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Digital magic

Mission possible

By Kenneth Chow

The movie industry today creates scenes and action that were previously undreamed-of.

They create these audio-visual effects by integrating digital techniques into production.

According to Mr. Choi Kwok Keung, digital graphics designer for Centro Digital Pictures Ltd., which produced digital graphics for local movies The Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero, there are many ways to execute digital graphics and animation effects in movies.

The so-called compositing technique is commonly used to produce special visual effects in a scene.

“Elements appear in a scene processed by compositing are all real objects,” said Mr. Choi.

For instance, a long marching scene of soldiers requires several shootings of a few actors.

The actors have to walk in different locations for each single shooting.

“We shoot elements repeatedly on separate films and then merge layers of images into one film,” he said.

“The process of merging is known as cloning,” he added.

Chromokey is another technique in movie production when it is impossible to build background settings.

He said, “Actors are instructed to act in virtual settings which are produced by chromokey.”

The films of actors are then merged with virtual settings with the aid of the Quantel Domin high resolution digital optical system.

“In the movie A Man Called Hero, there was a scene in which two characters fight on the Statue of Liberty. The statue finally broke into pieces,” said he.

Said he, “We could not break the statue in reality.

“And it would have been impossible to shoot at certain angles if the shooting was done on the real location.”

In that scene, chromokey was applied so that the statue could break in the movie.

Mr. Choi said that a model of the statue was made by using a three-dimensional painting software.

Their problems of a difficult location and unstable weather conditions were thus solved.

Not only background settings, but also virtual characters can be produced by computer graphics.

Virtual characters are needed when martial arts action is too complicated and dangerous for human beings.

Difficult camera angles for shooting martial arts action also require the production of 3-D digital characters.

Said Mr. Choi: “Typically, animators make use of computer graphics to create virtual characters.

“Sensors are tied on the real actors. Movements of characters are recorded with a motion capture technique.”

“Merging the recorded movements with computer graphics, the characters are then able to perform wonderful martial arts action.”

In creating imagined objects, computer animation is used. For example, a dragon-like monster called Fire Kirin appeared in the movie The Storm Riders.

Programmed software is used for static and dynamic skeletal information of the monster.

The image of Kirin was then merged with action designed on a Quantel Domino digital optical system.

Said Mr. Choi: “Initially, original films are scanned and digitalized. Then effects are added to the film.”

Although Hong Kong is not the only place that has introduced computer graphics into the movies, the production of Hong Kong movies lags behind the Hollywood ones.

“When comparing the local film industry to that of Hollywood, the main differences are time and budget allocated for creating special digital effects,” said he.

He said that some Hollywood movie producers employed specialists to produce software tailored for compositing tasks.

“Programmers are asked to design different programs tailored for some projects or even certain shots,” he said.

To some extent, the use of visual effects saves production costs.

He said, “For instance, visual effects can make a $5 million production look like a $1 billion production.”

He used The StormRiders as an example. “In the shot when two main characters fighting on the Statue of Liberty, a huge budget would have to be spent on the daily expenses and flight tickets for the crew.

“But the use of digital effects helped save the costs,” he said.

Besides, Mr. Choi explained that using digital visual effects keeps production procedures under control and guarantees the quality of the films.

Film critic Kee To, who has been an animation director, said, “Virtual reality has been developing in foreign countries such as the United States for many years.

“Using computer graphics and animation in creating special effects is popular in local productions.

“However, it should not be viewed as a substitute for the contents of the story. The selling point should be the contents, not the special visual-effects.

“Otherwise, the movie will not be attractive to the audience.”

He added, “The use of computer visual effects should be matched with the visual style as well as the movie type.

“There is room for the development of the technology. But the potential market for computer video games and computer animation techniques are much bigger.”

Added he: “Though there is room for the development of computer visual effects industry, barriers are raised by the lack of creativity and originality in executing such effects.

“Some local productions applied foreign digital visual effect programmes after some modifications,” he said.

“But the modified visuals look old-fashioned and thus the quality of the movies was downgraded.”

He said that locally-produced visuals are very similar to the effects in video games.

Said Mr. Kee: “This affects the degree of reality of the visual effects.

“Also, the effects may not match with the real characters or the live action smoothly.”

(Courtesy of Dr.Centro Digital Pictures Ltd.)

Demos of how a virtual character is created with digital graphics for the movie A man Called Hero. (Courtesy of Centro Digital Pictures Ltd.)

A virtual character created by digital graphics acts as a stuntman performing martial arts for an actor. (Courtesy of Centro Digital Pictures Ltd.)

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