All Things Superman: An Open Discussion - - - - - - - - - - Part 19

[Boosted]

I always thought that the SFX were a joint thing, never just Weta. But Weta and Double Negative handling most of the film.

[DKDetective]

Originally Posted by Boosted

I always thought that the SFX were a joint thing, never just Weta. But Weta and Double Negative handling most of the film.

I got the impression from past Joe Letteri interviews that it seemed like Weta was doing most of the heavy lifting. Letteri's comments implied a close working relationship with Snyder, such Weta was helping to develop the overall style of the film's effects. Nevertheless, Weta's decreased involvement could be a good thing. From what I understand, their work on The Hobbit is coming under a lot of criticism, whereas Double Negative's work on The Dark Knight Rises was, with the exception of the football stadium, rather excellent.

[Smallville13]

Originally Posted by Boosted

I always thought that the SFX were a joint thing, never just Weta. But Weta and Double Negative handling most of the film.

Yeah but we just found out that WETA won't be handling 'most' of the film, not even half. Joe Letteri from WETA just revealed that they are only doing some set-up before he becomes Superman. It's just 12 months ago they said that they wanted to get his 'flying' right, and that rumored description 6 months ago from a VFX conference apparently had WETA show off MOS footage of the tornado, and Superman v Zod. So it could be that they've had to back away from alot of it and pass on what they were set to Double Negative.

Originally Posted by DKDetective

I got the impression from past Joe Letteri interviews that it seemed like Weta was doing most of the heavy lifting. Letteri's comments implied a close working relationship with Snyder, such Weta was helping to develop the overall style of the film's effects. Nevertheless, Weta's decreased involvement could be a good thing. From what I understand, their work on The Hobbit is coming under a lot of criticism, whereas Double Negative's work on The Dark Knight Rises was, with the exception of the football stadium, rather excellent.

Ugh. I don't know. I still think WETA is the best digital effects house working today.

[Kal-El.9859]

I like WETA but some of Rise of The Planet of The Apes just looked fake and that little critter in The Hobbit looks fake as fake can be. I hope we don't have any of that crappy looking SFX in Man of Steel.

[sup101]

Weta did krypton, the mocap stuff, and the spaceships.That shot of superman hitting the bank vault was done by somebody else.

[Smallville13]

Originally Posted by sup101

Weta did krypton, the mocap stuff, and the spaceships.That shot of superman hitting the bank vault was done by somebody else.

Source?

[sup101]

Originally Posted by Smallville13

Source?

Joe Letteri the dude that did the interview said weta only handled the early comings of superman.That mean krypton and everything associated with krypton.And maybe some of the young clark stuff too.He said they did 25%.

[Smallville13]

Originally Posted by sup101

Joe Letteri the dude that did the interview said weta only handled the early comings of superman.That mean krypton and everything associated with krypton.And maybe some of the young clark stuff too.He said they did 25%.

Yeah you might be right. I really really can't wait to see Zod's armor and who/what the mocap guy is supposed to be. I'd be alot more at ease if they actually wore practical suits on set and the CGI was built on top of that. When has full CGI attire ever worked in a film? GL is an example of it not working at all (and I believe WETA was involved in that). It's just gonna stick out like a sore thumb in this real world they're portraying if alot of the Krytonian elements are noticeably CGI'd.

[Boosted]

GL was handled by sony imageworks. so bad. sooo bad. they did the crappy superman returns CG too.

[sup101]

I'm sure weta will do good on the cgi suits.We won't be able to tell that it's cgi.Hopefully we get a good look at zod suit in the trailer.

[Bruce_Begins]

Yes, the CGI effects were done by Sony ImageWorks, but

WETA designed the "Look" of Aliens (Kilowog, Tomar Re, Sinestro, Guardians and others), Planet Oa, Green Lantern Suits, GL power battery in the movie Green Lantern.

Many criticized the look of Oa and the suit designs in the movie.

WETA were also involved in the abandoned movie project Justice League:Mortal, they designed the suits for the Heroes in that.

[Rust]

Did WETA also do the designs for District9 rather than just the CGI?

Compared to GL District9 looked amazing, and I'm hoping for that approach in MOS to design and execution when talking realism. GL really had the most phony and uninspired look to it. The only things (looking) real in the Oa-sequences were the heads of Reynolds and Strong.

[Bruce_Begins]

Like many movie directors, writers and actors, SFX companies also suffer from uneven quality of work, they can do a very good work in one movie and disappointing work in other, we can only hope for the best.

[Kal-El.9859]

I know there are plenty of people who hate the Transformers movies but those SFX look pretty good to me. I can only hope for something as good as if not better than that

[Rust]

Originally Posted by Kal-El.9859

I know there are plenty of people who hate the Transformers movies but those SFX look pretty good to me. I can only hope for something as good as if not better than that

But robots are easy to do. Transformers looked good in terms of animation, although the shots often became a little busy and confusing with robot-limbs flying all over the place.
But the design themselves I wasnt too impressed with. I did like the alien complexity to them instead of just the very box-like look from the cartoon, but they still looked kinda fat and messy somehow. Particularly Megatron looked like crap.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Originally Posted by Kal-El.9859

I know there are plenty of people who hate the Transformers movies but those SFX look pretty good to me. I can only hope for something as good as if not better than that

Good looking crap.

I get what you mean though. Sure.

[matrix_ghost]

Originally Posted by DKDetective

I got the impression from past Joe Letteri interviews that it seemed like Weta was doing most of the heavy lifting. Letteri's comments implied a close working relationship with Snyder, such Weta was helping to develop the overall style of the film's effects.

As did i i. I thought they were the main vendor handling the biggest shots.

Originally Posted by DKDetective

Nevertheless, Weta's decreased involvement could be a good thing. From what I understand, their work on The Hobbit is coming under a lot of criticism, whereas Double Negative's work on The Dark Knight Rises was, with the exception of the football stadium, rather excellent.

I dunno about the VFX in Hobbit being criticised. It;s the 48 fps taking alot of heat not the VFX. In fact the 48fps works best when VFX are shown .

Originally Posted by Kal-El.9859

I like WETA but some of Rise of The Planet of The Apes just looked fake and that little critter in The Hobbit looks fake as fake can be. I hope we don't have any of that crappy looking SFX in Man of Steel.

WETA is very good but even they can have problems delivering shots. DOn't forget that just as with X-Men First Class , the production of Planet of the APes was rushed. THey had very limited amount of time to deliver a rather large amount of VFX shots.

Originally Posted by Smallville13

Yeah you might be right. I really really can't wait to see Zod's armor and who/what the mocap guy is supposed to be. I'd be alot more at ease if they actually wore practical suits on set and the CGI was built on top of that. When has full CGI attire ever worked in a film? GL is an example of it not working at all (and I believe WETA was involved in that). It's just gonna stick out like a sore thumb in this real world they're portraying if alot of the Krytonian elements are noticeably CGI'd.

Davey Jones in the POTC movies.
Iron Man in well Iron Man

Originally Posted by Rust

Did WETA also do the designs for District9 rather than just the CGI?

Compared to GL District9 looked amazing, and I'm hoping for that approach in MOS to design and execution when talking realism. GL really had the most phony and uninspired look to it. The only things (looking) real in the Oa-sequences were the heads of Reynolds and Strong.

WETA was responsible for the space ship shots and the mecha stuff in D9. Also what helps to sell the realism in D9 was the fact that they shot it gritty handheld style with alot of practical locations.
GL for the most part was just green screen set after green screen set.

[Astrodust]

Originally Posted by Rust

But robots are easy to do. Transformers looked good in terms of animation, although the shots often became a little busy and confusing with robot-limbs flying all over the place.
But the design themselves I wasnt too impressed with. I did like the alien complexity to them instead of just the very box-like look from the cartoon, but they still looked kinda fat and messy somehow. Particularly Megatron looked like crap.

Regardless of what people felt about the Transformers movies or the designs, they did a great job of blending cgi with live action. Those movies had great cinematography and the colors were vibrant. But then perhaps robots are easy to do like you say.

[Smallville13]

Originally Posted by Bruce_Begins

Yes, the CGI effects were done by Sony ImageWorks, but

WETA designed the "Look" of Aliens (Kilowog, Tomar Re, Sinestro, Guardians and others), Planet Oa, Green Lantern Suits, GL power battery in the movie Green Lantern.

Many criticized the look of Oa and the suit designs in the movie.

WETA were also involved in the abandoned movie project Justice League:Mortal, they designed the suits for the Heroes in that.

Were those designs ever released (or leaked) to the public?

Originally Posted by matrix_ghost

Davey Jones in the POTC movies.
Iron Man in well Iron Man

Didn't both those both have like reference parts of the suit though. Like there was a semi-torso for the Iron Man armor RDJ wore. For MOS Michael Shannon and whatever that other guy was in Illinois just had a mocap suit on.

[sup101]

Mos won't look nothing like gl.More like District 9 yea.

[herolee10]

Originally Posted by Astrodust

Regardless of what people felt about the Transformers movies or the designs, they did a great job of blending cgi with live action. Those movies had great cinematography and the colors were vibrant. But then perhaps robots are easy to do like you say.

Well I guess it isn't a bad thing that the guy that filmed the last Transformers film is the one that filmed MOS.lol

[Rust]

Originally Posted by sup101

Mos won't look nothing like gl.More like District 9 yea.

I sure hope so. Some close-up intense handheld shaky and chaotic action, combined with earth-shattering slo-mo, would look good for MOS, and I have a feeling we'll get something like that, when reading the various interviews and looking at the footage we've already got.

[sup101]

Originally Posted by Rust

I sure hope so. Some close-up intense handheld shaky and chaotic action, combined with earth-shattering slo-mo, would look good for MOS, and I have a feeling we'll get something like that, when reading the various interviews and looking at the footage we've already got.

Yea that's what it look like.I think that's the approach they'll be taking on earth, but I don't know about krypton.

[Smallville13]

I just mean there's a difference between adding CGI to this:


then to what Michael Shannon is wearing here:


Remembering this:


Became this:

[Rust]

Haha...

Actually I liked the idea of the suit being all energy and then let it be entirely CGI. I thought it worked ok, but when the entire shot is CGI and just looking fake as hell then indeed

Also, there's a difference in doing an "organic" suit next to a mechanical one.