"I didn't expect there to be such special effects."
At the Digital Domain Beijing Branch, the other three actors who played the male protagonist of "Rejuvenation", Mr. You Bencang, Mr. Chen Daoming, Zhang Hanyu, and Chen Kun himself all gathered in front of the computer and watched the special effects director Rob demonstrate what they had designed in the past six months.
The good male protagonist is in his fifties, sixties or seventies. The appearance models of the characters in these three age groups, as well as the countless materials of facial muscle changes collected based on their three previous film and television works, are amazing.
Rob smiled and said, "The main special effects are the combination of CG avatars and real bodies. This work is very troublesome. Our team has collected more than 200 expressions from you, and we estimate that we will need at least thousands more in the future."
Put this information into different 3D models for processing, and create tens of thousands of character models. In this way, you can use 3D stereoscopic technology and real-time images to connect each of your performances together, so that the audience cannot tell that they have actually changed.
actor."
Hearing what Rob said, the four actors became more and more surprised. Chen Daoming couldn't help but said, "In other words, we need to constantly reorganize each of our expressions into character models. There will be tens of thousands of such character models."
?”
"That's right."
Li Qian answered the question for Robert, nodded and said, "This is different from most movies that span a long period of time. From the twenties to the seventies or eighties, the appearance is basically the same person. No one is the same.
From young to old, they all have the same appearance, that’s too fake.”
Teacher You Bencang said with a smile, "Yes, I still have the same appearance after decades. Although it looks like the same person, it is not consistent with reality. If you put the photos of me when I was young and the photos of now, they will look alike.
If you don’t come out, you will be alone.”
Chen Daoming smiled and said, "But there is one thing the same."
"Oh, it's the same everywhere."
"You are still so energetic."
"Hahahaha, I am an old man but my heart is still young."
Teacher You Bencang looks just like the character Jigong he plays, with the same smile on his face all the time, always smiling.
"So, one of my expressions will appear on Chen Kun's face?"
"To be precise, it's on the character's face. After he's over fifty, it's not Chen Kun's face, it's a CG face, plus the faces of two teachers, Brother Hanyu and Chen Kun, and the four of you.
The expression and eyes are mainly those of Chen Kun."
"Can the expressions of four different people put together look good?" Teacher You Bencang was a little curious and kept asking like a child.
Li Qian explained, "So, it takes continuous reorganization, not a certain expression, but a certain subtle muscle change. After tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even more reorganizations, a human face is formed."
.”
"This is so amazing. This is the power of technology. We didn't have this at that time." Teacher You Bencang sighed with surprise on his face.
"But how can Director Li be sure that we will be willing to participate in the show? It seems that you started collecting materials very early, right?" Chen Daoming asked.
""Return to Youth" is not only a romance film, it is also an epic since the founding of the Republic, an epic of a powerful country that stands proudly on top of the world. I think such a movie will not disappoint the two teachers and Brother Hanyu."
Li Qian said with confidence, "Furthermore, among the male actors from the 1940s, 1960s, 1960s, and 1960s, these three are the most suitable. Mr. You Bencang, your heartfelt smile, and Mr. Chen Daoming, your wisdom and magnanimity, are all the leading actors in the movie."
A must-have feature.”
You Bencang smiled even happier, and did not forget to correct him, "I was born in the 1930s."
Li Qian said quickly, "But don't tell me, people who laugh often look younger."
"What about me? There's a big difference between me and Chen Kun." Zhang Hanyu interjected and asked, but the co-author missed him.
"When it comes to tough guys, who else would Brother Hanyu be compared to you?" Li Qian said with a smile.
The filming plan had been decided long ago, with actors in the three age groups of five, six and seven. Li Qian also decided on You Bencang, Chen Daoming and Zhang Hanyu after careful consideration.
Sincerity, kindness, cheerfulness, wisdom, masculinity, hesitation...these are all the qualities needed for the characters in the movie.
Although there is a saying that acting on the big screen all depends on a pair of eyes.
However, eyes alone are not enough. The subtle muscle changes on the face are another key point in the expression.
Thousands of expressions, countless muscle changes, composed of tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of celestial models, and this face must look like Chen Kun, after all, it is an old Chen Kun.
Although the looks of 20-year-olds and 70-year-olds are definitely different, 99% of them will always have some similarities.
Not only the face, but also the limbs. Of course, it is not recombined with the limbs of four actors. The sizes and lengths are different. The amplitude, strength, and angle of the limb movements are taken to collect data, and then modeled to create countless models.
Make scan adjustments.
Expression, eyes, body, and language are the basic elements that constitute a person's behavior.
When doing the same thing, what kind of expression goes with what kind of language, eyes, and body movements. Different actors have the same expression, but other eyes and other things will be different.
All elements must be coordinated, and if what is presented is a real person, there should be nothing awkward about it.
We have made many character models before, with smiles, sadness, or pain. After we decided on Chen Kun as the male protagonist, we gave him a week to familiarize himself with the script, and then he was brought to the special effects company to start collecting expressions and eyes, and put them on the screen.
processed into the model.
The finished product has already been released, and when I saw those CG old men who looked like Chen Kun, but looked nothing like Chen Kun, nor did they look like You Bencang, Chen Daoming, Zhang Hanyu or their own, I couldn't stop praising them.
"I didn't expect that the special effects in China are already so powerful."
"Actually, the difficulty of expression capture technology does not lie in the technology, but in the heavy workload. If we are in Hollywood, there is a lack of enough animation engineers. The work is too tiring and complicated, but the animation engineers in China are more dedicated than those in Hollywood.
More." Rob explained from the sidelines.
This kind of busy, tiring, numerous, complicated, and detailed work does not necessarily pay a lot of money, and those skilled animation engineers in Hollywood may not necessarily be willing to do it.
Although the Hollywood special effects industry has encountered a crisis and many people have lost their jobs, the global film industry is developing and there cannot be a shortage of special effects. It is impossible for those with real skills to lose their jobs. Only lower-level special effects engineers have this concern.
It's such a troublesome job, and the money isn't much, so of course no one is doing it. But it's different in China, especially in the field of animation engineers. There are quite a few in the country, and the Chinese people have never been short of hard work. In terms of hardship, they are among the best in the world.
Of course, the premise is that the salary is in place.
The entire movie requires 500 special effects personnel. Regardless of the small number of people, "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" requires 2,000 people. However, these 500 people do not do other special effects for large scenes. There are no such in the movie, they only capture expressions.
Then, Li Qian asked the three of them who are currently in the special effects company to familiarize themselves with the data collection work in the future. After all, the data collected before was only the data from their previous works, and it still needed to be collected by real people.
As for Chen Kun, he took the time to think about the script and the characters. Li Qian also told him what should be said. In fact, for an actor with his experience, it is not difficult to analyze a character.
.......
Li Qian was also preparing for the upcoming filming, and spent ten days visiting live-action studios across the country.
Including the two major battlefields of Changjin Lake and Songgu Peak, they are also the two most intense positions on the Beibang battlefield.
In this regard, the Northeast Military Region provided certain cooperation, and all equipment of that era was provided by the army.
As for money...
Just kidding, the army still lacks equipment. One Dongfeng missile test will cost hundreds of millions.
What's more, the Soviet-style equipment of that era was long out of date. It was not necessary to sell it to Asan's family. They only wanted beautiful equipment, and they could at most sell it to Africa.
If you sell to Africa, you might as well support Li Qian.
When the script was submitted for review, all departments, including the military, agreed, and Optoelectronics even vaguely reminded us to include more war scenes if possible.
What Han Sanping said not to affect the peace between China and the United States and not to vilify the US military was not mentioned at all.
Even the battlefield was specially arranged by a division in the Northeast Military Region with a staff officer assigned to direct it.
In addition, as for the relatively big news, Li Xuejian's speech in the Gobi Desert, as long as there are people, it is no problem.
There was also the national flag-raising event in Hong Kong in 1997. This could be filmed directly. Unlike the Bird's Nest Olympics, there was no way to reshoot it. We could only film a part around the protagonist and complete it by switching lenses.
Everything is being prepared in an intense and orderly manner, and Li Qian has also confirmed the remaining actors.
In fact, except for the male and female protagonists, no one else is important.
The one who has the most scenes is the daughter of the hero and heroine. The smooth growth of this daughter is the result of the hero giving up his life with his lover in exchange for his departure.
Therefore, the daughter must be as perfect as possible to meet the hero's sacrifices and expectations.
That is to say, according to the common standards of Eastern people, actresses like Zhang Ziyi are not close to perfect, nor are actresses like Liu Yufei, and even less so are actresses like Fan Binbin.
After much deliberation, Li Qian chose Gao Yuanyuan. Among the actresses in the industry, she is the one who is most in line with the general aesthetic standards in China. There is no other more suitable actress besides her.
Even if it's not perfect, it's at least eighty or ninety percent good.
The elderly heroine is Teacher Qin Yi. She looks kind on the outside, but she has experienced hardships and hardships.
In order to make the character fit with Tong Liya, expression capture technology must also be used. At least the eyes and expression must be somewhat similar.
The mother who works in a nursing home and adopts the male protagonist needs to be gentle and kind, and can take care of so many people at the same time. She also needs to be smart and capable, so she hired Liu Mingtao from the Chinese drama, who is also the eldest sister in "The Pretender".
She is the same age as Chen Kun, born in 1976, but unlike most actresses, her appearance is what she should have looked like in 1976.
It was easy to find the military actors needed for the two major battlefields of Changjin Lake and Songgu Peak. Duan Yihong played the male lead's company commander.
Li Xuejian in the Gobi Desert.
The second horse should still play the role of the second horse, just find two young actors with similar acting skills.
In the crew of "Journey to the West", Teacher Six is very willing to play the role as he is. Sun Wukong is better, after all, he has a pretense on his face.
Tang Seng and the others are now older, so they still need to use facial expression capture technology to restore the four masters and apprentices when they were young.
In this scene where the protagonist participates, Li Qian chose the daughter country, and teacher Zhu Lin once again played the role of the king of the daughter country.
Since it is a romance film, it would be best to use an emotional scene.
Li Qian went to see Teacher Zhu Lin. Although he was sixty, he was still in good health.
However, expression capture technology still needs to be used.
There are templates from the original play and the original actors, so the restoration is not a big problem, unlike the male protagonist who has to directly create a CG character.
Director Yang Jie was unwilling to participate at first, so Li Qian made three trips to invite her.
The most difficult thing is the Tiananmen Square military parade. The movie will appear in the 2009 60th anniversary military parade.
No matter what, there is no way to shoot this, so we can only use the material from the 2009 military parade.
All aspects of the historical re-enactment are basically in preparation. Shooting will begin after the National Day, and each era will be filmed. The preparation of the scenes will also keep up with the shooting progress as planned.
As the filming approaches, Li Qian can rest for a few days. He occasionally transforms into Teacher Li to teach Tong Liya and talk about dramas.
.......
September is about to pass, and not many movies will be released during the school season.
"Witness" released by Future Pictures dominated the movie market in early September. Sun Honglei once again proved himself on the big screen after "Drug War".
It is extremely difficult to switch from TV series to movies. After all, the Mesozoic era has just emerged, and Sun Honglei is one of them.
The box office is close to 200 million, and the reputation is also very good. In this unpopular period, it is considered very good.
Moreover, it also surpassed "The Smurfs 2" of the same period. This well-known Hollywood animated film, the first one sold 250 million domestically the year before last, and the second one sold less than 150 million. It was firmly listed by "Witness"
Pressed down.
September’s movies include Matt Damon’s sci-fi blockbuster “Elysium” and Polar Bear’s anti-war blockbuster “Crossfire.” Of course, this has little to do with Penguin’s game.
Another movie that made some splash was the Chinese-Liao Zhai movie "White Fox" starring Zhong Xintong.
It has been more than five years since the scandal, and except for Cheng Guanxi, almost everyone else has made a comeback.
Known as the first "true 3D" magic movie in China, it goes further than foreign magic movies represented by "Harry Potter". It adds a lot of oriental metaphysics concepts and upgrades the magic theme to a fantasy theme, which is more oriental.
Aesthetic and philosophical connotations.
In the end, it only took in 30 million at the box office. It didn’t take much to figure out that the movie was a bad movie.
The stage setting, the mentally retarded plot, the convulsive performances, the visuals of the web game, a group of sloppy looks, and the shocking lines
The whole film is vulgar to the extreme. The driving force of the story lies in how to go to bed, and the turning point of the story is who goes to bed with whom.
Who is watching this? There are a lot of heroines without clothes on the Internet.
There aren’t many good movies in September. It’s the back-to-school season, so it’s normal.
Then Li Qian took a break for almost a week, and the National Day holiday was coming soon.
There are not many movies in this year's National Day schedule. Apart from "Beijing Meets Seattle", there are the action movie "Special Identity" starring Donnie Yen and Jing Tian, the suspenseful crime movie "Heart War" starring Ren Dahua and Zhang Jiahui, and ancient
The movie "Escape" about firefighting starring Tim Le and Liu Qingyun.
Li Qian also rested for almost a week. He had to start work after the National Day, so he couldn't keep himself idle. He had to go out when he had something to do, so he came to attend the premiere ceremony.
In addition to Xu Zheng who is busy editing "Thailand", directors such as Wu Jing who is preparing for "Wolf Warrior", Ning Hao who is about to start shooting of "Detective Chinatown", and Teng Huatao of "Waiting for the Wind" also came to support
Already.
I asked Wu Jing about the preparation status of "Wolf Warrior" and found that it was about the same. It can be considered a big-scenario war movie, not like an action movie like "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", which would be more troublesome.
"Detective Chinatown" is about to start filming, and Huang Bo is back.
There is also "Waiting for the Wind". Although I am not very optimistic about this film, I invested it myself. Li Qian also asked about the situation and expressed his condolences.
"Director Teng, the post-production of "Waiting for the Wind" was completed so quickly. Thank you for your hard work."
"Director Li is serious, this is what I should do." Teng Huatao, who had just finished filming the movie, still looked a little tired, but the movie would be released in more than 40 days, and he was very excited, with a high-spirited face.
"Thirty-day Love" sold nearly 700 million yuan. With this achievement, Teng Huatao is already qualified to share the cake. In addition to Future Pictures and Huayang Media, "Waiting for the Wind" also had Teng Huatao himself investing in it.
A little bit, accounting for 15%.
There are only a handful of directors in the Mainland who are qualified to participate in investment. This also means that Teng Huatao has become a famous director in all aspects, at least that is what the market recognizes.
Now, he can't wait to prove himself again, and at the same time, he also comes to see how "Beijing Meets Seattle" is going. After all, this movie was tentatively scheduled for the Double Eleven.
Perhaps, this movie will also be the biggest rival of "Waiting for the Wind" this year. After all, it is a romance movie and also stars Tong Liya.