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01.08.10 THIS IS CGI. ALL OF THIS.

alexroman1

Alex Roman made this video, The Third & The Seventh, using 3dsmax, Vray, AfterEffects and Premiere.
Every element of this short film is CGI.  My mind is blown.  Why couldn’t they have this f*cking artist animate Wolverine’s claws in X-Men Origins: Wolverine? 

Roman describes it as “A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.”  I don’t know what all that jibba jabba means, but I like shiney things.  It also helps that he used Michael Nyman’s “The Departure” from Gattaca as one of the songs.  You could put that song on a slow-motion video of me getting beaten mercilessly with a wet pool noodle and I’d still tear up and say, “It’s so beautiful.”  And not just because I’m into that.




Click full screen. Or don’t. Whatever, I’m not your mother.
Even-better HD version available at Vimeo.

73 Comments » BY: RoboPanda | TAGS: ALEX ROMAN, CGI, COOL, HOLY S, SHORT FILM
 
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There are 73 comments about:
THIS IS CGI. ALL OF THIS.

January 8th, 2010 at 10:06 am
moon says:

fucking awesome

January 8th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Dormammu says:

http://dirtyhairy.blogspot.com/2010/01/clothing-chain-draws-klingon-ire.html

HAHA! Blogwhoring FTW!

January 8th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Stone Soup says:

Jesus.

January 8th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Chardie420 says:

Showed this too my dad. actual quote: “Well i guess the futures here”. He also made us go to his hunting cabin for Y2K, so lets not invest too much in his opinion.

January 8th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
BobJ says:

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up from the floor….
*All* CGI, you say?
Crap, there goes my jaw again!

January 8th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Jirish says:

Honestly, just wow.

January 8th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Jirish says:

If you need me, I’ll be deleting all of my adobe products and crying in the corner.

January 8th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Erswi says:

So what are you saying? My Sketchup models are irrelavent?

January 8th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
spazmodic says:

I can do that, but I don’t wanna.

January 8th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
kortney says:

if there is a heaven, and if i am so lucky to go, i want this to be it

January 8th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Jirish says:

Nah Erswi, this thing didn’t have boobs. You still have a place in this world.

January 8th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Jacktion! says:

Wow, this makes my naked sketches of Betty & Veronica look amateur and juvenile.

January 8th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
RoboPanda says:

Jack! – I still appreciate the ones you email me.

January 8th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
blah says:

I cant think whats better, the fact that one guy made this or the fact its all cgi. Someone needs to give this guy a chance to make a masterpiece.

January 8th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
RoboPanda says:

He already did.

(long meaningful pause)

*fart*

January 8th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Dmitry Lyalin says:

WOW, I am just amazed, REALLY REALLY freaking amazed. Please continue your work it must be shared with the world

January 9th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Matt says:

I can’t wait tell video games look like that. Maybe with this genius help they will. Fuck… I mean just… damn. All that stuff CGI. Insane… in a good way.

January 9th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Rob says:

This is NOT all CG. Most of it is regular video. Sorry folks.

January 9th, 2010 at 12:25 am
Jack Lindblad says:

building is by Louie Kahn;
http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/cgi-bin/awimage?dir=2003/1217&article=culture_1-1.html&image=12338_image_1.jpg

January 9th, 2010 at 1:24 am
Billybob says:

I work with CG, and this is elegant, lyrical and technically brilliant. Well done.

January 9th, 2010 at 1:28 am
Just Passing Through says:

well that’s just depressing.

January 9th, 2010 at 1:32 am
KevinGardo says:

@Rob and your proof is located…where?

January 9th, 2010 at 1:54 am
Hung says:

http://vimeo.com/8200251

“Hi, my name is Rob and I like to talk out of my ass. Thank you for listening!”

January 9th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Kurt Evans says:

I’m not sure what the point of that video was but it was pretty cool and it had some interesting images.

January 9th, 2010 at 2:35 am
H1B says:

This looks fake. Grass and trees do not move the right way when it’s windy. What a piece of crap.

January 9th, 2010 at 2:59 am
jsnock says:

wow, whatever this guy gets paid, it’s not enough

January 9th, 2010 at 5:05 am
jamesyb0i says:

MADE BY ONE @#$%ING PERSON!?!?!?!?! I was expecting a whole team of modellers and animators, and we see it for free? Speechless… 10/10

January 9th, 2010 at 7:09 am
greg ostertag says:

I agree with H1B. I just don’ think this guy tried hard enough.

January 9th, 2010 at 10:21 am
tuomas says:

This was perfect, thank you for making this.

January 9th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Personne says:

Minor caveat, the contrail left by the jet airplane is beautiful but unreal-like. IRL The condensation stands still shortly after leaving the turbine, the plume should be immobilized. The rest is f*ing amazing.

January 9th, 2010 at 10:43 am
jake says:

I just jizzed in my pants

January 9th, 2010 at 10:50 am
RoboPanda says:

In the words of the venerable Alexander Hamilton: “Haters to the left.”

January 9th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
t brown says:

Alex Roman, sick film. But you have your wind turbines spinning the wrong way.

January 9th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Jason says:

Looks great! Although the wind turbines appear to be turning in the wrong direction.

January 9th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Steph says:

For those of you who say it doesn’t look real, that’s because it looks BETTER than reality. Personally, I found nothing fake about it other than it being more beautiful that real life. But when it comes to video, I think we expect it to be better than real life, otherwise we’d just go outside. :)

January 9th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Leviathan says:

This is absolutely gorgeous… I can’t believe that it was all CGI. COMPLETELY AMAZING.

January 9th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
activit says:

It’s NOT all CGI. The clouds, people, wheat fields etc, are all video clips. Realism in environmental objects has been this level for over a decade. Nothing new here.

January 9th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
C Merry says:

This is beautiful and scary. What if you are framed for a crime you did not commit and their proof is supposed video on you doing it? With such sophisticated techniques now someone could be framed for or get away with murder since we can no longer believe what is real and what isn’t. Kinda cool too, but mostly scary!

January 9th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
anony mous says:

someone get this person a cigar…

January 9th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Denise Skidmore says:

The fact that you have a picture of one of the actual buildings is no proof that it’s not CGI. The original statement says “main subjects are already-built spaces”.

Whenever someone posts an amazing photograph, some people say “totally photoshoped”. CGI is getting to an extreme level of realism, and it can be hard to tell the difference. This guy went to a lot of trouble to randomize little things like chair positions, and shift focus like an eye or camera would. If you look carefully though you can occasionally glimpse a repeat texture here and there and he flying books are defying physics and must be CGI, so compare that level of detail to the other items you hold in doubt.

January 9th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Brett says:

A perfect score to accompany a perfect visual masterpiece! In case anyone was wondering why the score seemed so familiar, it’s because the dominant piece of music used was “The Departure” by Michael Nyman which was the characteristic piece used in dramatic scenes in the film “Gattaca”.

January 9th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Dave says:

Really cool, but NO WAY is it all CGI. The old camera, the auditorium, the chairs? That is video, my friends. It’s still cheaper to film regular shit. Always will be.

January 9th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
h says:

Has no one seen modern CGI before? This looks exactly like CGI.

January 9th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
5355 says:

perfect video, although some minor effects were exaggerated to the point they didn’t look realistic, like the smoke at the beginning as one example. 99.9% of it looks as good as real life or better…if only the world was this beautiful through our eyes. there are beautiful harmonies in this piece that doesn’t exist in the real world. would definitely love to see a full length movie made the same way. Great choice of music.

January 9th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
PWN4G3 says:

Extravagant. I nearly jizzed, shit, & cried at the same time while watching this.

I’ll be proceeding in uninstalling all of my Adobe, Sony, Maxon, & any other video/3D modeling software I have.

This man has just made a fool of all of us – ALL OF US! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! This man needs to get a role in every single movie as the guy that does…this.

January 9th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
tactlesswonder says:

I love how this is so real as to challenge our ability to distinguish it from video.

I think that is the point, that sufficiently skilled CGI would be indistinguishable from live video.

The effects at the end are the only way to tell that he did not video tape the environments. Also a good way to tell, is when you hire him to do his work for you, and he either pulls it off of does not.

I do not think that Alex has much to gain in faking it at this point.

January 9th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
jamison says:

This is boring…not impressed…

January 9th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
anonym says:

Dave: Sorry, you’re wrong. I don’t know about the sky, but ALL the objects/scenes you mentioned were most definitely CGI. See this video for proof (linked earlier by Hung): http://vimeo.com/8200251

Sure, filming is cheaper. And shooting a photo is a lot easier/faster/cheaper than making a photo-realistic painting. That doesn’t mean painters shouldn’t aim for realism if that’s what they’re in to.

January 9th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
TerraHertz says:

His windturbines rotate the wrong way, the contrail is unrealistic, leaves floating in a pool won’t line up like that, the man at the camera has a slight uncanny valley problem, the wheat-wind interaction is weak, and since when do books floating in the air not fall open randomly? Plus half the shots are out of focus. So obviously he doesn’t know what he’s doing at all.

But seriously, spectacularly awesome work! How long did this take, I wonder?

January 9th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Carlos says:

That video is cool but it’s definitely not all CGI.

January 9th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
John says:

Once again: It’s all CG. Doubters, view this: http://vimeo.com/8200251

January 10th, 2010 at 12:20 am
anonymous says:

Seriously people, just because you don’t have nearly the talent or skill to do this doesn’t mean it’s fake. Stop being so ignorant.

January 10th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Aisha Kudiya says:

Now this is pure creativity! Using the most simplist ideas n things to come up wid such a video..great work!

January 10th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
rogger says:

@H1B @greg ostertag
Maybe he did that to prove it was CG? o_o

January 10th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
KPInMe says:

WOW! Such beautiful work! I’m thoroughly impressed and can’t wait to see more of our work Alex!

January 10th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
CGIdino says:

i don’t care. call me a jaded veteran but this looks only ok. DOF is not the the AO, or maybe it is, and You just hit it.

January 11th, 2010 at 2:29 am
lol_hey says:

i think a lot of people who don’t know anything or little about the visual effects industry comes to the conclusion that everything in that video is built from the ground up. as you can see you need to model it, texture it, light it, post production it. shit u need a lot of time.

January 11th, 2010 at 6:03 am
Mercy says:

This video shows what can be done when the creator actually gives a damn. Absolutely stunning.

January 11th, 2010 at 9:54 am
airshoes says:

All done on warez’d software no doubt.

January 11th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Seb says:

Stunning, now just transfer to Call of Duty IV.

January 11th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
14Finders says:

Soundtrack wasn’t CGI.
Lies.

January 11th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Kaden says:

Very beautiful! Give this stuff another 10 years and one won’t be able to tell film from CGI.

January 11th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
joomar says:

Notice there are no people, making realistic CGI humans and animals, is still gonna get busted, every time.

January 12th, 2010 at 1:00 am
lol666 says:

Looks pretty, sure it was real hard. But bored the hell out of me.

January 12th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Stephen Glyn Grange says:

The “making of” video leaves no doubt as to the CGI work. It is ALL CGI. Unreal and bravo Alex, one heck of a business card dude! See you on the big screen soon!

January 12th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
dfp says:

10 bucks this is what video games look like in 10 years

January 12th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
cjwagner says:

dang, I remember stick figures on a pad of paper and flipping through them…. now that ‘used’ to be really cool.

January 13th, 2010 at 7:03 am
Lemonade says:

Wow! This is really well done. Okay, the first half is really amazing and the second half is almost amazing (like others said, wind/wheat interaction is not perfect, etc). But nevertheless, what an amazing piece of work!

Also, for those of you who are still doubting: Yes, some elements are not CGI, there is some compositing: the clouds, the photographer, the airplane, the pigeons… all these where filmed normally or with a green screen and then superimposed. But hey! it is still over 95% CGI, right?

For those who really think that the building were filmed, simply analyze the textures… in several places the textures repeat and at first glance you can’t notice, but it’s there.

Please watch the compositing breakdown, it is proof that at least the first half is CGI: http://vimeo.com/8200251

Kudos!

January 15th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
paulsopinion says:

that is really incredible work, so much detail!

January 21st, 2010 at 3:30 pm
A Non E-Moose says:

and…what was the point of this “film?”
i get it; it’s all CGI, but…so?

no story = no film

besides, creating footage of inorganic images with no direction other than showing us a pretty picture is just art with no substance. take abstract paintings for example; while they are beautiful, the offer nothing of value other than intrinsic beauty, much like this “film.”

bla bla, it’s pretty and that’s it.
overall, i give it a 3 : 10

January 26th, 2010 at 10:53 am
paulosopinion says:

A Non E-Moose, you’re a fucktard. As are the rest of u tossers that are slating this. It’s art, and a short film, and possibly a display of just how damn good this guy is.

January 30th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Blogical says:

This “piece” is obviouly not meant for everyone.
I see a MASTERPIECE of video rendition, so close to whatYSIWYGet that most people can’t tell the difference, and THAT IS THE POINT. Absolutely fantastic presentation card. Anyone that likes and understands rendition, be it photography, video or computer, can appreciate the degree of complexity and control present in this presentation. Kudos!!!

June 8th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
michelle says:

The most beautiful thing I have ever seen, the “film making” aspects with the shift in focus, lighting and panning; the creative element of imagining these places and buildings and concpets; the music; and most of all the CGI, I completely forget that while I’m watching it, but every so often I remember and my jaw drops in awe again.

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