Are the best computer animators only as good as the technology they use, or does natural talent distinguish their work from the rest? The question has been debated online this week after a new super-realistic computer-generated video appeared on YouTube.
At first glance, the minute-long commercial for kitchen worktops looks like slick, well-timed slow-motion footage of fruit falling in a shiny kitchen. It’s only when the peppers and pears smash like glass on the counter that it becomes clear these are not real fruit.
Full details at NewScientist
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So I guess they made glass fruit and dropped them, obvious really. Next!
I believe it is possible to smash peppers and pears like glass by immersing them in liquid nitrogen…
This is (still) my current candidate for the most realistic CGI I have seen to date. If I remember correctly there are two composited “real” elements – the photographer and the birds in one shot. Everything else is CGI : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGx4bBU9Qc
His (Alex Roman) previous CGI film is far more impressive IMHO
http://vimeo.com/7809605
It’s pretty realistic if it is only CGI…though i can imagine this animation being done entirely without CGI
Also, Fruit smashing as glass, if you freeze fruit and drop it on a hard surface it has this glass-crystal effect…
I Love the scenery-kitchen btw(owy)
Hate to be so cynical, but the creator is just lying. “I tried to put some live-footage shots but I ran out of time so CGI did the trick” is a ridiculous thing to say. The only shots where you actually see fruit smashing could easily be a mix of live and CGI.
Well that’s pretty convincing, though it’s as much the work of the programmers, modelmakers and lighting technicians as the animators… as a sometime CGer I feel the need to be pedantic here!
Eckol, to get proper slow-motion capable (i.e. recording at more frames per second than normal) cameras, perfect lighting, a good backdrop etcetera may well be more work than just doing the CG if you have a good method, like this guys seems to have (with the background blurring to hide cloning etcetera) and proper software. Not saying he couldn’t be lying, but the people in his field seem to believe him, judging by the interviews in the article.
Guy, not guys.
wow… that is stunning.
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it is NOT the most realistic CGI you’ve ever seen.
please think about real good visual effects in movies, indeed,
i mean invisible visual effects – perfectly implemented from story to visual appearance.
these effects in films existed far before this clip.
this clip is nice, but don’t blow it or hype it to much.
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I agree with some of the others above, Alex Roman’s other film “The Third and The Seventh” was simply astonishing since you couldn’t tell the difference between what was real (very little) and what was CGI (almost everything).
http://thesuperjesus.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/the-third-the-seventh-on-vimeo/
Love the DB blog.
Hugs,
SJ