Gizmodo: Cgi

Emily Isn't Real, But Would You Have Guessed?

Mark Wilson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EDT

The woman above is not real. I mean, she was real once, when real actress Emily O’Brien provided Image Metrics (you know their work from GTAIV) with 35 facial poses in front of a pair of digital cameras. From there, O’Brien was dismissed so the animators could go to work. Apparently "ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real." And the results—while not always perfect—are pretty extraordinary. Here's Emily's "interview":

I'm not sure if Emily has quite crossed the uncanny valley, but one thing's for sure. Dating sims are about to get a whole lot more interesting.

If only these models didn't look like they were wearing dentures. [timesonline via neatorama and technabob]

Footprint Fireworks Were Faked into Olympics Opening TV Show

Kit Eaton — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:04:00 EDT

A local Beijing paper has revealed that some of the amazing fireworks in the Olympics opening show were digitally-crafted fakes, inserted into the live TV feed. The Beijing Times quotes the head of visual effects, who says that the 28 giant footprints that stomped through the air above the city, ending at the stadium, were advanced CGI. Though the pyrotechnics really were set off, the airborne camera view that the rest of the world watched was fake. Why go to these lengths? Apparently the Olympic committee decided that to follow the real trail of firework footprints was too dangerous for a helicopter camera. Instead a team spent almost a year crafting the fake segment, paying attention to even get the smog lighting effects correct. [The Telegraph]

Leaked Clone Wars Trailer is the New Force Hotness

Jack Loftus — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:40:39 EDT

Feast your eyes—squinting a bit—on the leaked two-minute trailer that was briefly seen in YouTube and then pulled off just to be rescued at the last minute by a Polish Corvette, saved into an astromech droid, launched onto a desert planet, and found by us in a garage sale somewhere in Kraków. Or something like that. The trailer further shows the work of the three hundred 3D animators who have been working on this project at Lucasfilm Animation for the past three years. And except for its lousy quality it, it seems that we are in for a ride (here's hoping Mr. Lucas didn't write the dialog.)

Andre Kutscherauer Robot Art Reminds Us Not to be Cocky

Haroon Malik — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:30:00 EDT

Check out these awesome CGI images, all put together by Andre Kutscherauer, a super-talented 3D artist. The works all include some form of evil robot madness, and with titles such as Brute Force, Selfillumination and Dandelion of Screws, how could we be anything but massively impressed? If you think we're talking junk, as usual, dive into the gallery and be amazed by the fantastic art installations. For the record, that little light bulb was just asking for moth based trouble—we'd be surprised if he doesn't have his head shattered in no time. That's the problem with being too clever for your own good; given enough cord, you'll plug yourself in...or something like that. [ak3d via io9]

Trailer for Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer Has CGI, John Goodman and the Creamy Goodness of Christina Ricci

AddyDugdale — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:46:40 EST

"Prepare to trip balls" says sister site Jalopnik about Speed Racer, the Wachowski Brothers movie that comes out next year, and they're not wrong. Judging by the trailer, we're going to be going on an acid-colored trip on May 9, 2008—and the best thing is that Christina Ricci is coming along for the ride. Find out for yourselves here. [Jalopnik]

Computer-Generated Image Looks Exactly Like a Beautiful Woman

Charlie White — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:39:48 EST

It's hard to believe, but you're looking at computer-generated image of Korean actress Song Hye Kyo, created by Indonesian CG artist Max Edwin Wahyudi. To create this stunning shot, he used a combination of digital sculpting and design application Pixelogic Zbrush and animation modeling software Autodesk 3DS Max.

Now that's one remarkable piece of artwork—showing that the holy grail has been reached: computer-generated imagery of the human face that's indistinguishable from reality. – Charlie White

Making of the Korean Actress Song Hye Kyo [CG Arena]