Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA
From: Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.movies.sw
Subject: Computer Efx vs. Std Efx
Message-ID: <235@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jul-84 13:46:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.235
Posted: Fri Jul 20 13:46:20 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Jul-84 05:46:30 EDT
Lines: 59

There were many scenes in TLS that could NOT have been done with
conventional model techniques. these fall into several classes:

1) Painted or metalic ships. Models have to be shot against blue screen
for matting. This restricts the colors that the ships can have. Note
that Star Wars used White ships almost exclusively. (Ron Cobb had some
difficulty convincing the powers that be that space ships really could
be different colors).

2) Complex moves. Some actions are impossible or very difficult to film
with models. TLS used some very long pull backs that would have required
camera tracks several hundred feet if they were done with models. Also
some of the rolls, etc would have been impossible with models needing
supports. Computer space is nearly infinite and there are no strings or
supports to hide.

3) Lots of Ships. Model shots with lots of ships require lots of matting
and this results in a degradation of film quality (plus matte lines,
etc.) The armada scene in TLS had many more ships than Revenge /return/
of the Jedi armada. The ships in TLS also had more movements and
interactions. These would have been impossible with models.

4) Lack of Mattes. Starfighter used very few OPTICAL mattes. There were
many 'mattes' done in the CRAY. Starfields, moons, multiple ships were
sometimes done in several passes and the resulting bitmaps were merged
within the CRAY. This resulted in much cleaner composites than could be
done with opticals.

5) Details. The ships in TLS had much more detail and realistic detail
than SW, etc. Ron Cobb (the Art Director) is a NASA artist and took much
of the weaponry out of  Space and Aviation Week. Also the pilots inside
the ships actually move. Try that with models. (then again try to notice
it while the ship streaks past.)

6) Laws of Physics: The computer doesnt know about Newton or Einstein.
Objects can do nearly anything you want them to. Two objects passing
thru each other or one shape evolving into another are two neat efx that
Starfighter didnt use but could be done.

Drawbacks of DSS:
1) it is too crisp. There was not enough time to add dirt to all the
ships or use other techniques to cover the extra sharp images that
computers generate.

2) Explosions. TLS explosions look like rejects from Battlestar
Galatica. They were real pyrotechnics filmed by Apogee. Digital Prod.
Scanned them into the CRAy memory and matted them together. Blah.
Simulated explosions are still impossible to do realistically.

3) Motion Blur. Real objects and some model shots will blur on the film.
The simulations and many model shots suffer from 'temporal aliasing' ie
you see the ship in two places at once. This is a difficult problem but
one which is close to being solved (ILM claims to have a method).

For some other examples of Digital Productions work see:
Pontiac Fiero commercial, AT&T blue bits and sphere closing, Sony
Walkman commercial (just won a Cleo), Devo videos She's out of Sync and
Peek-a-Boo, CBS wednesday night movie opener, and 2010's Jupiter in
motion.