The Cutting Edge Animation of Polar Express
If there's any doubt that the future of movie technology is reaching new heights, that should be dispelled by the end of the year, when Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's prizewinning storybook The Polar Express takes a new approach to computer animation.
Two years ago, Hanks picked up the movie rights to Chris Van Allsburg's book, which he regularly read to his kids at Christmas time. He brought the project to his frequent collaborator Robert Zemeckis, who wrote a script based on the book. The question was how they could bring Allsburg's beautiful oil painting illustrations to life. Zemeckis had animation experience from his groundbreaking work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit while Hanks provided the voice in Pixar Films' first big hit Toy Story and its sequel, and they had used computers when making Forrest Gump to transplant Tom Hanks' character into some historical footage. Making The Polar Express as a computer-animated film seemed the most logical way to go, although they were aware of the limitations of going that route.
They decided to use a new technique dubbed Performance Capture, which would allow an actor of Hanks' caliber to perform the entire movie, rather than simply supplying the voices like in regular computer animated movies. A simpler form of this technology was used to create Andy Serkis' memorable performance as Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but for Polar Express it would be taken to its most logical extreme, allowing Hanks to play multiple roles including the skeptical young boy whose disbelief in Santa Claus drives the story.
Producer Steve Starkey, who worked with Hanks and Zemeckis on Forrest Gump and Cast Away, was kind enough to explain the technology using the film's opening sequence where the film's young star first encounters the Polar Express on Christmas Eve. This impressive sequence was followed by a video shot on set of Tom Hanks performing the part of the boy in a stunning performance that will once again have people questioning whether CG actors should be getting Oscar recognition.
First, the animators created the movie's environments and backgrounds in the computer, much of them based on Van Allsburg's illustrations. Production designer Rick Carter even visited the childhood homes of Van Allsburg and Zemeckis for inspiration. These virtual sets were then recreated on a soundstage using wire frame recreations of objects with a grid of infrared receivers suspended high overhead. The actors perform their scenes wearing Lycra suits covered with sensors, and 150 sensors are placed on their faces. Using these sensors, the receivers are able to accurately capture their movements and facial expressions, which are then digitized into the computers.
With the help of a costume designer and hairstylist to visualize the characters, something unheard of for an animated feature, the animators create "skins" to place over the computerized skeletons captured on set. This great attention to detail has allowed Zemeckis to create some of the most lifelike computer animated humans ever seen on screen. Once the chosen performances have been picked, the 3-dimensional computer environment provides an opportunity for the film's cinematographers to put the camera wherever they want, allowing for shots that would be impossible in the "real world". Many scenes can be done all in one shot even if they are edited together from multiple on-set performances.
The obvious appeal of the process to actors is that they now can play parts without worrying about the character's appearance, and the time commitment is shorter because there's not as much time spent on set with things like lighting and camera set-ups. Because of this, the same technology will be used to make Monster House, another holiday related movie based on a book, this one featuring performances from Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara.
Starkey showed a few more clips from the film including an impressive musical number with tap dancing waiters serving hot chocolate to the children, brought to life by a troupe of actual Broadway dancers. Another exciting sequence had Hanks playing both the boy and a "hobo" character skiing across the top of the train. Starkey also showed a bit more footage beyond what has been seen in the trailer, showing the great job done by the animators, who have been working on the film for two years and should be finished with everything in the next month.
Expect a couple surprise appearances in The Polar Express, like the reuniting of Hanks with his "Bosom Buddies" co-star Peter Scolari, as well as a performance from Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler as a partying elf. Overall, The Polar Express looks like a magical film that will appeal to kids of all ages thanks to the quality of acting and the animation that may turn a few heads at Pixar and DreamWorks, who have competing films coming out in the next few months. The Polar Express opens on November 10th.
Two years ago, Hanks picked up the movie rights to Chris Van Allsburg's book, which he regularly read to his kids at Christmas time. He brought the project to his frequent collaborator Robert Zemeckis, who wrote a script based on the book. The question was how they could bring Allsburg's beautiful oil painting illustrations to life. Zemeckis had animation experience from his groundbreaking work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit while Hanks provided the voice in Pixar Films' first big hit Toy Story and its sequel, and they had used computers when making Forrest Gump to transplant Tom Hanks' character into some historical footage. Making The Polar Express as a computer-animated film seemed the most logical way to go, although they were aware of the limitations of going that route.
They decided to use a new technique dubbed Performance Capture, which would allow an actor of Hanks' caliber to perform the entire movie, rather than simply supplying the voices like in regular computer animated movies. A simpler form of this technology was used to create Andy Serkis' memorable performance as Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but for Polar Express it would be taken to its most logical extreme, allowing Hanks to play multiple roles including the skeptical young boy whose disbelief in Santa Claus drives the story.
Producer Steve Starkey, who worked with Hanks and Zemeckis on Forrest Gump and Cast Away, was kind enough to explain the technology using the film's opening sequence where the film's young star first encounters the Polar Express on Christmas Eve. This impressive sequence was followed by a video shot on set of Tom Hanks performing the part of the boy in a stunning performance that will once again have people questioning whether CG actors should be getting Oscar recognition.
First, the animators created the movie's environments and backgrounds in the computer, much of them based on Van Allsburg's illustrations. Production designer Rick Carter even visited the childhood homes of Van Allsburg and Zemeckis for inspiration. These virtual sets were then recreated on a soundstage using wire frame recreations of objects with a grid of infrared receivers suspended high overhead. The actors perform their scenes wearing Lycra suits covered with sensors, and 150 sensors are placed on their faces. Using these sensors, the receivers are able to accurately capture their movements and facial expressions, which are then digitized into the computers.
With the help of a costume designer and hairstylist to visualize the characters, something unheard of for an animated feature, the animators create "skins" to place over the computerized skeletons captured on set. This great attention to detail has allowed Zemeckis to create some of the most lifelike computer animated humans ever seen on screen. Once the chosen performances have been picked, the 3-dimensional computer environment provides an opportunity for the film's cinematographers to put the camera wherever they want, allowing for shots that would be impossible in the "real world". Many scenes can be done all in one shot even if they are edited together from multiple on-set performances.
The obvious appeal of the process to actors is that they now can play parts without worrying about the character's appearance, and the time commitment is shorter because there's not as much time spent on set with things like lighting and camera set-ups. Because of this, the same technology will be used to make Monster House, another holiday related movie based on a book, this one featuring performances from Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara.
Starkey showed a few more clips from the film including an impressive musical number with tap dancing waiters serving hot chocolate to the children, brought to life by a troupe of actual Broadway dancers. Another exciting sequence had Hanks playing both the boy and a "hobo" character skiing across the top of the train. Starkey also showed a bit more footage beyond what has been seen in the trailer, showing the great job done by the animators, who have been working on the film for two years and should be finished with everything in the next month.
Expect a couple surprise appearances in The Polar Express, like the reuniting of Hanks with his "Bosom Buddies" co-star Peter Scolari, as well as a performance from Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler as a partying elf. Overall, The Polar Express looks like a magical film that will appeal to kids of all ages thanks to the quality of acting and the animation that may turn a few heads at Pixar and DreamWorks, who have competing films coming out in the next few months. The Polar Express opens on November 10th.
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posted by sikandar at 9:32 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Hima,
Thats a great article on the animation techniques used in the movie "Polar Express" ... Kudos to you! I wonder why you excluded some parts of this article that appeared in the metro plus section of "The HINDU" afew weeks ago. One of the parts is "The difficulty faced by Tom Hanks in adjusting to the filmin of 3 different characters: like the station master has pockets on his coat into which he digs his hands while the boy's(also played by Hanks) attire doesnot have them." This is one of the biggest challenges an actor might face with Computer Generated Imagery Techniques.
While highlighting the fact that this excellent work by Hanks and Zemeckis might turn heads at Pixar and Dreamworks, You have failed to notice the fact that this duo of Hanks & Zemeckis has come up with path breaking visual effects (like the famous hand shake sequence between JFK and Hanks)in Forrest Gump way back in 1994 while Steven Speilberg's Dreamworks wasnt even born...
Anyways I just want you to know that art is beyond comparision. Please do note that films like Starwars (by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic), Finding Nemo (By John Lasseter's Pixar animation studios), Shrek (by Speilberg's Dreamworks), Lion King (by Disney) are masterpieces in their own right.
Suggestion: Instead of giving us a movie review and comparisions you should have concentrated on the animation technique alone.
The rest of the articles in this blog posted by you are quite good (no, they are great actually).
Note: Articles inspired from articles published in print media might have been read already. So please try to come up with something original, no offence meant.
regards,
Xena
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