Why was it that FF didn''t get elected for a Oscar possibility? Is it beccause it''s Japanese?

We must remember that when a movie gets elected for
a special effect, its the SpFX Team that is being adressed.
Therefore, I belive that FF is the most technical movie
to come out in the last year.
I prefer the facial animations of Shrek, or Monster Inc.,
but those movies cheat, because we''re dealing with made-up
caracters, humans can never have such facial features.

FF dealt with some pretty hairy topics !! like hair !! lol
They also pionered new inovations in the field of cloth,
and other special effects, constructed for the "ghosts".

If you''re going to give a car maker an award for the best
engine, don''t go look at the stereo system for your decision,
look at the trouble the engeniers had in developing the engine.

Therefore Final Fantasy should take the statuette.
Unfortunately, it does not even have a nomination.
This is political, of course. Disney and Friends are
"institued" into Hollywood. thats why there is no place for
Final Fantasy. And lets remind ourselfs that the American Film
Association created a new nomination type, the "Computer Animated Movie" genre.

Also, last year Matrix won the special effects oscar.
That was pretty dumb. The only thing Matrix has is a new photo camera setup that takes photos sequentially, enabling a special
software to "morph" inbetween frames and "freeze time".

Now, in perspective, look at Star Wars I, the top special
effects heads, said it could not be done. After 2 1/2 years it
was done. The prize should have been Lucas''.

Well, the worst thing behind all this is that anyone can vote,
in any category. So, people vote in the movies they loved best.
What happens to technical categories is that they get scr*wed
by this voting system. Technical categories should be left
to technical people alone. This seems unfair to those voting,
but it would be fair to those that put in the thousands of
hours of work.

Awaiting your thoughts on this,

[Hugo Ferreira][Positronic Dreams][]
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Edward Sagan (1934 - 1996)

What Matrix won a special effects Oscar in direct opposition to Episode one?! That really cannot be! Matrix looked good, but the SFX of Episode one were so much better (and so much more).
And it''s a shame that they didn''t even nominate FF for the Oscar, just because they would have no chance, they use such dirty cheats.

Look at this link:
http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/oscar.html

[Hugo Ferreira][Positronic Dreams][]
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Edward Sagan (1934 - 1996)

The problem with FF is that it seems a lot of people just didnt get the plot...
it reminds me of Blair Witch project, in a way : people who didnt listen at the beginning didnt get the end, and all they could remember was the shaky camera and "amateur" look... they totally missed the point.
Basically, I think the same thing happened for FF.
I wont say it has the best plot ever, but at least it tries to do something original and freaking different,
and I still cant believe this is CG. I mean, yeah it''s CG, we know it all, but God ! look at the animation work, look at the skin textures, the hair, the lighting, much more realistic than in all the previously named movies... and it all looks GOOD !

I dare anyone here who knows anything about CG to stand up and say that the CG guys tackled some of the hardest subjects and did not pass with flying colours, they damn well did !
Whether the story was good or not is a purely personal view.
And beside, people who dont know manga/anime usually have a strong bias against this form of art... I am not at all surprised by the strength of the reactions (who are not backed up by anything else than "It sucked"). Why dont you guys try to be more constructive in your criticism ? What sucked, exactly ?

anyway
As for game movies, Street Fighter is hilarious I really really wondered how they could come up with a "credible" story involving the eclectic horde of characters that the game contains. Just for that, I have respect for the scenarists. As for the acting... LOL
I wonder if they would ever do a King Of Fighters movie ?


Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

i think i'd like to see the blizzard crew do a star craft movie because by far, i think they had an excellent story going on, as far as strategy games go. the characters are alive and you actually feel for their development. and better yet, it doesn't have to involve the central characters of the sc universe. they could create new characters in new locations bound to the sc logistics and it might rock.

from another perspective, i'm not too keen about any 'half life' movies. first off, halflife itself, (to me at least) was a movie that i acted in. max payne too. they're like one of those 'get up on stage and perform' kinda movies, where you don't get to practice. you just go in and do your stuff. don't want all that imagination and ideas ruined watching some actor doing it on the big screens. and worse, it might suck.

what would be nice now, would be if games could just continuously pre-load maps without the player having to wait for a loading time. the loading screen in undying was overkill and totally put off the suspense. (somthing like what they are planning to do with dungeon siege's 'no in-game loading the next part of the map screen' policy would be nice.)

[edited by - dynamiclinknewbie on March 14, 2002 4:11:14 PM]

Some notes :Max Paine have the voice of Memento ?.. sound very similars =)

Matrix vs Ep1 :

why matrix was the winner?.
Because the superb effect showed in matrix, the "freeze" camera was really a hit, and it is not a easy fx, even more this "freeze" effect was copied in many ways (such Max Payne). Even, many new fx was created in this movie (such the popular matrix "screensavers")

In opposite ep1 don''t show nothing new.. Even more, i see many effects in Starshiptroopers that ep1.

quote: Original post by eng3d
why matrix was the winner?.
Because the superb effect showed in matrix, the "freeze" camera was really a hit, and it is not a easy fx, even more this "freeze" effect was copied in many ways (such Max Payne). Even, many new fx was created in this movie (such the popular matrix "screensavers")

In opposite ep1 don''t show nothing new.. Even more, i see many effects in Starshiptroopers that ep1.

Give me enough money, then I can make you a freeze camera too! I don''t say that this effect isn''t unique, but I think this effect alone doesn''t justify an Oscar and the rest of the SFX were pretty standard except the visualisation of really really fast movements (Agents evading bullets).
Oh and I think the fact that many movies copied this effect isn''t a real argument (I like most Scary Movie''s implementation).
Oh and this "supercool screensaver" can''t really be called SFX...

On the other side, don''t look at what ep1 invented, look at what they brought to perfection:
-say what you want, but the pod race really kicks ass and is much more impressing than any effect in the matrix
-JarJar Binks, the character is crap, but the integration with the human actors is great. Has there been fully digital main-actors before (realistic, not roger rabbit like)?
-the huge scenerys like Coruscant, Naboo, OthoGungan, etc.
-the lightsaber dualls (or would that be best stunts or something similar?)

I know this is mostly a what movie do you like more arguement...

IMHO

quote: Original post by Vaporisator
Give me enough money, then I can make you a freeze camera too! I don''t say that this effect isn''t unique, but I think this effect alone doesn''t justify an Oscar and the rest of the SFX were pretty standard except the visualisation of really really fast movements (Agents evading bullets).

Ok, you can COPY the matrix effects.. but you can made a new effect?.. it is the difference from a genius to a average or rich people.

quote:
Oh and I think the fact that many movies copied this effect isn''t a real argument (I like most Scary Movie''s implementation).
Oh and this "supercool screensaver" can''t really be called SFX...

Yep, if something is good, then the "clones" and parodius appears in no time.

quote:
On the other side, don''t look at what ep1 invented, look at what they brought to perfection:
-say what you want, but the pod race really kicks ass and is much more impressing than any effect in the matrix

Clone of BEN HUR.. even more, is clone of Grease2 (yuk!)

quote:
-JarJar Binks, the character is crap, but the integration with the human actors is great. Has there been fully digital main-actors before (realistic, not roger rabbit like)?

Nopes, jarjar binks really SUCK (http://www.mindspring.com/~ernestm/jarjar/deathtojarjar.html for example)
Reallistic... mmm, some japanese productions?.. but in any case jarjar is not reallistic (is humanoid not real human), even it move very "muppeth" .. But jarjar binks is fairly good that the ugliest Jawwaa the "pixelated-hutt".

quote:
-the huge scenerys like Coruscant, Naboo, OthoGungan, etc.

nothing special about it.. Even more, i think that if you invaders a entire world, then the invasion will ocurrs in many places not in a "tiny" city + some water place + some forest.. HUGE?.. of course not!. A planetary invasion is some sort of 1millions of robots (at least).. i count some 20k or 50k.

quote:
-the lightsaber dualls (or would that be best stunts or something similar?)

Ok, it is cool, also dark maul is cool, but lightsaber was cool in eps4,5 and 6.


Also, i think that Naboo is the gay''planets, because the stylish spaceship (and useless), the lackiest of defense, .... Naboo suck!.




-----------------------------------------------

"Cuando se es peon, la unica salida es la revolución"

Monsters Inc. : nice fur, good movement, lots of characterisation. But the fur gets the top marks, the others are due to dedicated animators/modlers, whereas the fur is programmer skill(z)

Final Fantasy: I really enjoyed, best photorealism so far, but possibly not as technically proficient (more due to overwhealming artistic skill not programmer skill). Hair was good but buggy (main characters hair was shortened because they couldn''t get it programmed well enough).

Shrek: Interesting style somewhere between photorealism and cartoon-esque. Fur on the donkey is technically very good, as are the liquid effects (mud/lava etc. are all done via code and minimal artists work :D )

So my vote goes to Shrek for being technically better. Quality movie all around as well