YouTube Goodness

[Ben]

a very clever and fun ad for a 'stop motion' add-on for Blender.

.. worth a watch even if you're not a CG artist.

Interesting that you posted a really for real stop-mo clip next…the CG mock-up is pretty good but still *just* lacks that "tactile" feel, like the fingerprints are missing!

(And just a note for sensitive ears for an f-bomb).

Fun though, and a fairly convincing way of doing it. I agree that dropping to twos just doesn’t cut it and looks weird. Funny, though, that there’s so much cover-up work done in CG on stop-mo films thesedays, like wire removal and face stitching, that the two "3D" animation techniques have and are becoming ever intertwined and almost interchangeable with any other, visually finishing anyway.

[Dacey]

I keep reading from various sources that's Margot and Chris reprising their roles. I do hear Chris, but Margot? I'm not sure if that's her. She was a chain smoker, rest her soul, which did impact her voice. Maybe they re-pitched it? Or maybe every source I've read saying this is wrong.

[Ben]

This was debunked years ago. It’s not either of them.

[droosan]

Bullet Time is coming soon ..



.. with a soundtrack by Danny Elfman, apparently.

[gaastra]

They made a spudz Mckinzi video game? That's spudz all day long in that thumb.

[droosan]

AFAIK, Bullet Time is a short film about playing video games .. and is purposely meant to evoke a 1990s aesthetic mix of Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, Cow & Chicken, Spike & Mike animation festivals, Rude Dog & The Dweebs .. and yes, probably even 'Spuds McKenzie', too!

Based on this trailer -- and especially that soundtrack album cover art -- I kinda feel like Bill Wray should get a credit on it .. even if he didn't work on it..!

[droosan]

The complete Bullet Time short (pilot?) cartoon, which was shown at Comic-Con earlier today. (warning: quite a bit of Spümcø-style 'gross-out' visuals, and PG-13 video-game violence).



.. and whattaya know; Bill Wray DID work on it..! I'd figured he must've.

[Ben]

Well, that just happened!

Heavy shades of Family Dog in there, too, which also has the Elfman connection of course. Definitely the vibe of Burton/Bird run through the John K blender…!

[droosan]

Very interesting use of AI image enhancement and image expansion to transform The Wizard of Oz into a 16K wraparound experience for the 'MSG Sphere' venue.

I'm definitely tempted to wander over to Las Vegas in a month or so, after it opens.

[Ben]

This is awesomely scary awesome tech. They’re talking about doing an Elstree Studios history type thing as a touristy spot here in a similar fashion, so it’s very interesting to see something that’s already using that medium. Veeeeeery interesting!

[Dacey]

That is indeed cool. People on Twitter are "roasting it" because of AI and behaving as though this somehow destroys the integrity of the original film...which is kind of silly since this is meant to be an "attraction" and is never going to be made available in homes.

If you do want a reason to dunk on AI, look no further than whatever the heck this is. Amazon has recently invested in this software, and this is essentially a giant promotional video made using it. And it's absolutely unwatchable. I would be amazed if anyone is able to make it through the entire 25 minutes. And there are several "episodes" of this already available! It's basically lifeless AI voices trying to do "improv comedy" with each other and...yeah, my words can't do this justice. Brace yourselves for pain.

[Ben]

Obviously rooted on Jeff Bridges…ironically?

Yeah, that’s painful, the most inexcusable thing being the wildly varying sound levels and quality!

[ShyViolet]

AI “reuniting” the younger and older casts from Star Trek: TNG and Ghostbusters. (1984)

https://youtu.be/_FtCd4vF8JE?si=a_SPD10_hXl8ZGJ5

https://youtu.be/6mHa0euaT7A?si=Dh4wanNmF1SC7GKs

[droosan]

I was a bit disappointed this evening to learn that the MSG Sphere presentation of The Wizard of Oz has been trimmed down to 75 minutes (versus the original film's 102 minutes) runtime.

That definitely wasn't mentioned at all in CBS News Sunday Morning's story.

This information makes their ticket prices (US$100 - US$500+ per seat, depending upon where you are within the Sphere) seem all the more ludicrous.

I do still think this presentation is an impressive use of AI .. particularly the enhancement for extremely large-scale projection. It might be neat to see the original Star Wars trilogy at this scale, for example.

.. but I'd definitely want to see the complete films, storywise, even in those cases.

[Ben]

Yeah…that’s actually a deal breaker. What’s the point in that? Kind of feels like they converted a film, but couldn’t "afford" to do the whole thing.

Ironic if they cut out Over The Rainbow…!