Keeping an eye on the competition
on April 6th, 2010, by WilliamA while ago, something strange happened while working on Sintel. A trailer was released for a movie called How to Train Your Dragon, with a very similar theme to what we’re working with. Strange how that happens, eh? I guess dragons are just the ‘in’ thing these days. Apparently we are at the mercy of trends too.
Anyway, the film was recently released here in the Netherlands, and so we went to watch it in IMAX 3D. Admittedly, we were actually blown away by its awesomeness. Crikey! These facial expressions sum up our reactions to the film – a mix between being awed and scared at the same time.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
my favorite: Epic Ben
simply epic.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Seeing the trailer, it looked like junk tbh, just another Dreamworks animation- If the Durian team really likes it that much I’m definitely seeing it though.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Yeah… I’d be freakin’ scared too! That movie is amazing!
But you guys also are. Sintel will also turn out great. 🙂
April 6th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Look like someone walked on Ben’s foot when you took the picture 😉
April 6th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
im not a fan of dreamworks films … well their 3d films anyway. im more of a pixar man. can’t wait for sintel 🙂
April 6th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
@Davis I posted about this movie on blenderartist and nobody replied trust me the trailers suck and really do this movie a great injustice this is Dreamworks best movie.
Its gotten about 98% on rotten tomatoes you won’t regret seeing it. The have used the Disney standard of One lead per character and it shows its beautifully animated and kicks the stuffing out of anything Pixar have done since The incredibles.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Jesse.h: Yup, so are we, but Dreamworks seem to be improving. Kung Fu Panda and this film are good, enjoyable films, unlike their earlier stuff. In my humble opinion of course 😉
April 6th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Is it too late to sponsor for stereoscopic Sintel? We need the edge! 😀
April 6th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Yeah! guys, you can do it! Dragons are in fashion.
I’ll be waiting for Sintel.
April 6th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I’d love a Stereoscopic rendering of sintel, in fact – it should be done, as this year is the YEAR OF 3D TELEVISIONS, they’re popping up all over the place right now – and the biggest problem they face…
…is lack of Material – yet another chance for your teams to SHINE! If the Blu Ray can conform to the Blu-Ray 3D standard just released, then we’re all a head of the game, consider it!
About the movie, went to see it in 3D too yesterday (still have the glasses…useless at home…for now…he he, we’ll think of something). The story was really nice, and I had to struggle to hold back the tears :/
It also nice that it didn’t have a classic Disney ending where absolutely everything is perfect, the dragon had a flaw (spoiler coming up) and the boy got one too… that was a nice touch.
Good luck with the work boys, I have a feeling you’re presenting us with the most awesome work yet! :o)
April 6th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
@tyrant Yeah trailers can really have nothing to do with the actual movie, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” had a crappy trailer but the movie was awesome, my favorite of 2009 (I still have to catch up on movies made last year, like Avatar! lol).
I have to disagree with you on the second point however, I found WALL•E to be one of my favorite movies, ever. It’s what got me into 3D.
Kung Fu Panda was certainly a step forwards for Dreamworks but Monsters vs. Aliens was a very confusing step backwards, and you’d hardly think it was made after KFP. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and the animation was roughly on the same line as Planet 51. The voice acting, I won’t even go there. :/
April 6th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Ooh, good reviews, I shall have to go see it…
But… are Nathan and Colin really that happy at the film, or just delighted to be let out of the studio for a few hours? 😛
April 6th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Also, what kind of camera does the Institute use?
April 6th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Its great movie because its from Lilo & Stitch authors, nobody noticed Stitch face on main dragon in movie ?
April 6th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Pixar usually outs the major super hits.
Sony puts out junk. Planet 51 was ok, the story idea was cool, but they didn’t execute it right. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs? $1, and 2 hours of my life wasted.
Dreamworks? As a spanish person would say, ‘masomenos’. Kung Fu Panda as William said, was good, Shreks, I can’t speak for because I’ve never seen any [all eyes turn and stare at me… Just haven’t taken the time peoplez]. Over the Hedge was great, [just looked, Shrek 4 and Kung Fu Panda 2 are coming out respecively 2010, 2011] Madacasgar was awesome.
But in truth, the next movie I’m waiting for is Ice Age 4. All of Blue Sky’s films with the exception of Ice Age 3, have been great.
April 6th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
And of course, Sintel. 🙂
April 6th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
The dad of the kid on the movie is one of the most awesome CG characters I ever saw. =)
April 6th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Just curious, do you used a digital-reflex camera to take the pictures???
April 6th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
baaaad move, posting another picture of colin 😛
April 6th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
baaaad move, posting another picture of colin 😛 if you see what happened to the last one 🙂
April 6th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
I would really like Sintel to become a 3D movie (it is already, of course, but I mean Stereoscopic rendering). I’ve always searched for a feature in Blender that allows me to use 2 cameras simultaneously, but I never found that.
Blender 2.6 is in development – Time to build in Stereoscopic rendering and with that to keep track with modern cinema’s and film industry’s developments.
I love to keep track with this amazing and ambitous project anyway!
April 6th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
How to train your dragon is an epically good film, Dreamworks are really improving. I’d advise anyone who is even slightly interested to go see it.
*I actually enjoyed it more than most Pixar films!*
April 6th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
In keeping with tradition: http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9692/colinlight.jpg 😀
April 6th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
More lololololololol William, can I pick your brain for taking rofl pics? 😛
April 6th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Ok, i can’t speak of “how to train” since i’ve not seen it yet, but let me just say Pixar ROCKS. Every flick from those guys is so special and has its shiny, unique points.
Anybody can say what is their movie that didn’t “work”, and why?
April 6th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Although is not a fair comparation (since one is hand animated and the other uses “performance capture”) but even so I liked more “How to train your Dragon” then Avatar… Avatar is technically stunning, but I felt allot more in the movie in “HTTYD” and the 3D look better in my opinion.
One thing very cool was the body fur in all characters.
April 6th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
look
you realized they are nothing compared to
April 6th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
It’s very interesting for me to read those comments about the preferences of certain movies.
For instance, I found Ice Age 3 to be the best of the three, while Ice Age 2 was rather weak.
While The incredible was, well, incredible, certain later films, like the mentioned Wall-E where actually even better.
KungFu Panda to me was rather weak. The plot lagged a lot and the jokes wheren’t the funniest either.
Most really great 3D movies do indeed come from Disney, but there also are other movies in the very high ranks. How to train a dragon definitely is one of them. – I also liked a lot, how they used the 3D-effects 🙂
Neiter overused nor a waste of money.
April 6th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Dont mess with Ben http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/3356/ben2c.png
April 6th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
There are no 3D cinemas in my hometown. Is it worth to go for 1300 kilometres, to another city, to see this movie in 3D?
April 6th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/6631/colinbond.png
Im still waiting for Angela as bondgirl 😀
April 6th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
I used to be a Pixar fan. But allas, their last good movie was the Incredibles. Everything after that was merely beautifully rendered crap with the forced Disney happy ending. Pixar used to make memorable films, now they seem only to make OK films.
Dreamworks big on the other hand is improving randomly. I was disappointed that the Panda lost to Wall-e, or was it the rat? I will certainly go watch how to train your dragon. I hope that Dreamworks has any dignity left and just dump the upcoming Shrek in the trash bin. Just format the project discs. For the rest everything else except the first Shrek that Dreamworks made was crap too.
I think anything that is artist driven (instead of the board of CEO’s, like what they did to Ant Bully) will turn out a success. And that’s why I think Sintel will kick ass too.
April 6th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
nathans face needs more sample on the defocus node.
April 7th, 2010 at 12:16 am
“How to Train Your Dragon” is pretty entertaining and fun to watch, I was pleasantly surprised.
(Not so much by the mediocre 3D theatre I was in :-/ could easily do without that.)
The movie had a pretty original story (as far as dragon movies go) and – surprise – no talking animals.
Also: The music was pretty epic 😉
April 7th, 2010 at 12:34 am
Talking about music, isn’t it possible to use some fysical music instruments for the score of Sintel?
I assume Jan Morgenstern has enough contacts to make this true!
This movie deserves more than a fully computer-generated score, don’t you think?
The score of How to Train Your Dragon is simply fantastic, use it as inspiration!
I got an enormous happy feeling when I heard it for the first time, that’s something that seldom happens to me!
April 7th, 2010 at 3:29 am
I did warn you in the last post… sweet story, less than famous voice talent helped (although lots of scottish/shrek sounding vikings!).
What was overlooked was the hair/skin renders, O.M.G! I was stunned how beautiful they were, anyone notice the lead character’s little scar on the chin?
The face deform was a bit to subtle for an animated movie IMHO but the eyes were great.
Can’t wait to see the renders in Sintel tho’. I know they will kick a**.
April 7th, 2010 at 10:51 am
There are two photos with Nathan. Now we can do an animated gif !!!
April 7th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/9433/nathan.gif 😛
April 7th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
3pointedit: Ah, good to know. So in the English version, they have a Scottish accent 🙂
In the German version, they talk like in northern Germany 🙂
April 8th, 2010 at 11:02 am
crowline, I’m feeling the love on that one. Makes a cheery wallpaper! 🙂
April 8th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Need I say that Nathan totally rocks? The first one TOTALLY looks like Popeye.
April 8th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
couldn’t pass it up
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff51/steve_d4_pirate/SuperBen.png?t=1270739109
April 8th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Yours the most epic!
April 8th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Okay, I’m just starting to learn Blender, so bear with me and try not to groan too obviously.
Can you, (a.) replace the camera with a token object that retains the position and orientation of the camera. (b.) tie the camera back to the token object so it points where the camera does. (c.) do it again, but with an offset. (d.) pass both sets of renders through a script to colorize them red and blue, and save them as single images?
April 8th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Oh, the above was in response to Alkalim from 2 days ago.
April 9th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I saw the film yesterday, and it is, I think, the best dreamworks ever ! =D
April 10th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Hahaha! This is the funniest comments selection i’ve read for a blog entry i’ve ever seen.
April 11th, 2010 at 5:10 am
apologies for the triple post up there, was having some trouble with comment submission seeming to fail… but… success in the end i guess.
Nice one josh 🙂
April 11th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
I got an invitation for a pre-screening of “How to train your dragon” at the PDI Dreamworks studios here in Redwood City. Now guess what open source rigid body simulator they are using in the movie 🙂
April 19th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Is it bullet???? XD
April 20th, 2010 at 12:50 am
Whow,
looks fantastic …
Is this Amsterdam, or am i wrong?
Was in Amsterdam in the late 80s to visit a company called “modern medium”, they made a 3D-construction-system available for the ATARI called “Axis” and a Render-Software called “Render Star”. Eimar was the chief or one of the chief’s, had found sites about their move to USA, but never could send anything to them due to spam-software.