Old post on CGI Magic lessens the movie magic

Still relevant after all this time...


Overuse Of CGI Effects Lessens The Magic
By Hazimin Sulaiman
HARRY Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, has met with some criticism in
its screenplay. Newcomer Michael Goldenberg (who co-wrote the 2003 version
of Peter Pan and Contact in 1997) just joined the fray, giving Steve
Kloves, the regular screenwriter a much deserved break.
The fingers are also pointing to director David Yates who is making his
debut with this instalment of Harry potter. prior to this, he directed the
HBO film The Girl in the Cafe.
But don't dismiss The Order of The Phoenix as a bad movie. In fact, it
is a good movie. However, besides the creative liberties taken by the
filmmakers (to simplify the storyline and squeeze the entire book into
mere minutes), there are other things which diminish Potter's magic.
The computer-generated effects are brilliant, especially the dark battle
scenes. Yet they are missing the "ooohs" and "aahs" from the audience.
Though most of the audiences were movie reviewers, it does reflect in
general how real audiences would react.
The question is, are we jaded by computer-generated imagery (CGI)? The
Centaurs and Hagrid's 16-foot giant half-brother, Grawp, did not manage to
draw any surprise from the audience. The magic seems to have disappeared
though the technology has improved. This makes it increasingly challenging
for filmmakers to up the ante in introducing jaw-dropping CGI into their
movies.
Grawp is technically excellent. The character is a combination of 3-D
computer design, motion capture, visual effects and the talented actor,
Tony maudsley. The motion capture is smooth and relatively lifelike. Yet
poor Grawp isn't as memorable compared to Gollum in the Lord of The Rings.
Now, on our turf is the successful Cicakman. It incorporated CGI effects
as well, albeit on a lesser budget than The Order of The Phoenix but
managed to engage the audience's attention for a good span of the movie.
Though expectations were not as high as for Harry Potter or the Lord of
The Rings, the storyline seemed to meet the public's taste for a local
comic superhero.
Audiences were enthralled by this fictitious city called Metrofulus,
which is a 3-D CGI composited cityline that looks like new York City
complete with tram cars and yellow cabs. These are hardly wow factors, but
it made the story's illusion a tad more believable.
The real reason movie-goers were going in droves was to watch Cicakman
sticking to walls and fighting for justice, lizard style.
The problem with Harry Potter and other CGI-laden movies is that people
tend to expect high-quality CGI and digital effects to make things more
realistic. The illusion of reality has warped us into accepting a certain
CGI character as being part of the movie - just like human actors.
A great movie should be able to address this to utilise CGI to aid and
enhance the storyline and plot to make the unbelievable, believable.
NST Aug 2, 2007 p.02 Notebook

Of Silken Voices, Silver tongues and Golden Handshakes

A Ghost came by Zanimated and said some things that I have to admit caught me a bit off guard. But I do appreciate his frankness (sincerity is the ticket here) because all this going around the mulberry bush in trying to be nice can actually drive things to the ground so to speak. It also doesn't help anyone.

So there! Thanks for your comments and correcting the facts that I so carelessly assumed to be right due to a sudden spur to write in the wee hours of a morning. Mucho gracias, I sincerely appreciate it. I was taught to be a responsible writer, so I'd like to practice that!

How else is Zanimated supposed to grow if it decides to pooh-pooh away the truth; granted of course the mistake wasn't intentional.

The issue? I was told that for the K-Perak initiative, it wasn't actually inspired by the success of Upin and Ipin. It actually preceded the Les Copaque Geng movie hype.

Also that the K-Perak initiative is not only geared for animation only. It also encompasses a lot other ICT related stuff as well. I neglected to mention this. This is undeniably true of course.

The dark and seedy world of animation, digital special effects, creative content etc it seems (unsurprisingly) just like any other industry filled with pitfalls which includes lobbyists to a certain degree. It is business after all.

You either have deep pockets to help you through - which is the stamina to completion or you are small, lean and mean and yes hungry enough to tighten your belts.

Case in point, I once asked a friend from Les Copaque (mind you, I ain't in my young 20's anymore): "Say, if I wanted to go into animation, and I learned all this stuff; you think I can hack it?"

His reply? "You could technically be competent. But you won't make it. You won't have the stamina. You'd have to sleep in, go around the clock to finish things. Not really for a family man like you." (Well it was something to that effect I promise you).

Of course I was pissed (what? you're saying I'm too old?). But after I recovered from the initial bombardment received after my rhetorical question, I sort of understood it and agreed.

The animation industry is tough. It's not a bed of roses no matter how much the media tends to candy coat the successes and the telly let's you look through rose tinted glasses there are bound to be the great amount of sacrifices that these people had to endure to make their animation see the light of day.


Deep pockets? Who has em? Well some do and some don't. Those that don't might want to get a kick start from the various grants available from several government initiatives via certain government agencies. MDeC, MCMC and even MOSTI has some which can be applied - if you know how to make it work for you of course.

This is where it really, absolutely helps if your marketing and PR is top of the line. How many times have we seen good animation projects that fail to get funding merely because of poor presentation skills in front of panels? Quite a fair number. Trust me. Silken voices, silver tongues and golden handshakes are sometimes neccessary.

No I'm not implying those in the negative - it's the ability of those gifted enough to make their case clear. It helps to know the people first of course - the type of knowing where a handshake will instantly get a face followed by a name recognition/association. That's legwork and homework - no bluebirds allowed (bluebirds are just those that send stuff in without prior recognition; they're tonnes of bluebirds; luck is not always on this side).

Artists and animators at times lack this PR feature and they also lack the lingo and confidence in presenting. Especially in the business language called English (the proper spoken version, not the version that they're accustomed to). Again, I am not being overly critical.

Lobbying might be a dirty word here in this context, but it's been used to describe the current situation by some.

Me? I wanted to be a front man for some animation, involved in the business and dabbled with ideas and the character creation phase and a fair bit of writing as well. Tried it. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I love animation. I remember when my mom asked me when I was about 4 or 5, what I wanted to be. I said that I'd like to be the 'guy that makes cartoons.' That didn't happen of course; so I thought maybe after all these years I could be some sort of ambassador. This is one way I suppose.

Good evening Animation Malaysia. Zanimated wishes you great successes this year!

Failure to launch: Malaysian Animation Industry Rumours or News

Looking at 2010 in review and retrospect, it's actually hard to imagine that the Malaysian animation scene was relatively quiet for a multitude of reasons. There were a lot of pomp and ceremony from 2009 leading up to 2010, but it all led to quite a failure to launch of several local animation projects.

When can we see it?

Alamaya the Movie by Shock3D for instance, received a lot of coverage up to early last year. This writer, like so many local animation fans were waiting with bated breath - this writer also helped the team to gain some coverage from the local press back in January 2010. By mid 2010 however, it was heard that the CEO had left for his old alma-mater, Avant Garde Studios. The current status of the movie is unknown, although some have speculated that it has something to do with inadequate funding to push the movie through for promotions - that and also claims by animation fans on the Internet that they disliked the voice acting...

Les Copaque is also not off the hook despite being able to make inroads to Disney Channel Asia, Indonesia and of course onto your children's school bags, toys and knick-knacks. In 2009 this writer had the opportunity to watch the trailer preview of the next upcoming movie starring the adorable twins, Upin & Ipin - this had very nice textures and lighting effects, compared to the first Geng: The Adventure Begins movie. This one featured the sometimes rambunctious twin toddlers (at least I think they're toddlers judging by the head-size-body-ratio) in space! Be it imaginary or real - you gotta to admit, that would have been something cooler than the norm where local animation is concerned.

That was of course before the migration of the seven original pioneer members of Les Copaque to form a new outfit called Animonsta, now based in the MDeC MAC3 facility in Cyberjaya. Putting together these two, might give the impression that there was a lack in the talent to push the movie through. It isn't so. When Nizam A. Razak was asked about this upon his leaving, he said that Les Copaque had enough trained up resources and talent to keep on going. Being a perfect gentlemen however, he declined to say anything else on the reasons as to the pioneer team leaving; save that it was a good that they gained invaluable experience making their first feature animation.

Nizam and Animonsta received extensive coverage in the local media

Later, through the grapevine, it was heard that Les Copaque had changed the setting of the proposed second movie - of all things, to cater to the Indonesian market. So the space scenario was given the boot and this writer thought that space would be quite a universal scenario for most people, regardless the country. Is this the reason why the project has been delayed? Maybe popularity has led into a lull of some sorts. Good or bad, you'd be the judge of it.

Just about 6 to 7 months ago, a reliable source said that Les Copaque wanted to branch out into 2D animation. Not as easy as some might think: the type or artistic talent is totally different from 3D animation. Well, no secret there about the 2D - there's still a lot of appeal in 2D; something that Disney should have thought about. The animation setup for 2D differs and someone from a 2D background definitely has to be brought in. Someone was. Somehow it's heard that the project has hit a snag though. That someone left.

A xenophobia-related issue was mentioned by the source, which was tight lipped about the matter as well. Issues are definitely abound but let's all hope that Les Copaque will ride the storm and fall through just fine with another movie soon.

With the success of Les Copaque you would know that it really made every Malaysian state want to jump onto the bandwagon so that they can have a "made in _____(state name here)_____" label on their respective animation works.

The PTTC Building

Perak went as far as offering partnerships via the KPerak initiative based in the PTTC building. A great idea but it was rife with problems from the start - such as the changing ruling government from one political party to the next. It really made a lot of creative content companies suffer. Spacetoon (an international company which is likened to be the Cartoon Network of the Arabic speaking regions of the world) and Tri-Silver had to sit and wait until the dust settled.

They thought the ordeal was over but then came the news about the building itself was underpowered for the computing equipment - for animation you really need great number crunching capability within a air conditioned area. In most cases, dealing with international clients or partners, this can be round the clock; Spacetoon for example is a multinational which means workload sharing. Broadband throughput would be very crucial. The power issue, as we are made to understand has been resolved.

What hasn't been settled however are payments promised to joint ventures or partners or collaborators - whom cannot keep their studios running on their own if they don't finish and sell off their products. Which in turn they cannot finish because they cannot pay the animators that work for them - which will also mean that Perak's dream to have a 'made in Perak animation' product will be further off mark.

Maybe it's just a funding issue. But that's old news. From within the industry, it seems those which are successful either slog through using the bare essentials or they have very deep pockets. Those that slog through, still pool the money from private investors - there are no banks willing to risk money for animation.

Awww my Boll; how c'mon now!

The funding organisations are somewhat similar (you know who you are)- animation is of course a high risk enterprise. Aspiring animators hope for grants and handouts. Yes that will help, but not in the long run. To be aggressive about it maybe a German or Canadian model has to be adopted - take for instance that German director (Uwe Boll) which keeps making those computer game adaptations that suck. He just keeps on making em, they eventually go to DVD anyway but at least he gets to make movies and the money does trickle in, albeit slowly.

Thailand started with a 3D animation of a white elephant and going strong. The director even had the gall to say that not even Malaysia (among others) had the capability.

Singapore did one Chinese zodiac animal movie, which wasn't particularly that good, but it made them seen. Interest was generated and service work has been streaming in. Of course Lucas Arts has setup there as well. What are we missing here?

There are of course hits and misses. High risk, high returns. It doesn't work if you're to chicken about it and want to play cautious. Yes it involves throwing in a lot of money. But it doesn't have to be a money pit. Despicable Me for example was a creative risk, but it worked...

Sadly enough maybe there's something we're not doing right even with some interest generated here such as some triple A games company setting shop here or even with Rhythm n Hues setting up in Malaysia. They're here for the promises we make them. They're here for the relatively cheap talent. Do we learn anything? Maybe.

What is sadder, is that there are some from within the industry and the supportive devices and vehicles that say that going into animation is essentially a bad idea - they're just pushing the envelope because they have to or because it's something that they've been doing all along, so they just follow on through. They say that mobile content - apps included is where the money is. Animation is too much work, too risky, too expensive and to congested in a small place like Malaysia. Well true on some counts, but doesn't mean that it won't work.



Terry Thoren (link is to where he used to work) once said, that Malaysia is a secret that he hopes other people don't discover - he means in the animation sense of course. Rocketfish, which was Thoren's studio here, is no longer here. The GM Alice M. Dizon, who had worked with Hanna Barbera, has also headed back to the Philippines. Maybe we need to discover ourselves that we can do - we need to believe and help out the industry if we ever want the bragging right anyway.

Hayao Miyazaki - Happy 70th Birthday!

Paying respects to a legend: Hayao Miyazaki!



Happy 70th birthday Hayao Miyazaki! You awesome and yet sweet movies have entralled and enchanted us for all these years and hopefully many years to come!


Your works have made us laugh, think and yes even cry.....Your genius is in being sincere and honest in your works and that you are not afraid to tell a story which can be what is not the norm. From My Neighbour Tortoro to the Graveyard/Tombstone of Fireflies, there's always a message for the rest of us.

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!