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Archive for the ‘Visual Effects’ Category

The Magician’s Sleight of Hand

Posted in Chapter 2, Visual Effects, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Roma Cuaron

Recently, Calum Marsh authored an article in the New York Times titled “It’s a Visual Effects Extravaganza, but There’s Not an Explosion in Sight.” This article explores particular types of VFX effects work designed to be invisible to the viewer and the lengths of “crafting deception” in current moviemaking, using such examples as Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, along with CGI work done even to change actors’ performances (and that cannot be cited by name because of nondisclosure agreements). Which then begins to lead us down the thorny and barely-explored paths of AI.

1917_trailer3In earlier posts, mediateacher.net featured conversations with award-winning VFX supervisor Greg Butler, who was one of the wizards behind a groundbreaking and powerfully breathtaking example of invisible VFX: 1917. Moreover, from the very beginning of motion picture history (which is particularly explored in Chapter 2 of Moving Images), we learn that the initial developments of using moving images to delight and entertain through deception began in significant part through the work of an actual magician, Georges Méliès.

The work by Méliès and other early innovators (check out the set in G.A. Smith’s The Kiss in the Tunnel or  those matte effects and dummy in The Great Train Robbery) commenced a journey in which creators of all kinds have worked to craft worlds that push the limits of what viewers can accept and believe in the worlds they experience on the screen, from backdrops to matte shots to art direction to makeup and costumes to all the myriad crafts that are used in film production and post-production.  Mary_Poppins_LARGEA particular arena in which parallels can be drawn to what is described in the article by Calum Marsh is explored in such books as The Invisible Art by Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron or The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, which investigate graphic illusions created by artists in Hollywood across many years of fabricating visuals that come to life through the power of moving images.

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A.I. and Media Literacy

Posted in Chapter 1, Chapter 5, Media Literacy, Visual Effects, tagged , , , , , on August 25, 2022| 2 Comments »

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on The Love Boat (DALL-E image from Vincent Casinghino)

Earlier this summer, my youngest son, a high-schooler, shared some images he had generated using recent versions of apps designed to produce images from text descriptions (including DALL-E 2 and Craiyon). He is quite well-versed in developments in the technoverse and described a variety of angles with recent developments in AI, particularly related to these uses.  In the realm of artificial image creation, mediateacher.net has discussed The Uncanny Valley and other topics; meanwhile, the generation of artificial content — from image creation to deepfakes to audio impersonation continues to get slipperier and harder to spot.

DALL·E 2022-08-25 10.53.20 - The skeksis from dark crystal as painted by Gustave MoreauIn our work related to media literacy, we constantly examine questions related to authenticity, truth, origin, authorship, and other factors of media messages. Artificially generated images, sounds, text, and other media creations that continue to emerge in the communicative landscapes of digital media will continue to present moving targets for media literacy. The magazine Wired offers the page The Artificial Intelligence Database to track articles and developments in this arena.  Recently, the article We Need to Talk about How Good A.I. is Getting by Kevin Roose appeared in the New York Times, asking questions like how good is A.I. getting at completing advanced tasks or “will it take my job?” or “what exactly is art (or other creative products) generated by programs and computers?”

I gave the info for the first image, but are there any guesses as to the second image?  Add a comment!  In a little while, I’ll divulge the info for the DALL-E image generated from my son’s prompt.

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Uncanny Expectations, Part Two

Posted in Chapter 1, Media Literacy, Social Studies, Visual Effects, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2019| 1 Comment »

In previous posts, the impact of The Uncanny Valley (or Uncatty Valleys) was discussed through a variety of examples of how CG can be used to create or alter human forms or other living creatures, along with the impact of such sights on viewers.

In recent months, there were many strong reactions to just how many uses of AI “creatures” were seen in commercials during 2019, such as during the Super Bowl.  Whether they are reflecting current fears or aspirations, or if they are being used to shape perceptions and obsessions with technology and its role in people’s lives, there is no question that how audiences are able to process and decipher digitally-created and manipulated images, particularly those of humans, is a key media question for viewers today.  And for young people, who are generally well-versed in “personal branding” and the current career choice of “influencer,” they might even wonder if those being selected to influence them are even real.

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Uncanny Expectations

Posted in Visual Effects, tagged , , , , on March 27, 2016| 1 Comment »

ILLUSIONISTS-card-02

Documentary from Media Education Foundation

From Uncanny Valleys to CG’ed faces and bodies (in Photoshopped Values), discussions of the effect of digital technologies on how our media shapes our views on the human form and how people view and judge others have been highlighted a number of times in these pages.  In the Washington Post article Hollywood’s secret beauty trick: The special effects facelift, Stephanie Merry highlights the well-hidden world of visual effects with actors and how they are used to alter the ways we see people on the screen and how they shift expectations of the general public relative to how all of us look — from small and big screens to real life.  The recent case of Pee Wee Herman’s return to the big screen and his transformations by makeup wizard Ve Neill (of SyFy’s Face Off as well) along with the digital sheen by CG artists is employed as a rare example of truth telling in a field built on deception.  Along with the article, the video from Flawless FX that accompanies the piece will be a real eye-opener to many students.  Or most anyone else outside of the well-guarded vaults (or servers) of raw footage and VFX production houses.

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Uncatty Valleys

Posted in Animation, Chapter 1, Visual Effects, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2016| 1 Comment »

far cryIn discussions of CG and visual effects on various occasions – such as ones at mediateacher.net with visual effects supervisor Greg Butler – one of the topics that regularly arises is the particular challenge of animating people.  This involves the concept of the uncanny valley – that territory whereby the closer one gets to creating an artificial human, the creepier and more repellant that version becomes (recently confirmed through research by Maya Mathur and David Reichling).  It seems to be not such a big issue for gamers (such as with Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, or Far Cry), but in fiction movies, the trend has been towards creating very cartoonish-looking people.  Among the most famous examples of the uncanny valley turning off viewers have been in the performance capture features of Robert Zemeckis, such as in The Polar Express and Beowulf, as well as earlier Pixar efforts such as Tin Toy (with that unintentionally gruesome baby) and Toy Story.  When reviewing the history of CG in animated features, it is interesting to track the development of animating humans as it settled into a distinctly stylized, successfully cartoonish look, such as in Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and Up.  One notable moment in CG features that struck me was with the release of the feature Monster House, in which the setting was animated in a hyper-realistic mode and while the characters were created using performance capture, the design distinctly pursued a claymation look, most visibly noticeable in the hair of the characters.

MogWhen I was watching some British holiday commercials that were highlighted by the blog Media Psychology, I chuckled at one long ad featuring the CG cat Mog (for Sainsbury’s narrated by Emma Thompson).  I wondered, “so when cats watch this, are they creeped out?  Do they experience the uncanny valley too?  And what about dogs?  Do they get a chill down their spine watching CG puppies like when we watch The Polar Express and they yell out, ‘please, just turn on Madagascar again!'”  

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