ILM: Creating the Impossible [Video Review]

 Recently, I finally saw the Encore Special which featured how Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), an Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that has set the standard for visual effects. In the process they have created some of the most stunning images in the history of film and changed cinema forever as they continue to break new ground in visual effects.
According to the press release for the feature,

"Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible" is directed by Academy Award® and Emmy® nominated director Leslie Iwerks and is narrated by Tom Cruise. Encore will also present five ILM-effects films starting at 2:00 p.m. with Jumanji, followed by Hook, Jurassic Park III, Twister and Starship Troopers.
The hour-long special has interviews with filmmakers George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau, actors Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Williams, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and John Lasseter, the chief creative officer at Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Film and television shows featured in the special include The Abyss, Avatar, Forrest Gump, Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Robot Chicken, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Transformers, Twister, Young Sherlock Holmes and The War of the Worlds (2005), which starred narrator Cruise.
Leslie Iwerks' documentary takes audiences behind the scenes at ILM with in depth interviews with some of the company's top talent and showcases never before seen footage highlighting many of their pioneering milestone.[1]

For me it was a huge eye opener to the inner workings of a company and group of people who have changed the whole landscape of movie production. The feature revealed in great detail how the company started and how it was influenced by George Lucas and his desire to create never before seen effects for his Star Trek films. It spoke of how the likes of John Dykstra, the assistant of Douglas Trumbull , famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey, put together the team of college students, artists and engineers that became the first VFX department for the star trek movies. It describes the challenges they have faced as they sought to find innovative solutions to creating believable illusions in Hollywood's biggest block-busters including the entire Star Wars saga, The Abyss, the Indiana Jones series, the Harry Potter franchise, the Jurassic Park franchise, the Back to the Future trilogy, many of the Star Trek films, Ghostbusters II, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the entire Terminator sequels, the Transformers films, the Men in Black series, most of the Mission: Impossible films, and also provided work for Avatar, alongside Weta Digital.

Notable names in Animation such as Pixar's John Lasseter also worked for ILM in the early 1980s as a computer animator. It was invariably the computer graphics division of ILM which was eventually sold to Steve Jobs that became Pixar, and went on to create the first CG animated feature with Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995).

I found great inspiration watching the ways in which these men, much in the same way Walt Disney revolutionized animation, revolutionized CG and VFX for cinema and how they have continued to successfully tackle the challenges of creating the realistic illusions that have become a  great influence for my own work. Below i've attached a video of the feature and it can be found on YouTube.



References

[1] io9.com, 2010. The inside story of how ILM changed movies. [online] Available at: <http://io9.com/industrial-light-and-magic/> [Accessed 19 December 2011 ]. 

Toy Story, 1995. [Film]. Directed by John Lasseter. USA: Pixar Animation Studios

Timing is everything

One of the key principles of animation as posited by the animators of Walt Disney in the timeless book written by disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in 1981, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation is timing. They define timing as the number of drawings or frames for a given action, which translates to the speed of the action on film. On a purely physical level, correct timing makes objects appear to abide to the laws of physics; for instance, an object's weight decides how it reacts to an impetus, like a push. Timing is critical for establishing a character's mood, emotion, and reaction. It can also be a device to communicate aspects of a character's personality.



Simply put its the way we space key activities apart that gives a sense of motion. In consequences it is how fast or slow a movement is that determines how realistic the animation looks.Ive found that getting timing right usually makes all the difference between believable motion and something that looks odd. By the very same token this makes getting timing right, an often very difficult stage in the animation process. At the blocking stage, I usually start out with 4 to 5 frames apart in a pose by pose action and when i get a feel of the movement that works then I move on to some quick timing.  Of course, with breakdowns and in-betweens the timing has to change to accommodate the extra motion.

I've learned that making something faster or slower than usual adds a little more believability to an animation and takes away the linearity that comes with frame by frame tweening. Human motion which is usually what we are trying to depict in animation is ruled by arcs rather than straight lines and inherent in the arc is a sort of delay in the trajectory of motion. In a way, it is an attempt to simulate the effect of the forces of gravity, push or pull on an object that determine how long it will take for an object to move from one position to another.  Achieving the right spacing of this motions are what make up good timing. One good method i've found to approach timing, is to animate to sound. Because music is so strongly linked to timing, syncing to music helps you to keep to a consistent  rhythm across the whole sequence. An important and recent example is found in the work of one of the key animators on the Ice Age (Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, 2002)movies. In an attached video he shows how keeping the sequence in time with a soundtrack helps to achieve a more cinematic flow of animation.

Below i've also attached another walk cycle video from vimeo. I will be using this as reference for work cycle sequences in the future.

References

Ice Age, 2002. [Film]. Directed by Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha. USA: Blue Sky Studios

Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas (1995) The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation [Hardcover], Disney Editions; Rev Sub edition, ISBN-10: 0786860707