35 years after the last "Peanuts" feature film and 15 years after creator, Charles M. Schulz, died, a new movie is coming out in November. For this new film, they've gone back to the drawing board to capture the "ethos and art of its creator."
It is computer animated and directed by Steve Martino at 20th Century Fox-owned Blue Sky Studios. "It's a little retro in a way, but in today's world of animation it feels completely fresh," Martino said. "We're not trying for photorealism or movement where you believe the characters are human. It's a different palette. This is the most complicated creation, to put something up on the screen that looks so simple. I wanted to find that pen line, the wiggle in Charlie Brown's smile." Craig Schulz, the fourth of Charles Schulz's five children, said, "We always felt like the risk of doing a film and having it be done poorly was not worth the potential gain," Craig said. "But all the studios were knocking on our door."
"It's about preserving a legacy that has tremendous history and not screwing it up," Martino said. "We see that kids meet characters today in feature films in the movie theater, so that's the opportunity. The responsibility is to deliver the experience so that these characters don't change, so that they become a new presentation of what's been wonderful about them for 50 years."
Recently in class, we have been learning how to insert ourselves into scenes from movies and TV shows using green screens. The process has been pretty fun, and it's something that real world productions actually use. One thing that comes to mind is a show I've been watching a lot recently, Fringe. In this science fiction show, the characters have to deal with an alternate universe, including alternate versions of themselves. This often involves scenes where the actors are talking to themselves, sometimes in camera angles that make it nearly impossible to just use a body double.
So they made use of a number of special effects techniques, including green screens, in order to get the actors to appear next to themselves. Sometimes this can be quite the experience for some actors. To get an idea of how working with green screens can be for actors, just take a listen to this interview with Jasika Nicole, who played Agent Astrid Farnsworth.
Not too long ago, we learned how to utilize motion tracking in After Effects. The ability to have an image or piece of text that you've created follow the camera movements to appear as part of the environment is a very valuable skill. As a media production major, the more tricks of the trade I learn, the more I start to see them used everywhere, and motion tracking is no exception. Lately I've been binge watching the Fox series Fringe on Netflix, and old favorite of mine that makes heavy use of motion tracking techniques.
Fringe is a show about the investigation of pseudo-science and unnatural phenomena. As you can imagine, a science-fiction show like this would make use of a lot of effects, but perhaps most notably are the floating text effects that the use during their establishing shots. Multiple times each episode, there are giant 3D letter floating in establishing shots, indicating where the story is taking place at the time.
These words move with the camera movements, making them appear as though they are a part of the environment. The show creators also use other effects to really try to make the words appear to be in world, by including reflections in glass buildings and puddles, and even having the weather interact with letters. To see effect in motion, check out any episode, you'd only have to watch the first couple of minutes before seeing this effect used. Or you can check out this quick little demonstration video.
although i tend to post about a current event or something from class, this week I am deciding to write about the Simpsons. I know that the show is created by designers, drawing out each and every frame of an episode; yet this process of digitally animating and creating the on-screen image is a lengthy process, at least according to Wikipedia (ha)!
i think the most interesting part of the now 23-year, 500+ episode series is that the style of animation -- the characters, storyline, sound FX, props, background layouts, timing, etc -- has stayed the same over the years. the characters never seem to age, never grow older, and never leave the original lifestyle -- obviously, if something drastic were to happen to any of the main characters, the whole premise of the show would change.
this video is, supposedly, the first ever episode of the series
now, this link is the most recent episode (from Feb 19). I could not find it out YouTube, therefore it is only a link -- not embedded. as we can see, there is not TOO MUCH that has changed in the series -- besides the voices (very slightly), opening intro (which includes various past episode clips and changes each week) and the HD-ness (from 1989 through 2009, it was 4:3 SD format), nothing has really changed.
lastly, this clip is of the producers and directors and characters speaking about their surprises, reactions, comments, and thoughts on the show -- from the past 23 years and 500 episodes
Since I'm doing a production company intro for the first project, I began looking at all the intros for the major production companies for some inspiration. The first one I always think of is Dreamworks. http://youtu.be/0ISey9fC0bI (Sorry it wouldn't let me imbed it) I love how the reflection of the water is disturbed by the bobber and how we move up through the clouds to see the boy on the moon. The sequence is just very fitting with the name Dreamworks.
Another sequence I think is very cool is Lionsgate.
All the moving pieces in the lock in conjunction with the creaking sounds gives such a distinct feel. Then the zoom out at the end to reveal the door and it opening to the logo is pretty epic.
The intro to Miramax is a another one that is very well done.
The color is so key in this intro because it starts out during the day and you can see the colors change as the scene descends into night finally coming to the skyline where the logo appears in the building lights. It's a very distinct intro and gives a really smooth feel.
We are all familiar with the intros to Universal,
20th century fox
and Disney
and they too are great examples. None of these intros do anything too flashy but they are all very unique and memorable. The other thing that I noticed is how important the music is to the feel of the intro. With the exception of the miramax intro, we associate certain songs with certain companies. Within the first few bars of the song and the first image we see, the audience can immediately identify the company. Having a lasting impression on the viewer with your opening is key. I feel like it makes your company have a special air about it.
