Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED = New Era in VFX

I think I'll get a patent on drinking straight from a milk carton. (Oh, and Jim, you can use the milk girls video for free.)
 
I don't understand, are you guys making fun of the concept of patenting? I think it's great in the sense that it offers protection to inventors and at the same time makes technology develop at a faster pace since what would have been a trade secret is researchable.
 
I think people are making fun of the stupid things the US Patent office allows to be patented. They're well known for patenting things that are strictly not allowed, for things that don't work (endless compression algorithms, anti-gravity machines), for things that were discovered, not invented (gentic things, aspects of life, Indian tea, Tumeric), things with prior art (because they didn't do a proper search) etc.

One of my pet hates is patents that deliberately obfuscate what they're patenting so that in no way do they advance technology as nobody can figure out what they're doing, but it certainly sounds "great" to the poor, ill-informed patent officer.

The concept of "Patent" is in many ways a good one. It does hit problems if allowed the almost universal extent that the US Patent office allows it. Indeed, where it has recently been shown to not extend the art, but hold it back like in drug patents, it's downright dangerous, because more time is spent figuring minor changes to existing drugs to extend their patent life than is spent finding completely new drugs for new diseases.

When patents were first "invented", they were for real physical tactile things that embodied an invention. Now they are incorrectly applied to virtual things like algorithms (through a lawyerese loophole) even when it's explicit that they shouldn't be.

OK, rant off, but I'll leave saying that good patents are good, but bad patents are very bad. Patent reform is needed to ensure only good patents exist and that at all times, patents serve the wider community, not hold it back, as that was the original intent.
 
[That (well) said and back to the topic -- even if it's not my native field]

Fine thread!

EDIT -- Here is the original subject:

MrGlory said:
Often I wonder what will be the next amazing effect in films, and I use the "Bullet Time" effect from the Matrix as an example.

This led me to wonder if RED has considered that it could take that effect to a new level.

Because of it's size and relatively cost effective nature, couldn't something like this:

matrixcamerasxz4.jpg


be achieved using RED's? In which case, the movement and travel of the "Bullet Time" effect could essentially become a non-linear series of "camera" movments in an epic moment in time? :D

If so, I think it'd be a pretty sweet project that would introduce the power and versatility this camera will bring to filmmaking. :cool:
Click to expand...
 
Emanuel, I don't see why not. It's been done with several motion picture cameras already. There was some video, I think Puff Daddy (P Diddy, or whatever his name is now) where they had a hemispherical rig full of cameras, not just in a linear axis but in several curved ones.

Edit: http://www.reelefx.com/am_cine_typed.htm
 
Well Matthew, and it seems with (D)SLR cameras too:

Stephen Williams said:
Hi,

I was shooting bullet time on Friday using 50 Canon DSLR's & a Viper! Your biggest problem will be getting a license from Dayton Taylor at Digital Air who holds the pattents on the technique. The camera pan/tilt/roll heads we used were the ones from the Matrix! We speed ramped the array from 300 fps to 25 fps, more interesting effect IMHO.


Stephen
Click to expand...
 
Emanuel said:
Well Matthew, and it seems with (D)SLR cameras too:
Click to expand...

Hi Emanuel,

I think this was the first time Dayton Taylor had used DSLR's. He had shot tests with a smaller no of cameras.

Stephen
 
Charles Papert said:
We did a hilariously low-tech version of Bullet Time on the upcoming release "Balls of Fury", where the actors playing ping-pong (to the death, of course!) froze, I wrapped around them with the Steadicam, and then they unfroze again. The CGI ball spinning in place was the crowning touch. Viewable here, I think about halfway through the trailer.

This was shot on the Panavision Genesis, by the way.
Click to expand...

Matrix Ping Pong?!?!? Hmmm, I wonder where these movie ideas come from?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dcmDscwEcI

Hah!
 
Circus Stake Time: What a pity they didnt patent it!!!

Circus Stake Time: What a pity they didnt patent it!!!

Have you ever seen a group of men with mallets driving in a stake for a circus big top assembling?

They dispose in circle around the stake and strike it in cascade.

Has this method less right to be patented?
 
VFX will have to be flawless....that is if you want it to look real and not like a cartoon....Im working on a few things that are heavy with effects. Im talking CG with Maya and such. Keep in mind two kinds of VFX....CG and Practical. A movie like Jurassic Park is a perfect example of a film that uses both very well.
 
Charles, with you on Steadi who needs patents.

Is there prior art or what on the "concentric manual hammering methodology of tent peg to ground insertion" (r) Patent pending baby I'm off to the races, every circus will pay.... I'll be in Bermuda...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top