14-Junio-2008 (Fuente: Periódico Excelsior)
Se animan a hacer historia en el Cine
Salvador Franco Reyes
Este es el secreto mejor guardado del cine mexicano: la primera película animada realizada completamente en 3D (tres dimensiones) que podría convertirse en todo un fenómeno en taquilla y con ello, modificar sustancialmente la manera en la que se hace animación en nuestro país.
La cinta, que hasta ahora se trabaja con el nombre de la Primera película 3D mexicana, es dirigda por Alejandro Rodríguez Huerta, un egresado de la carrera de Diseño de la Universidad Anáhuac, que decidió utilizar Facebook (red social cibernética) para reclutar animadores del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) y de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), para convertirlos en cómplices de esta aventura fílmica.
Pero ahora el proyecto que mezcla emocionantes secuencias de autos, helicópteros, robots y seres humanos al más puro estilo de Final Fantasy, se encuentra en una fase clave para concretar su estreno programado para el 9 de febrero de 2009, pues necesita conseguir al menos dos millones de dólares para terminar su producción.
Pero el reto de conseguir ese dinero tampoco parece imposible luego de ver el teasser en el ordenador del director, porque la Primera película 3D mexicana tiene todos los elementos para ser un producto taquillero y, como su propio director lo presagia, para cambiar la manera de hacer cine en nuestro país.
“Este producto puede ser una revolución para el cine mexicano porque es la primera película en 3D que se produce en México y mucha gente se va a dar cuenta que se pueden hacer este tipo de cosas en México sin tener que irse a Estados Unidos, Alemania o a otro lugar, porque aquí hay mucho talento y chavos que pueden estar al nivel de los más grandes creadores de efectos especiales”, explica Alejandro Rodríguez, quien eligió a Excélsior para presentar al mundo su primer largometraje.
Una de las peculiaridades de la cinta realizada es que tanto la idea, el guión y el proceso de realización, estuvo íntimamente ligado a Facebook, lo que constituye un auténtico fenómeno en cuanto a su aplicación cinematográfica.
23-Julio-2008 (Fuente: Periódico Reforma)
Crean en 3D nueva especie humana
Jesus Diaz
...derivará en la primera película mexicana hecha en tercera dimensión. Con tecnología similar a la de la cinta Final Fantasy, que utilizó actores reales para recrearlos en animación, un grupo de jóvenes mexicanos, encabezados por el director Alejandro Rodríguez, pretenden sorprender a México el 9 de febrero de 2009, cuando se estrene su filme, aún sin nombre, en el portal de Apple TV.
Los preparativos para realizar la primera película mexicana en 3D comenzaron a finales de 2005, a través de la página de Internet de Facebook, en la cual Alejandro Rodríguez, director de la película, creó un foro especializado al que se sumaron aficionados del diseño y ciencia ficción.
En él, explica el realizador, miles de animadores entraban y salían para proponer sus ideas. Por ejemplo, Rodríguez ponía en el sitio una uña y ellos la modificaban, y así formó los cuerpos de los personajes, a los que luego les dio una personalidad.
La colaboración más importante fue la de dos estudiantes del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, quienes crearon una plataforma especializada, llamada Rendering Engine, que da un acabado real a los personajes y que fue probada por el director durante dos años
6-Agosto-2008 (Fuente: www.anahuac.mx)
Alejandro Rodríguez Huerta con esta cinta busca revolucionar la forma en que se hace animación en nuestro país.
Claudia Rivas
Alejandro Rodríguez Huerta se encuentra desarrollando la Primera Película 3D Mexicana, para lo cual usa innovadoras tecnologías como Facebook (red social cibernética) para reclutar animadores.
La idea, el guión y el proceso de realización de esta cinta están íntimamente ligados a Facebook, pues en los dos años y medio de trabajo para este filme han participado más de 10 mil personas de toda la República Mexicana a través de esta página...
There are several delivery options available for filmmakers and others interested in stereoscopic 3D (S3D) film production.
The stereoscopic effect relies on presenting a viewer with two different images simultaneously – one for each eye. This technique is called separation and there are a number of ways to achieve it. Early techniques used two synchronized projectors to show separate left-right images for each eye, but these led to fatigue and eyestrain. Modern digital-cinemas use a single projector with interleaved images.
he projector displays alternate left-right eye images and the viewer wears active shutter glasses that alternately blind the right-left eye in synchronization with the projector.
the projector projects alternately circular or linear polarized left-right eye images and the viewer wears (passive) polarized glasses that block the image destined for the other eye. Circular polarizers normally offer better separation and allow for head tilting, but the filters are normally more expensive than linear polarizers.
Modern full spectrum wavelength multiplexing displays share some of the functional concepts of anaglyph (an encoding technique based on color separation using red-blue tinted filters), but use a more sophisticated technique of multiplexing two RGB signals to provide full-spectrum color stereoscopy.
The Real D business model is simple: retrofit existing digital projection technology so it can display stereoscopic content. Real D relies on a single digital Light Processing (DLP) projector equipped with an active circular polarizing filter that Real D refers to as a “Z-Screen.” The Z-Screen is a solid-state device that rotates the light polarization alternately clockwise and then counter-clockwise to display left-right images at 144 frames per second. Audiences wear passive polarized glasses to view images projected onto a silver screen. Circular polarization allows viewers to tilt their heads without experiencing any negative impact on the stereo illusion; it also results in less crosstalk (ghosting) between the eyes. The system can be retrofitted over existing projection technology in about an hour, including time to calibrate the projector to accommodate color changes caused by the polarizing filter. The glasses, like their red-green anaglyph counterparts, are disposable. Real D also provides a two-projector version of its system (a traditional passive polarizer) which uses two projectors to illuminate much larger screens for bigger audiences. In both cases, a silver screen is required to preserve polarization in the reflection.
Real D, at the time of writing, was installed in about 95 percent of the world’s stereo-capable theaters. Real D's network of theaters was estimated at 1,200 and may reach as many as 5,000 by 2009. Most of those screens, however, are in the United States. To date, few Real D installations exist outside the US—16 are in non-US North America, 21 are in Europe, and 35 are in either Asia or Australia. More than half of box-office revenues come from international markets.
The Dolby® system is based on full spectrum wavelength multiplexing technology licensed from Infitec, Germany. The system uses different red, green, and blue (primary color) wavelengths for each eye. The glasses use narrow pass-through color filters capable of isolating the slightly shifted wavelengths. A rotating filter wheel installed inside the projector for light efficiency, and synchronized with the frames, provides the separation.
Content projected on the Dolby system needs to be pre-processed to accommodate the primary color shifts. Normally this, together with ghost-busting, happens as a pre-process, but Dolby also provides a real-time device that allows the use of its system in production environments that requires interacting with live content.
Because the system is not based on polarization, it does not require a silver screen; this alleviates logistical issues and costs for exhibitors. Dolby also has a dual-projector setup that accommodates larger screen sizes.
IMAX® 3D technology is a large-format 70mm film format that uses a dual-projector system with a fixed, polarized filter on each lens. The system uses a single lamp and runs at about 68 fps. Audiences wear reusable plastic polarized glasses. Screens are very large and designed to fill the viewer’s field of view, creating the impression of immersion.
IMAX also offers studios technology for converting 2D films to stereo called Digital Re-Mastering (DMR). A number of Hollywood films have been put through the DMR process, including Apollo 13, The Matrix, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Superman Returns.
There are over 60 IMAX 3D screens in the United States and an equal number located overseas. IMAX has announced plans to convert some of its theatres to digital projection.
With DVDs driving much of Hollywood’s revenue picture, one area of concern for the industry has been the lack of a home-viewing option for S3D. That situation, however, is rapidly changing. All recent Mitsubishi® and Samsung® Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs are marked “3D ready”, indicating that they come with S3D display technology pre-installed. The systems rely on shutter glasses. Philips is also promoting a lenticular autostereoscopic (no glasses required) system, and Colorcode 3-D offers a modified anaglyph process that encodes stereo information as minute color variations so the naked eye sees a more or less ordinary 2D image. When viewed through specially designed filters, however, the images are seen in full S3D—on all types of displays, including Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT), LCD, and plasmas TVs as well as LCD, DLP, and Liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) digital projectors. To date, however, DVDs and Blu-ray discs don’t have a standard for displaying stereoscopic content; although, some S3D films have been released on DVD using anaglyph images. A group of industry players led by Insight Media recently formed a consortium to promote S3D adoption in home environments. The quest for in-home options is still open, but Disney is testing the business case with the recently announced broadcast release of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour in anaglyph format.
The cinematic sound systems company THX Ltd. was founded by Lucasfilm and has been thought to be named after this film. THX officially stands for “Tomlinson Holman’s eXperiment”. Tomlinson Holman developed the THX sound system, having been commissioned to do so by Lucas in 1982. According to Lucas’ thoughts, the “X” in the sound system name THX stands for “crossover”, a piece of audio processing equipment. Born from George Lucas’ vision to improve cinema performance, a THX Certified Cinema lets you sit back, relax and be whisked away into a truly captivating entertainment experience. Through engineering standards for acoustic performance, background noise, sound isolation and image quality, a THX Certified Cinema promises that every seat in the house is a good one.
Today, there are more than 2,000 THX Certified Cinemas in over 30 countries, from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, to Empire Cinemas in the UK, to Kinepolis Bruges in Belgium, to TOHO Cinemas in Japan.
Known for 17 years as Silicon Graphics Inc., SGI is one of the leading manufacturers of graphics computer systems, workstations, and supercomputers. Its history may be described as an exemplary, perhaps even archetypal, Silicon Valley success story, until lower-priced competitors and inept production methods resulted in heavy losses in the late 1990s. Founded by a high school dropout turned college professor, Silicon Graphics capitalized on pioneering technology in 3-D computer graphics to create products used in a wide variety of professions, including engineering, chemistry, and film production. The company combined technological prowess with shrewd management to produce explosive growth; within a decade of its founding, it had entered the Fortune 500.
Filmmakers continually strive to tell stories in a better, more compelling way—experimenting with camera angles, and shooting take after take to find the most appealing compositions. But with the exponential increase of computer graphics (CG)-generated content in live action films, much of what makes up the final frame often doesn’t exist during principal photography. That’s why more and more filmmakers today are pre-visualizing their scenes using 3D tools.
nteractive technology has evolved to the point that directors can manipulate virtual cameras within textured and lit 3D environments, populated with highly detailed characters and props in real-time—or see their computer graphics (CG) elements in the ‘viewfinder’, while working on the live-action set. This has led to a new style in filmmaking: virtual cinematography.
