American Cinematographer - November 1994 - 32

Dark Angel, a 45-inch-diameter
glowing plexiglass sphere was
superimposed over shots of the
angel floating around her par¬
ents'

room.

This effect

was

pat¬

terned after the optical of Glynda,
the Good Witch in the 1939 ver¬
sion of The Wizard of Oz, but

aligned in the camera using
today's technology. A videotape
of the pre-existing footage,
striped with timecode, was re¬
positioned to fill the Fries camera
videotap ground-glass markings,
using the Panasonic MX-50 frame
grabber and digital-shrink but¬
ton. The tape was then synched
to the motion-control rig by
means of the
timecode-trigger
start switch built into the Kuper

The world's

brightest
controllable

RTMC software. This enabled the
cast and crew to witness the fin¬
ished composite after each take
on

video, engaging the MX-50's

luminance

light source

some

double exposures are

as

bluescreen shots

are con¬

tally. But long takes and shot el¬
requiring intricate fog/
diffusion effects are still cheaper
to do on an optical printer. The
image loss in a good optical is
practically imperceptible. Digital

ements

still has to work hard to have

comparable image fidelity."
Gentry believes that mo¬
tion-controlled models and

opticals
can

the

not obsolete. There
be a symbiosis with CGI in
future, compositing tradi¬
are

tional effects

Angeles:

818/988-1791
30

doesn't

care

which

computer

platform he works on, as long as
it gets the job done. "Basically,
Macintosh because we
started off with a lot of Mac hard¬
ware and software and don't
want to invest in another format,
we use

especially since we are at a cross¬
computers right now.
The IBM PC also has some good,
sophisticated low-end graphics

computers won't have a key¬

cerned, I'd rather do them digi¬

Los

most

ing the optical.
Gentry felt that this
simple superimposition tech¬
nique was the best, least expen¬

far

800/354-4448

along about as rapidly, al¬
eliminating the need for
models or miniatures, and prob¬
ably people next, but it's not to¬
tally economical yet."
Programmer Chris Biggs
come

thing.

always required, and the turn¬
around time is still cheaper and
faster with opticals," he admit¬
ted. "The big bugaboo with digi¬
tal composites is 'shot length.' As

*

ditional effects]. But CGI has

wanted to make it as easy as pos¬
sible for the technician perform¬

and

515/673-0491

iting machines, we didn't get to
use them
solely to composite [tra¬

roads with

achieving this particular effect in
the film. "Simple split-screens

Nationwide:

that people assumed there would
be a longer transitional period
where the two techniques co-ex¬
isted. "I think a lot of people felt
cheated because after we got
these great computer compos¬

key capability. The
stage had been previously
draped with black Duvateen to
negate the need for any garbage
matting by the optical company
doing the composite. Gentry

sive and easiest method for

rVOBILE LIGHTING. LTD.

computer, although he admits

November 1994

digitally inside the

software. But the future's about
to

change in a big way, and we
don't want to invest in the wrong
"The next

generation of

board. You'll talk to them and

they'll talk back to you. Instead of
physically typing in something,
you'll just speak the words, and
instead of having a mouse, you'll
just use your finger and point.
Just like in Star Trek, they have
voice recognition now, but you
must say the word over and over
again using the same inflection."
Biggs demonstrated a
slide show of

a new

program

called

Bryce, whereby the com¬
puter creates 3-D landscapes and
environments right in its own ar¬
tificial universe. The neat thing
about Bryce is that one doesn't
have to be

a

skilled artist to

use

it.

Biggs indicated that it was ac¬
quired and further developed by
Kai Krause, the maker of KPT
software (Kai's Power Tools).
Krause interfaced the algorithmic

generator to work on a Macintosh
computer which manufactures
environments

on

a

akin to the Genesis

digital level,

Experiment

CGI in Star Trek II and III.
American Cinematographer - November 1994

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