Special Effects miniatures today

[David]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure that many of us have a big interest and fondness for special effects that are achieved using miniatures. Sadly, however, this seems to be a dying art nowadays and I just wondered what your thoughts were...

Will have a future of any kind?
Will it one day see a resurgence?
Will it die out all together and be replaced entirely by CGI?
Are miniature effects in the way Meddings used to do them EVER used nowadays? (meaning those "in-camera" effects")

Whats your thoughts?

Dave

[Eagle]

Within fifteen years, even actors will be replaced.

[cricket]

Well, it will need to come a far way from the motion capture of today. I'm sorry, but that technique as it stands just gives me the heebie-jeebies.

[Bishop]

I thought there was a resurgence on already with the desire to use cgi where its absolutely necessary rather than "everywhere" and to use live action plus miniatures along with cgi in a better balance. I fear Eagle may be right. There are a couple of big films out now that are pure cgi ( eg.Beowulf) I can't stand that stuff as it will always look fake. Blended in to live action at particular moments it works well, but all the time it can't hold up.

[TerraForm1]

Um, Agent Crush anyone?
http://www.agentcrush.com
Miniatures designed by Mike Trim, crafted & directed by fans of the original Super-M series. Yea, I know this is an exception to standard Hollywood fare but it's head 'n shoulders above the CGI special effects that are (over)used in today's film & TV.
Ultimately, the general audience has come to expect a certain 'look' to their visual entertainment and CGI is the current, cost-effective method of creating the 'appearance' of realism. However, I concur with Eagle: CGI people give me the creeps also.
I suppose the deciding factor for each film production is the cost factor and what works on screen. The Lord of the Rings trilogy had a ton of computer effects but many of the structures were cleverly composited miniatures (Minas Tirith for example). So I suppose there's room for both art forms to co-exist...
GW

[thunderboy]

Hi there yes ive been on the Agent Crush site, good behind the scenes pix too ,and if you look there are some familiar vehicles Shado mobile being one of them. Cant wait to see the movie

[Tim Smith]

[quote=TerraForm1;45367]Um, Agent Crush anyone?
http://www.agentcrush.com

Whaaa??? Puppets? Futuristic vehicles? Comedy? Oh yeah! Bring it on!!!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Eagle

Within fifteen years, even actors will be replaced.

thats the "bottom line" im afraid, as the technoligy develops it will indeed be cheaper and easier to use a CGI actor over the real thing, and the principle is the same , its cheaper to blow up a miniture/model than it is to blow up the real thing. cgi is just the next step in that process.
i dont think it will be long before we see the "new" john wayne westerns etc, and there will come a time when you wont be able to tell the difference between the two.
i was very impressed by gollum in LOR and dont see how else it could have been done.

its in its infancy now , but once it gets to the stage when you cant tell the difference between the cgi and the real elements, then cost wise cgi is the way to go.

technoligys change, colour TV doesnt stop me from enjoying and even appreciating an old B&W episode of Dr Who.
and ive just ordered the old capt scarlet DVD's because i am enjoying the "new" CS so much.
in the big picture its all good to me

[Bishop]

Ah, the old Captain Scarlet is lots of fun... you can't beat it. I know the cgi one has its place, but its not the real Captain Scarlet

[JMChladek]

I think everything will have a purpose. ILM is always considered by many to be the bad boy of CGI in terms of them using it for supposedly EVERYTHING. But in reality they do still have a substantial in house department that does miniatures for set pieces and for use in other subtle ways. Even as good as CGI is, model work is still potentially better for some shots. When all the tools are used together (such as with the Skyfleet airliner in "Casino Royale"), the results are best.

In terms of cost and use, it will depend a lot on the artists behind the camera doing this stuff. Okay, CGI actors I can see, but somebody has to design and animate them. Somebody has to build CGI models and sets for filming and somebody has to edit all this stuff together and make it look cool. It will still take artistic talent to do all this. It won't do it by itself. Those with the most talent will do the best work.

[Tim Partridge]

Originally Posted by JMChladek

I think everything will have a purpose. ILM is always considered by many to be the bad boy of CGI in terms of them using it for supposedly EVERYTHING. But in reality they do still have a substantial in house department that does miniatures for set pieces and for use in other subtle ways.

Actually, they got rid of their model shop, which became KERNER OPTICAL. Same crew, but nolonger part of ILM. The benefit though is that the model shop can now work on shows independent of ILM, rather than only being one package.