Can't help but to....

[AjIsCoool]

I already posted it in NewGear, but i think you 3d graphics forum should be also intersted:


Can't help but to recommend Final Fantasy 3d movie, it is soo nice

the 3d caharacters looks scary, just like real poeple, i love it

The story was fine but the artestic work is supurb
Look how those poeple are using their 3d knowlege ,not like me and you [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW

[AjIsCoool]

I already posted it in NewGear, but i think you 3d graphics forum should be also intersted:


Can't help but to recommend Final Fantasy 3d movie, it is soo nice

the 3d caharacters looks scary, just like real poeple, i love it

The story was fine but the artestic work is supurb
Look how those poeple are using their 3d knowlege ,not like me and you [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW

[Mark (theKeeper)]

Yes i saw that movie right after it came out. I'd have to definately agree with you AjIsCoool -- "WOOOOOOOOOOOOW". [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

"The lessons to be learned, are found along the path of your journey, not at your final destination. That is only where you will rest, between lessons"

[bmh216]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Look how those poeple are using their 3d knowlege ,not like me and you <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree about the beauty of the work, but let's look at a few things that separate them from us.

The movie cost $137 million, and four years, to create. Square Pictures built a $50 million studio in Honolulu, with 240 employees. They spent 18 months just developing plug-ins for Maya (photo-realistic skin, hair, and cloth.)

Hardware: (this is from a Silicon Graphics press release) "Four SGI 2000 series high-performance servers, four Silicon GraphicsR Onyx2R visualization systems, 167 Silicon GraphicsR OctaneR visual workstations and other SGI systems were used to create the film. Alias|WavefrontTM MayaR software was used for animation authoring on the SGI machines, and Pixar RenderManR software was run on LinuxR OS-based systems."

(This from an interview with Troy Brooks, Production Systems Supervisor on the film):
"All the artists have SGI Octanes on their desks (some have two!)."
"The Onyxes are used for compositing, and as a platform for our preview system, which lets the artists review full-res playback of long sequences of the movie, spooled on a (very fast) RAID array. The 16-cpu [SIXTEEN CPU!--my edit] Origin 2000s are primarily used for batch-processing MTOR jobs, which is the Maya-To-Renderman conversion."
"We have a number of NetApp file servers, that provide most of the disk storage (approx. 4TB of primary disk space)[THAT'S FOUR TERABYTES, FOLKS!--my edit]. The renderfarm consists primarily of ~1000 Linux machines (PIII, custom-built, rack mounted), running Red Hat 6.2."

So, as you can see, apples-and-oranges comparisons really don't apply. Not that I didn't enjoy the film, and it is a tour-de-force of 3D animation, I just don't think any of us have these kind of resources lying around. 240 people collaborated on this (although at least that many would work on any major Hollywood release).

It stands as an amazing example of what can be done when you throw $137 million at a project.

Brett

[Gary David Bouton]

I'm a tad sour on "Final Fantasy", sorry if I'm swimming upstream with regards to popular sentiment.

It's the best portfolio piece I've ever seen for a nacent animation studio. Naturally, the film had to be made...ten years ago I enjoyed "The Mind's Eye", a collection of state-of-the-art animation, as "...Fantasy" is a state-of-the-art collection today in 2002.

But it's a movie, for Christ's sake, and not a sampling from an animation festival, and needs to wrest itself from the male adolescent mindset and work on a story.

I like watching "Monsters, Inc.", also, but the story is also lacking.

IOW, I'm glad it was created, but I'm sorry it couldn't have risen to TRUE greatness onscreen with a better plot. BTW, get the DVD quick...it might be the only way to see this technically lush piece of cinema...I bought it at Wal+Mart's here in the States.


My Best,
Gare

[Mark (theKeeper)]

I'd tend to agree about the story line issue in any of the latest 3D movies but... TBO i really don't go to see those types of movies for a great story line... it's 'fantasy' after all. I can't actually take that part of it seriously. I just love to see what's been done graphically.

It inspires me. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


PS: Which DVD Gary? Monsters or FF?

[s.winders]

I think Square closed down the facility again as well didnt they [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


Yep the story line sucked,but they also set an important CG benchmark which I feel will used quite a great deal yet as well in the years to come.


I also want a copy of FF on DVD if I can get one.I now have the extended version of LOTR and the 3rd and fourth DVDs have quite a bit of SFX stuff on them as well.Lots of miniature shots etc,CG animation,how they did the scaling with the actors,for instance Gimley the little short ass is actually 6 ft 3....straight up [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


Stu.

[Gary David Bouton]

Okay, I'm stopping grousing after this post.

If one accepts mediocrity, IOW, "suck story line, but that's okay, it's a study in fatasy", ya make way for more mediocrity.

Yes, "I want it all". That's exactly what gets you ahead in competitive fields.

I don't think I've ever written a mediocre book simply because I didn't have all the info I needed to write it. I researched, I kept obscene home hours, but at least my tombstone won't say, "Here lies Gary. He was an OK guy". [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

My two cents, marked down from 4 cents,
Gare

[Earl]

I really enjoyed Final Fantasy - but not for the story. It sucked (as many have said). I don't excuse sucky stories either. I'm like Gary, I tend to think we should strive for perfection (or at least an honest effort). Sadly, most movies produced nowadays have horrible scripts, and even more terrible storylines. That's become the trend - produce MANY sucky films, make a little profit from each, and be rich. This goes for animated movies (which have taken a horrible down-turn lately - yes Disney too), and for live-action films.

Anyhow...Final Fantasy had great effects. What's funny, though, is that during the time it took them to make the movie, the 3d industry was still moving, and moving quickly, and by the time they released it, the same level of movie could be created in far less time with far less artists. Mind you, it still would take a LOT of resources... but not the numbers they needed.