Third Artefact

For my third Artefact, as stated in my second evaluation I used a WAV file taken from a Marx Brothers film. The reason why the sound file could not be loaded into 3D Max was that the sample rate was too low. For the file to work for the third artefact, the WAV file was opened up in Adobe Soundbooth. The file was edited into stereo and the sample rate was raised, which increased the Bit Rate from 64kbps to 1411kbps. The file could then be imported into 3D Max. Lip-synching could then be accomplished using the Waveform view in the sound option in the mini curve editor.

To get the lip-synching looking right I moved the animation controller in the Wave form view to find out the word spoken in the waveforms. I then moved the morphing controllers accordingly to alter the characters mouth to match the sound at the right time. To get the lip-synching looking right I rendered out test clips to see if the mouth movement matched the words. A couple of times the lip-synching did not look right and now have been corrected. I also altered key frames when the mouth animation affected the skin and looked wrong.

Next was to move on to the body movement, I purposely animated them sitting around a table so I only needed to express arm movement and not the legs and body.

Finally when the early animation looked right I extruded a line spline to create the wall. I used a tile texture for the walls, a wood texture for the table and changed the texture for the characters. Last of all I used an Omni light with shadow on, which gave it added depth.

I am pleased with my finished artefact as I believe I have accomplished what I intended. For the forth artefact I will use a loony tunes sound clip to see if it makes any difference to the humour.

Ratatouille

Last week Ratatouille was released on DVD and if you haven't seen it yet go and buy it as it's a stunning film and one of the most critically acclaimed films in years, if you don't believe me check out metacritic as it's number 7 in their all-time top 100 rated films.

What I first noticed about the film was the perfectly lighted outdoor scenes throughout the movie, which has never been better. The scenes reminded me of the live action/animated movie Who framed Roger Rabbit. You also notice the food looks so real especially the first piece of bread Reme almost eats.

For me though the most brilliant thing about the movie is the fact they seem to me to be paying homage to Disney, and yet taking the Mickey (no pun intended) out of the studio at the same time. To try to explain what I mean I will quickly first go through the Movie.

At the start of the film you find out Gusteau, The Chef and owner of the best restaurant in Paris has died and the restaurant goes into decline. When Reme finds himself at the Restaurant, you find out that the food cooked in the kitchen is prepared using Gusteau's old recipes. The cooks aren't creating any thing new and original, which Gusteau was famous for. Skinner who is now the owner of Gusteau's makes a high percentage of profits from frozen ready meals, using Gusteau's name to sell inferior food products to be consumed in the home. Linguini, the new cleaner who has no cooking talent later teams up with Reme to create original recipes. He is proven to be the son of Gusteau, he then fires Skinner and stops the frozen food ready meal products. The restaurant has been revived and is once again loved by critics.

What I'm getting at is look at the plot and compare it to the Disney Company.

Disney Animation studios went into decline after Walt Disney died. The phrase often repeated at the Studio was "What would Walt do". The films they later released for years were inferior to The Walt Disney era. The films while trying to be original basically were created in the way they thought Walt Disney would have done it.

Michael Eisner was the chief executive officer at Disney in the 80's and 90's when they had a revival. The films Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin etc became popular. They still had the same plot lines as Walt Disney's original films though, Princess falls in love at first sight, characters burst into song and dance, and the films also feature talking animals. Michael Eisner was in charge when Pixar first signed their original contract at Disney and was the reason why Pixar had creative differences with Disney, because of Toy story 2 not being counted as one of the company's 3 picture deals as it was originally intended for straight-to-video release.

Speaking of straight-to-video releases, Disney in recent years under Michael Eisner have brought out straight-to-video releases of inferior sequels based upon many Walt Disney films such as Cinderella 2, Return to Never Never land and The Jungle book 2. Surely the frozen ready meals featuring Gusteau's image is a reference to the straight-to-video sequels Disney released under Michael Eisner. Also Roy E. Disney, who is the nephew of Walt, hasn't got the creative talent his uncle had. Surely Linguini is based upon Roy as Linguini didn't have the creative talent of Gusteau. Also Roy E. Disney is mainly responsible for Eisner being fired from Disney which, has led to Pixar merging with Disney a year later. To me it certainly seems that Skinner is based on Eisner. So you see that while Walt Disney is paid homage to with Gusteau and Roy E. Disney is with Linguini, Eisner is mocked with Skinner and his Ready-meals.

I could go on but I will say one last thing, in Ratouille it takes an outsider, a Rat to turn the restaurant around again to the business it once was, who creates original recipes which the critics love. Surely Reme and the rats are based on John Lasseter, Brad Bird and the rest of the Pixar team. You only have to look at the name Reme Rat, how similar is that name to another much loved rodent from Disney. How close to the name Mickey Mouse do you need to get.