China Entertainment’s rescue plan is hard to come by

Chapter 683 Motion Capture and Green Lantern [Two-in-One]

After seeing the preparations for Gravity, Sun Yi prepared to retreat.

It's not that I'm going back to Beijing directly, but I'm taking the opportunity of coming to the base today to go to Starry Sky Digital to take a look. I heard from Yang Fan a while ago that the animation studio in cooperation with Shanghai Film Group has been prepared.

The names of in-house technical personnel, animation directors and animators supported by Shanghai Film Studio have all been finalized, and the studio will be officially established after the new year.

In this animation studio, Sun Yi is the chief director, so he has to go and take a look.

But when leaving, Mr. Han suddenly became interested in the special effects studio next door and said he wanted to visit it too.

Sun Yi had no choice.

The leader has given the order, so I must accompany him.

But he really didn't remember any large projects here.

When this digital studio was first planned and built, it was designed to be a large and a small one. The large one was mainly used to shoot large-scale stunt scenes, including artificial scenery, interior layout and deep-water studio.

This is also the place where Sun Yi took Han Sanping to visit just now.

The smaller one is a pure digital special effects studio, which is mainly used for green screen shooting, including motion capture, digital recognition and other special effects shooting equipment.

The motion capture of the monsters in Pacific Rim was done here.

After the end of Pacific Rim, it seems that it has never been fully used again.

It's a bit embarrassing to say it.

At present, no one in China can use this equipment except Star Sky.

It’s not that they can’t afford it, but when the film was being made, there was no concept of shooting motion capture and special effects in parallel.

These domestic directors are still at the stage where after the filming is completed, they will find a special effects company to render and cut out the pictures.

The only difference is that big directors look for big companies, such as Star Digital, or some well-known foreign special effects companies, while small directors don't care and just find a personal image studio on the Internet to do it. This is a very common phenomenon.

Although this digital special effects studio is only half the size of the stunt studio next door, its cost is almost the same, and the operating and maintenance costs are not low either.

It's not a good idea to just leave it like this every day.

So, some time ago, Sun Yi signed a cooperation agreement with Warner, in order to get a few orders from Hollywood to get this special effects studio up and running.

"Director Han, my special effects studio has been empty since Pacific Rim ended. I think it will be used for a few scenes during Gravity."

The two studios are connected, just walking through a spacious corridor.

Sun Yi introduced Mr. Han as he walked.

Han Sanping was the same. He had no original plan to visit this place, but the scene in "Gravity" just now was so shocking that he wanted to take a thorough survey of the starry sky in his heart.

Don't miss any of it, up or down, to see how far the starry sky has reached.

There were bright lights ahead and faint noises coming from the distance.

This doesn't look like it's not working.

Although Starry Sky is a wealthy family and can afford the electricity bill, it doesn't need to turn on all the lights in the venue.

And what are these noises about?
There seems to be English?

Sun Yi frowned slightly and looked at the on-site person in charge who was following him with confusion.

[Is there a film crew here? ]

The person in charge blinked and nodded innocently.

[Yes, yes]

【Why didn’t you tell me?】

[You, you didn’t ask either? ]

Hiss~~~~
After a moment of eye contact, Sun Yi smacked his lips helplessly.

This technical person is not suitable to be the person in charge, and he can't think of going in front of the leader~
Everyone walked into the special effects studio, and sure enough, there was a group of people doing special effects shooting.

They are all blond and blue-eyed foreigners.

The venue is a bit like a large cubicle, with green curtains on three sides. The only opening is the director and special effects artist's workbench, which is lined with a row of display screens.

The male protagonist in the middle of the venue is wearing a special collection suit with sensors covered from head to toe, and is doing all kinds of second-year actions.

Yes, it’s middle school.

Even though the superheroes and monsters in blockbuster movies look cool, during the filming stage, without the support of special effects backgrounds and costumes and props, it is simply awkward for a person to stand there waving his hands and raising his feet to pose.

“Is this your motion capture technology?”

Han Sanping stood outside the fence, looking at everything in the field, and asked with some doubts.

As the chairman of China Film Group and a director himself, he is also familiar with Hollywood's advanced special effects technology.

You may not have eaten pork, but you must have seen pigs run.

The principle of motion capture technology is based on setting trackers at different key parts of the human body. After the system captures the position of the trackers, it obtains spatial coordinate data through computer processing. After these data are recognized by the computer, they can be applied to animation production, gait analysis, biomechanics, ergonomics and other fields.

In his impression, this kind of motion capture special effects shooting is not as easy as it looks now. The actors have to be equipped with various equipment, including sensors, recognition equipment and transmission equipment. Sometimes the whole set weighs nearly 30 kilograms.

But nowadays the actors are wearing clothes equipped with sensors. Although their movements are a bit awkward, there is no sign of effort when they raise their hands and feet.

It surprised him a lot.

Sun Yi was not surprised by Mr. Han's question.

Because what the old man was talking about was the last generation of equipment, which could not be compared with what the starry sky had in front of it.

"Third Master, you are talking about the mechanical motion capture system, right?"

"Yes, are there any other forms of this?" Han Sanping asked.

Sun Yi replied softly, "Of course. The mechanical motion capture system relies on mechanical devices to track and measure the trajectory of movement."

"It is composed of multiple joints and rigid connecting rods. An angle sensor is installed in the rotatable joint to measure the change in the rotation angle of the joint. Then, based on the angle change measured by the angle sensor and the length of the connecting rod, the position and motion trajectory of the end point of the rod in space can be obtained to achieve the purpose of computer imaging."

"But this system has too many shortcomings. The weight problem alone is unavoidable. Actors with poor physical strength simply cannot hold on. They have to take a break after shooting for ten minutes, which is very inefficient."

"Moreover, the most important thing is that this kind of joint structure and rigid connecting rod have a great impact on the flexibility of the actors themselves. Complex movements cannot be performed at all, so there are great limitations."

"Yes."

Han Sanping nodded as he looked at the shooting scene. He also knew the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical motion capture, but he had never heard of any good solutions.

Facing Han Sanping's question, Sun Yi smiled faintly and said in his heart.

This is the shortcoming faced by domestic film and television professionals at this stage.

They only pursue big stars and big productions, or they focus on publicity, hype and scandals, but they don't pay any attention to the filming technology. At best, they just want to get the latest camera and be done with it.

Sometimes, the media often report how meticulous a certain big director is when filming a movie. For a historical drama, he completely reproduces the real scenes in history, and even the interior furniture and other items are made of real antiques.

It is also called attention to details.

It's all bullshit, it's just a scam. Sun Yi knows too much about the tricks here. If he doesn't add some "special attributes" to these props and scenery, how can he explain it to the investors?

These things, unless they are faked at first glance, are completely invisible unless they are shot in close-up.

It is completely meaningless. Apart from being used to show off the director's own so-called rigor and to save money, it is completely useless.

With so much money, it would be better to improve film shooting technology.

Sun Yi raised his hand and pointed to the venue, and whispered to Han Sanping:

"Third Master, do you see the circle of cameras above the field?"

Han Sanping looked up and nodded, "I see."

"This is our latest dynamic capture system - the reflective optical motion capture system."

“The traditional mechanical joints and linkages are abandoned, and the light is directly emitted by the LED on the motion capture lens, which is reflected by the sensor to the motion capture camera, and then fed back to the computer for detection and spatial positioning.”

"Then the imaging is done directly on the computer, which has many advantages such as high precision, high sampling rate, accurate motion capture, flexible and quick performance and use, and lower cost, and can be added and arranged at will, so it has a wide range of applications."

"Oh"

Han Sanping nodded solemnly, then stretched his neck to look into the venue curiously, as if he was still very curious about the details of this motion capture system.

"Director Han, I'll take you to have a look."

Sun Yi made a stop gesture to the entourage behind him, and then took Mr. Han into the shooting site.

Although this is a starry sky photography studio, not too many people can enter casually, as that would affect other people's filming.

As for confidentiality, Starry Sky has already had regulations in place, and all staff here have signed a confidentiality agreement.

Walking closer and standing behind the director and the special effects artist, Han Sanping was able to see the full picture of the system.

I saw the actors in the middle of the venue performing various actions according to the instructions, and the actors' movement trajectories appeared directly on the computer screen here, which was basically synchronized.

With this motion trajectory, the special effects artist can go back and render various things, including the protagonist's clothing and even skill effects.

Standing closer, Sun Yi could also see the faces of the actors clearly.

Unexpectedly, we actually knew each other.

Isn't this a bit mean?

Unexpectedly, he came to Starry Sky to shoot movies.

Just when Sun Yi was wondering what movie Xiao Jianjian was filming during this period of time, the scene in the scene ended.

The special effects artist of the starry sky whispered a few words to the director, then turned around and noticed Sun Yi, then quickly stood up and greeted him.

"Mr. Sun."

The call of "Mr. Sun" woke up many people, and Sun Yi then realized that Guo Fan was also here.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ha, isn't there a Hollywood crew coming here to film? I'll just follow them and learn from them."

Guo Fan grinned and scratched his head in dismay, not realizing that the person he was accusing was the deputy director of the "Gravity" crew, who had actually come here.

Sun Yi also knew about this guy's obsession with technology. This motion capture system had finally been opened once, so how could he miss the opportunity to come and observe it.

I simply didn't say anything more.

At this time, the foreign director also reacted, and at the prompting of his assistant, he stretched out his hand and walked towards Sun Yi.

"Director Sun, nice to meet you. I'm Martin Campbell."

The two shook hands. "Director Campbell, welcome to China, welcome to Starry Sky Image."

“Your Pacific Rim is so cool, I like it very much.”

"Thank you for your compliment. It's no exaggeration to say that I studied all your movies when I was in school."

"Really? That's me, Rong Xin, hahaha."

The white old man in front of him looks a bit like Mr. Han. He also has a bald forehead and a high hairline.

Sun Yi didn't recognize the person, but he knew the name clearly.

He is also one of the world-renowned directors, and was even mentioned during classes at the Beijing Film Academy.

Martin Campbell is a director from New Zealand. Many people don’t know him, but if you mention his films, you must have seen them.

The most representative and best-known work among Chinese people is "Zorro".

Moreover, he accepted MGM's 007 series in the past two years, and is considered a very famous commercial film director.

Thinking of the little Jianjian who was resting and drinking water in the venue, Sun Yi was suddenly startled.

Could this be the Green Lantern that made Warner Bros. lose money? ?!!
It really is.

Gee
Sun Yi was a little confused.

Didn’t Warner say that they wanted to collaborate on a medium-budget film?
If he remembered correctly, the investment cost of this movie was 2 million US dollars. How can this be called a medium investment?
What are you doing?

"Director Campbell, first of all, I welcome you and your crew very much. But if I remember correctly, the agreement we signed with Warner is for a medium-budget film. Your film is also a Hollywood A-level production, right? How come?"

Seeing that Director Campbell was quite talkative, Sun Yi simply asked directly.

The old man was a little embarrassed, and even his subconscious actions were similar to Mr. Han. He also stroked his hairless head and replied:
"The budget is overspent. This is my first time directing a superhero movie. As a colleague, you should be able to understand my feelings, especially after watching your Pacific Rim, which gave me a lot of inspiration. However, Warner Bros. disagreed with my filming plan due to production costs. Later, I heard about your cooperation agreement with Warner Bros."

"Oh my God, I didn't expect that filming in China could save more than 40% of the special effects costs. It's incredible."

The old man talked for a long time with his hands and feet gesticulating.

Sun Yi probably understood.

I had too many ideas for making my own film, which led to an overbudget. I heard that the special effects at Starry Sky were cheap and of good quality, so I came here directly.

Sun Yi nodded and smiled.

"Oh, so that's how it is. Welcome, Director Campbell. Are you satisfied with this place?"

"Satisfied, very satisfied. Here, I can fully realize all my ideas. God, it's amazing."

Sun Yi's mouth twitched. He wanted to dissuade this veteran director who was letting himself go in his first superhero movie, but he gave up when the words came to his lips.

The first is that your status is not right and you are not that close to them, so it is not appropriate for you to say such things.

Another thing is, if he remembered correctly, the investment cost of this movie in the previous life was 2 million US dollars, and the final box office was 8000 million, which was a complete loss.

Nowadays, even with the cost advantage of Star Sky, which can save 30 to 40 million US dollars in special effects production costs, it will still lose money at the box office overall. It is better to let the old man let himself go completely.

What if it turns out exactly as he thought? He won't have to pay for it.

Such examples abound in Hollywood, where, due to cost constraints, directors end up shooting in vain and might as well not shoot at all.

Anyway, even if there is a loss, it is Warner's money and has nothing to do with Star Sky.
(End of this chapter)