Speed Racer, yeah you know the one with with the cartoon characters where their heads bounced all around and their mouths just moved. Almost like an animated comic book. Well this post isn't about that Japanese cartoon, but actually about the movie re-make that hit movie screens in 2008. I got myself half-way through the movie Tron the other night and just never got to finishing it, but it made me remember some of the great stylistic motion graphics the movie Speed Racer brought to the eyes of audiences.
The memories of this movie were jogged out of my brain because the racing scenes of this movie were just purely amazing. And the best part is, that the brains behind the operations are the same brains behind the Matrix's bullet slowing effect. They call this new technique that is used in the stylizing of Speed Racer is called "poptimistic photo-anime". This new technique is a new twist on the old cartoon and in an article in the New York Magazine, John Gaeta and Dan Glass discuss how they wanted to bring a new modern twist to this classic and how the influences of the motion graphic world, helped them create this masterpiece.
In this video clip we see how the crazy racing scenes of this movie are created from the beginning. The easiest was for these scenes to be constructed is what is called a pre-vis artist. What they do is find the best movements for every element of the upcoming scene and organize them in a way that they can work in sync with each other. With the patterns of each element in place, the motion graphic artists can take these directions and stylize them and make them into a futuristic masterpiece. This makes for an easier transition. Gaeta and Glass have definitely created something amazing with this film. Although its not necessarily an award winning script, these two geniuses make it worth the watch. A+ from me.
No comments :
Post a Comment