Digital
Media FX News Archives
Friday
- June 29, 2001
- A.I. Opens - Huge Weekend
Expected
- Exploring the
Dark Side of Star Trek
- The Squire's Tale
- News Link of the Day
- Cinar Pulls Back From the Brink
A.I.
Opens - Huge Weekend Expected
(by digitalmediafx.com) Steven Spielberg's AI opened
today in 3,242 theaters to mostly positive reviews, although far
from unanimous. The PG-13 rated Steven Spielberg movie, trying
to follow the vision of the late Stanley Kubrick, is expected
to bring in more than $50 million.
Many critics
have been giving A.I. rave reviews scattered with mixed
reviews and a handful of negative reviews. Here are some samples:
Rave Review
Quote: Newsweek
"Its a movie that makes us ponder the very nature of
lovehow its hard-wired into us, how it blurs the line
between the selfish and the selfless. Is love the ultimate affirmation
of free will, or its negation? A.I. exhilarates, frustrates
and provokes: its the most ambitious Hollywood movie in
sight."
Mixed Review
Quote: USA Today
"The overall story, however, isn't as touching. Both distant
and sentimental, it's too cozy for Kubrick and too chilly for
Spielberg, who hasn't fashioned a movie this frustrating since
1987's Empire of the Sun. Like that film, this is a movie to be
knocked, chewed and gummed, but not dismissed. It's the first
2001 release I've rushed to see twice. There haven't been many
this year, and we'll be lucky if we get another one this summer."
Negative
Review Quote: Orlando Sentinel
"...the movie (which opens today) doesn't live up to the
hype. Instead of being the biggest film of the summer, it could
be, for many movie-centrics, the season's biggest disappointment."
A.I.
is being released by Warner Bros. domestically and DreamWorks
overseas. Parents with small children should be cautioned that
this movie is no E.T. as the rating reflects.
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Exploring
the Dark Side of Star Trek (New Video Game)
(by digitalmediafx.com) Interplay has released a new addition
to its Star Trek video game franchise. The newest game is Star
Trek: Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates and is immediately available.
Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates is a stand-alone expansion pack
that adds a new storyline and features to the Star Trek: Starfleet
Command series and allows gamers the opportunity of playing as
the ruthless Orion Pirates for the first time.
Starfleet
Command - Orion Pirates centers around the deadly Orion Pirates,
a long-standing element of the Star Trek Universe. A brutal force
of privateers and criminals controlling territories of Federation
Space, the Orion Pirates consist of eight cartels, each with unique
histories, user interfaces, crew voices and identifying logos.
The game features a 12-mission campaign plus 26 skirmish missions
and three bonus missions based on the classic TV episode "A
Piece of the Action".
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The Squire's
Tale
(edited press release) The Squires Tale
from Spider Eye (London) is one of the latest shorts to air as
part of S4C and BBC2s Canterbury Tales, an animated series
depicting the individual tales. Animators at Spider Eye used Cambridge
Animation Systems Animo software to bring The Squires
Tale to life.
Chaucers Canterbury Tales unfolds with each member of a
group of pilgrims telling a story during their arduous journey
to Canterbury. When it comes to the Squires turn, he spins
a tale of the King of Sarai in Tartany and his family. At the
Kings birthday feast, each member of his family is given
a special gift from the King of Arabia and India. His daughter
Canacee receives a ring that enables her to understand the language
of every bird. This ring comes in handy when Canacee encounters
an injured peregrine falcon and uses her other abilities to heal
the bird.
Animation,
rendering and backgrounds for The Squires Tale
were produced at Jumping Jack Productions Ltd. for transfer to
Spider Eye, which provided direction, ink and paint, and compositing.
Animators used Animo to produce multiple mattes made from both
textures and watercolor artwork that was scanned in, creating
the effect of watercolor washes on textured paper. The saturated
colors of cross-dissolving watercolor swatches blended seamlessly
and combined with multi-planing camera techniques to produce a
very lyrical illustration of Chaucers text.
Much of the
characters bodies were left transparent, allowing the individual
watercolor backgrounds to appear loosely matted to the characters
shapes. Defined character areas such as belts, garment patterns
and skin tones were created by matting shapes out of watercolor-painted
swatches that were scanned into the computer. For moving characters,
it was often necessary to create film clips of cross-dissolving
backgrounds that were then imported into scenes and matted to
the characters in the final composite.
Working
digitally afforded us a great degree of flexibility with the ability
to edit and adjust effects to produce the required look,
says John Brooks, producer with Spider Eye. Animos
Layer Palettes feature was invaluable for creating the necessary
black matte runs to achieve a multi-layered effect.
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News Link
of the Day - Cinar Pulls Back From the Brink
According
to the Montreal Gazette:
"Cinar
Corp. has begun to turn the corner on the financial woes that
have nearly destroyed it. The Montreal film-and-animation house
reported a first-quarter loss of $6.35 million on revenues of
$24.7 million. That compares with a loss of $51.2 million in revenues
of $27.5 million for the corresponding three months last year
"
Click
here for the full story.
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