite." Spielberg was very satisfied with the effect of the new lightning lamp and even took a photo with Xiao Yan as a promotional material for the company.
"Let me introduce to you. You already know Stan. This is Professor Jack Horner, a famous paleontologist. This is Phil Tippett, my chief dinosaur supervisor. These are all from Industrial Light."
Demonic model expert..."
Spielberg briefly introduced some of his ideas. If you want to shoot great white sharks on land, the biggest difficulty is to maintain the authenticity of dinosaurs. This is not like the great white sharks that spent most of their time underwater, and the dinosaurs had to
He appears with human actors for a relatively long time, so he spends most of his time choosing a special effects route.
"Why do these dinosaurs look like chickens without feathers?" Ronald saw the completed trumpet model and asked his doubts.
"Yes, dinosaurs and birds are close relatives, or chickens are direct descendants of their cousins..." Professor Jack Horner explained to Ronald.
"Originally, I wanted to use the technology of the big guys at Universal Studios to try to make mechanical dinosaurs, but I'm afraid that dinosaurs of this size will not work well and will be too expensive..." Spielberg is now encountering some difficulties.
I explained some of the difficulties of technology selection to Ronald, and also wanted Ronald to think of a solution.
"I saw your Coca-Cola commercial with polar bears. The effect in it is quite realistic. Do you think it can be used in a dinosaur movie?"
"Aha, it's hard to say. You've also noticed that in polar bear advertisements, we can only do shots of them sitting and gliding on the ice. There is no way to make animals with gaits that match human imagination.
But I can ask my special effects supervisor Van Fleet and his team to try and see if they can try the possibility of gait simulation with your experts..."
"That's great, it's settled..."
Spielberg's goal has been achieved, opening up a new technical route for computer special effects to try out the effects. Ronald's goal has also been achieved. If successful, their special effects team will have made great technical progress and can be used in Spielberg's special effects team.
Special effects in Pierce's movies are a very good brand.
…
However, some people's goals were not achieved.
Cameron came to visit Ronald a few days later, specifically to complain to Ronald that all the special effects teams in Hollywood had been requisitioned by Sheinberg with huge sums of money, making it impossible for his "Terminator 3" project to be approved.
"Ah? You want to make Terminator 3 now? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Ronald did not expect that Cameron encountered a talent crisis.
"Carroco is being reorganized, with capital injections from Italy's RCS Post Group, France's Organa Channel Productions, Japan's Pioneer Electronics, and MGM. Otherwise, given their financial situation, they need to wait to recover their instinctive
Only by raising the cost can we invest in the next big production." Cameron was also a little angry.
"This is the current situation in Hollywood, Jim. The special effects power in all of Hollywood is only enough to make a high-quality special effects production."
Ronald understood the core of this industry. The audience for this kind of special effects movies is limited, and there are not many directors who can make them, so there are not many special effects experts who can support them.
Only directors like Spielberg and Cameron who are good at shooting special effects movies can broaden the entire market and expand the wonders of Hollywood's special effects to movie theaters around the world. It is possible to see the growth of the special effects industry. It was huge at that time.
It is only possible to shoot two major special effects productions at the same time.
"I guess your idea is right. Carloco has made three blockbuster movies in a row, Total Recall, Terminator 2, and Instinct, but he can't support the slow return of cash. I'd better think more about the script.
You have to support me..." Cameron also figured it out. If he and Ronald cooperate, they can't compete with Spielberg for resources. After all, Industrial Light & Magic, the largest and most capable special effects company in Hollywood, is
It was opened by Spielberg's good friend Lucas.
However, they also need to expand their special effects capabilities. If they can be self-sufficient by then, they can shoot whatever they want.
…
“Is this the design of the gait?”
Two weeks later, Van Fleet worked with Dennis Mullen, an expert at Industrial Light and Magic, to develop a prototype plug-in for computer rendering of animal gaits. Both Ronald and Cameron went to Spielberg to see the latest progress.
.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Yes, although it is still very rough..." Van Fleet pointed to two smooth animal legs with a structure like chicken legs on the computer screen.
Two chicken legs grow on a torso represented by a cube. As soon as you press play, you can see it walking away.
"This feels good... It has a sense of power and rhythm. The most important thing is that we don't look fake. How did you do it?" Cameron was very interested, but Ronald was silent.
It kept silent and kept playing over and over again.
"I think it's time to show it to Steven..." After a long time, Ronald finally nodded in approval.
Several people ran to see Spielberg, who was discussing with Dinosaur director Phil Tippett, and invited them to come over and observe the latest results.
"Huh?" Spielberg's eyes also lit up.
The method used by Phil Tippett before was the method of stop-motion animation master Ray Harryhausen, who had just won the Gordon E. Sawyer Technical Achievement Award at the Oscars.
This is a method of using a model, then using stop-motion to shoot its different movements, and finally synthesizing them to form a realistic model movement.
But that kind of stop-motion animation still has its problems. First, the animation has a laggy feeling. After all, the movement between each stop-motion photo cannot exactly match the range of human body movements, and the human eye will feel uncomfortable.
Second, after all, these animations are realized by people playing with the joints of the model, and the movements of each joint can be as realistic as possible. But as a whole, if the audience is used to seeing the movements of animals and human bodies in the real world, they will find that the overall
incongruity.
Although the current method of computer simulation of sports gait is very primitive and crude, both problems have been solved well. The computer relies on formula calculations to achieve gait simulation, and automatically calculates the animation between two action nodes.
This eliminates the feeling of lag. In addition, there are also set formulas between each joint to limit their relative movement, which mostly makes it feel inconsistent with kinematics.
Spielberg, like Ronald, lay in front of the computer and watched for a long time.
"How to ensure the details and lighting of this animation? How long does it take to produce a ten-second animation?" He asked a series of detailed questions, and Van Fleet and Dennis Mullen answered them in detail one by one.
Finally, Spielberg pointed to his chief dinosaur supervisor, Phil Tippett, and said, "Looks like you're going to lose your job...Phil."
"Unemployment, you mean extinction, right?" Phil Tippett was also shocked by this technology. In his opinion, although it is still crude, this new technology has unlimited potential and will definitely transform the traditional electrical model.
Fight the stop-motion animation method to extinction.
Everyone felt that their trip was worthwhile, and they went back to make arrangements to recruit and search for experienced computer graphics engineers in the market to prepare for the upcoming new era of special effects.
"Is it really that awesome?" Diane held a baseball and let Ronald hold a catching glove, practicing pitching techniques with him. Hearing Ronald talk about the magical computer special effects technology, he couldn't help but marvel.
"You'll know when this movie is made. There will be unprecedented realistic monsters. I feel that Roger Corman-style monster exploitation films will be resurrected in Hollywood in a different way..."
"Haha, the animals created by computers are so real, can they also be humans in the future?"
"It's not impossible..."
"Then won't all us actors be unemployed by then?"
"Your voice is very sexy, and you can also dub a computer person..."
"Watch the ball..." Diane waved her arm and used a very strange posture to throw the ball over from the side..."
There was a "pop" sound, hitting Ronald in the chest.
"Oh……"
"Forget it, I'd better go practice with my sparring partner. You can't play baseball..." Diane breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Ronald was okay. She would no longer practice with this man who only knew how to wrestle and not play baseball.
Now Diane was busy with baseball practice every day, and Ronald felt bored and found an excuse to go to New York for a business trip.
The business jet landed accurately at the Staten Island airport. Ronald got off the plane and went straight to the parked yacht and drove directly to the South Side Pier in Manhattan.
"Ronald..." Helen Slater smiled and rolled down the glass from the car across the pier and waved to him.
"Well..." The two of them kissed for a long time in the car. They haven't seen each other since the Golden Globe Awards. If they don't come to comfort Helen this time, there will be a problem.
"My album has been released, listen to it..."
When they arrived at the mansion on Fifth Avenue, after the two had a passionate moment, Helen took out a CD and played it.
The jazz album that Ronald released for his Columbia Records was already on the market. Once it was released, it was a very popular album. The sales speed did not stop until more than 100,000 copies were sold.
"I saw your speech at the Oscars. You are the perfect man in my heart..." Helen hugged Ronald, her eyes full of tenderness.
"Uh..." When Ronald heard this, it seemed that there was something in his words.
"I know it depends on luck, but I don't know if I will have the chance to be on the Oscar stage. My father also sent me to New York Art College when I was very young, hoping that I would become a good actor.
Actor’s…”
Helen pestered Ronald obsessively and talked in his ear. Her singing voice came from the speaker on the other side, which made Ronald feel a little overwhelmed.
These words are obviously arranged according to Diane's acceptance speech for the Best Supporting Actress Award!
"..." Ronald couldn't answer this and had to remain silent.
"Do you think I'm more suitable for filming TV series? The Emmy Award is actually a good recognition for an actor..."
Helen didn't know if she was self-aware, or she felt that she didn't want to compete with Diane in the same place, so she took the initiative to lower her standards. There is no Oscar, but an Emmy would be nice.
"..."
Ronald was still speechless. The Emmy Awards are awarded to the protagonists and important supporting actors of the year's hit dramas. If you think I have the ability to make a TV series, how can the "Working Girl" that I lead be ignored?
What about cutting in half?
"I heard that the competition in the jazz category of the Grammy Awards is not too fierce now..."
"..."
Ronald yelled in his heart, please spare me. Just a female singer who plays and sings her own music and lyrics, and found six musicians who accompanied the jazz masters of the year. How can she have the confidence to win a Grammy?
If I hadn't found someone to sell the CD...
Forget it, just make women happy with this kind of thing.
"Honey, this is not something I say I can get. It all depends on opportunity and luck... Look, I haven't won the Best Director Award yet... I will remember your dream, but I have to
Be patient and move forward slowly..."
"Ronald..." Helen hugged him and cried with joy, "You really do have a place for me in your heart."
This holiday was also strange. Helen was unusually gentle, but Ronald knew that she had other thoughts in her heart and always felt a little guilty when receiving tenderness.
After staying for a few days, I ran back to California.
The plane first landed in San Francisco. The preview version of "Sister Act" directed by Emile Adolino and starring Whoopi Goldberg has been edited here, and Ronald went to see the quality of the sample.
"Hahahaha... Why is it so funny? I almost burst into tears..."
Ronald watched Whoopi Goldberg play the resident singer in Las Vegas on the screen. She liked to express herself, loved music, and was restless. Later, she was protected and went to a monastery to hide. She wore a nun's uniform and made trouble.
After a lot of trouble, they finally reformed the old church choir tradition, incorporated the singing method of black soul music into the choir, and finally performed for the visiting Pope.
"Is this supporting actress Maggie Smith from Britain? You filmed her very well. Without her, this movie would not stand..."
"That's it. I also feel that I am most satisfied with this casting. Without Ms. Smith's role, the whole movie would have become a farce, without any basis in reality. With her, people will feel, oh, so this is
Things can happen in the real world..."
Adolino was also very satisfied. Ronald praised his most proud arrangement when he came up. It seemed that he had done a good job.
"Okay, you can go and shoot your New York City Ballet play. Just treat it as a holiday. When this movie is released, I guess you will be able to shoot a real big production..."
Ronald liked the director Adolino very much. He could make musicals, documentaries, and romantic comedies, but he was probably best at comedies.
It's just that he doesn't really like making comedies, but that's no problem. Ronald is very optimistic about the box office prospects of "Crazy Sisters" this time. If he can find Adolino's movie, the director's salary will definitely be quite high.
, who can have trouble with money?
Looking at the obviously thin Adolino, Ronald showed concern for him and said, "You should rest, and don't rush to shoot while I'm watching that documentary. I won't put pressure on you in terms of the shooting schedule. When this movie is released, you
There will be many people coming to you with scripts to beg you to film..."
Adolino just smiled. He prefers to shoot subjects he likes. For example, ballet subjects.
Ronald has another good movie in hand and is in a good mood. He is going back to Los Angeles to talk with Disney's Katzenberg to get more film arrangement resources for "Sisters Are Crazy".
After getting off the plane and getting into the car, Ronald felt something was wrong. Los Angeles seemed to have changed a bit from what it was before.
"Are you not used to it? Those blacks and Latinos who burned tires and wood for warmth on the street are gone..." Little Bud knew what Ronald felt strange.
"Yeah, when you said it was true, what happened?"
"LAPD has made another big arrest, and a large number of street gangsters have been arrested...poor children..."