![]() Calculating (or impersonating) the confluences and counter-collisions that an incoming flood of water will make against the maze of Manhattan is a mind-bogglingly difficult task, and we can only pay this shot the compliment of saying that it ‘looks right’.Ĥ7: Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Bullets in the water. SFX debacles such as those in Raise The Titanic (1980), The Dambusters (1955) and the ‘Hoover Dam bust’ in Superman (1978) only go to prove that water simply does not scale at anything but 1:1. Depicting water is one area of SFX where the CGI luddites tend, wisely, to shut up. For the shot in question, however, the fluid sim was provided by Tweak Films, with Christopher Horvath and Day After Tomorrow VFX supervisor Karen Goulekas overseeing the shot (one of five which Tweak contributed to the movie). Roland Emmerich continues to destroy the world in this ecological disaster-movie, and VFX house Digital Domain turned out some outstanding fluid simulation work in the flood sequences. Nonetheless, the amount of motion in this shot, combined with excellent and mobile miniature-work, makes it perhaps the earliest predecessor to the ‘Spinner’ sequences in Blade Runner.Ĥ8: The Day After Tomorrow (2004) – Manhattan floods. Unfortunately the remarkable model-work and good camera-movement is unwisely used as a projection backdrop for a full-sized flying-car prop that is obviously too heavy to be suspended on wires. One advancement on Metropolis is in evidence in this shot, however, as the camera actually begins to move around the city. Though the movie’s early visuals are spectacular, they are strictly there to establish period, and Just Imagine soon descends into a poorly-written (and notoriously anti-Semitic) musical. This Buck Rogers-like tale finds briefly-popular US comedian El Brendel catapulted into New York, 1980, where the numbered citizenry get around in flying cars and where marriage is arranged by the state. Adolescent Ripley was created by Gillis and Woodruff using a base model onto which were imposed the features of young Weaver, and derived from pictures supplied by the actress.Ĥ9: Just Imagine (1930) – Descent to New York penthouseĭavid Butler’s ‘answer’ to Germany’s Metropolis (see below) apes Fritz Lang’s astounding imagery whilst jettisoning its social message with utter abandon. ![]() Morphing was already old news from John Landis’s video for Michael Jackson’s Black And White, Casper (1995) and various others, but this was the first time the technique had ever been used as something more than a party-trick. ![]() Both the child and adult maquettes were created by Tom Gillis and Alec Woodruff and morphed together by effects house Digiscope. But oddly it’s Resurrection‘s use of a pretty old (and pretty cheap) CGI trick that really takes one’s breath away, as the adolescent Ripley clone that those mad space-scientists are brewing up morphs into her adult state, with Sigourney Weaver’s features. ![]() Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s quirky fourth entry to the Alien series boasts many eccentric touches worthy of mention, including an elegant solution for the astronaut who even has to carry his whiskey freeze-dried, as well as the first CGI examples of H.R. ![]()
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