and they didn't puss out like the LOTR guys by hiding flaws in lighting. ILM broke ground with Jar Jar and Watto. Episode 1 had 22 new types of effects in the film. They were the first characters to have a program regulate clothing moverment to make it realistic as hell. do any of you REALLY follow special effects in films? or are you just a bunch of fans griping about things you don't fully understand? Try reading Cineffex (I think thats the spelling) magazine. That will give you an industry opinion of effects from professionals.
That's CINEFEX bud. Sheesh, you'd think someone who reads the mag knows how to spell it at least. Oh well.
LOTR doesn't hide any SPX in lighting. Why would they need to? This isn't Matrix you know. There are alot of shots in daylight.
At least LOTR isn't limited to doing digital effects only. It's a collaboration of all the tools available to make the movie as believable as possible.
There's no denying that watching the Star Wars Prequels feels like watching an opening animated scene in Playstation games. They have overly abused this SFX medium, its embarassing. I'd sooner believe the fishes in Pixar's Finding Nemo more realistic in characterization than most of the characters in the last SW Prequels.
yeah, i didn't have one of my magazines handy. SORRY. Matrix doesn't hide in lighting either. I do agree that LOTR looks more cohesive than star wars as far as consistency, and that is definetlly somewhere they are kicking ILM butt. But I definetly would not put the PT in even remotely the same category as games, but what can we expect with someone using Sauron as they're pic, definetly know you're POV now don't we?
What I meant was; the film 'felt' real fake and too digital. The same feeling you get when watching PS2 games.
Technically, it was vastly superior, but were not just after digital effects here. The story is the whole point of the movie. SFX is only there to move the story along -not to get the center stage!
I was a Star Wars fan long before (I still am for the OT). I used to think that George Lucas "was the man".
Then those damn Prequels came out. Sheesh. What a joke.
People gave him too much credit for Star Wars. I think the people around him (when the OT was made) were the real gifted ones. He just happened to be the guy that came up with the plot. (I think I already said this before...hmm.. oh well)
okay, now I agree with you. i didn't realize that's what you meant. But c'mon, we know its fake, and its really easy to say "oh that alien looks fake" or " that ship looks fake" cuz its obviously an effect since it doesn't exist in the real world. Did you know that when Anakin brushes his hand across Padme's at the retreat (right before their first kiss) was a digitally inserted hand because they thought it was too quick for him to just touch her back? or that the hand of Obi-wan catching Anakin's lightsaber in the speeder chase was digitally added later because Ewan accidentally stretched up to catch it and reached out of the shot? Or the younglings, who were nearly impossible to train, were redistributed throughout the room at ILM and had their movements digitally replaced with CGI limbs? I could go on forever. For every effect you "noticed", there were another ten you don't even know about. that's why i defend the prequels, the effects guys really push themselves to do things NOBODY has done before, it hasn't had time to be perfected. A lot of the stuff you're watching has NEVER been attempted before. You can't be 100% all the time when you're in unexplored territory. I think they do a damn good job esspecially when you consider these things. Its easy to look cohesive when you aren't trying anything new.
In the OT the ships and aliens didnt look fake. You're telling us that because people didnt spot all those cgi things, they were good.
In the OT did the ships look like model kits? Did Jabba the Hutt or yoda look like muppets?
I know you were trying to show us that the cgi werent that bad because we couldnt spot a few things but those examples (Obi-Wan catching Anakins lightsabre, the padawan limbs, Anakin touching Padme's back) further reinforce the fact that there are too many computer effects in the prequels which are completely useless and could of been done without the need for cgi.
the ships in the OT looked f**kn awesome (except Battle of Yavin). ROJ is still better in effects than half the crap today. As for the aliens, I'm torn. The scientist/artist in me loves all the detail and manerisms you can only get with cgi, but I do love the rubber mask aliens and anamatronics.
And those other effects are far from useless if you're a filmmaker. If the shot you want to use has a flaw, you're screwed. You have to re-shoot or use another take, if you want a character to brush up against someone else, you'd normally have to call everyone from the shot back, re-shoot wasting time and money when you can do it on computer in a day tops. these are things that free the director to worry about more important things, lots of directors use these things now, its just not always mentioned. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have freed Lucas up enough to improve his dialogue...
Why is everyone so against technology? I don't refer completely to these boards either, a lot of film makers hate the whole digital movie camera idea. I guess they like having grainy images with flecks all over them. People like DVD, the digital camera just cleans up imagery at the source. This is a different tangent entirely but its been on my mind for a while.
the fatal flaw of the PT is not having all the movies made at the same time. we all knew these problems would arise. i'm choosing to try and enjoy them anyway, and look at the story. cause seiously, the visuals have as much in common from OT to PT as SuperStarWars (super nintendo) and Knights of the Old Republic.
ands thats precisely why it pointless to even argue all this. Everyone "prefers" something others do not and will not likely be swayed. I see pros and cons to each. There are places in the PT where I wish they had used a muppet/model/animAtronic thing, but there are also spots in the OT where I'm like, "damn, I really wish they could've done that on computer".