Computer Graphics World

Jan-Feb-Mar-2022

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2 cgw j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 2 REVISITING THE MATRIX AND DUNE hat a difference decades make when it comes to the overall look of visual ef- fects in a film Two cases in point: The fourth installment of The Matrix franchise and the recent redo of Dune. Even for those who are not hard-core fans of The Matrix franchise, the princi- ple of the red pill versus the blue pill is well known. The blue pill lulls humans into accepting a simulated reality created by machines, unaware of the horrors that are actually playing out around them. The red pill awakens them and reveals their shocking reality. In 1999, The Matrix undoubtedly sparked myriad nightmares, thanks to the story and the visual effects. The work was innovative on many fronts, introducing the world to "bullet time" VFX, and the effort paid off, as the film won four Academy Awards — one for Best Visual Effects. Two more sequels followed, Reloaded (2003) and later that year Rev- olutions, both of which also broke new ground in visual effects, as Reloaded took a step toward real-time simulation of virtual humans and Revolutions with its work on a realistic CG human face when Neo punched digital Smith in close-up. However, the second and third installments of the franchise, while still groundbreaking in terms of the visual effects, were snubbed by the Academy. To most everyone's surprise, The Matrix franchise was resurrected again, despite what appeared to be Neo's and Trinity's death in the last film Aptly named Resurrections, the film pic s up the story 60 years aer the events in Revolutions. In reality, two decades have passed, and digital technology – like that within the Matrix — has evolved by leaps and bounds, resulting in even more stunning visuals (see "Re-entering the Matrix," page 4, and "Creating Reality in an Unreal World," page 10). No stranger to The Matrix, Dan Glass was overall visual effects supervisor for this new installment; the lead vendor was DNeg. (Learn about the VFX work by other vendors on CGW.com.) While The Matrix Resurrections made the initial Oscar cut, it did not make the fina shortlist, despite the cutting-edge work. Another big VFX film that did make the Academy's cut in the running for a visual effects Oscar is Dune. The film of course, is based on the well-known book, and it follows, albeit many years later, in the footsteps of the 1984 effort to tell the tale on the big screen and the subsequent television miniseries. But make no mistake, this iteration refl cts the vision of the director, Denis Villeneuve, with Paul Lambert as overall VFX supe. Like Resurrections, the film is visually stunning. A number of vendors worked on it, with DNeg again serving as the lead VFX studio. The visuals are stunning, as, of course, tech- nology has advanced signifi antly since the previous iterations. Even so, the directive from Villeneuve was to ground the imagery in reality, keeping viewers in the film see "Keeping It Real," page 24). On a sad note, the industry lost one of its visual effects visionaries and pioneers: Doug- las Trumbull, best known for his work on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters, as well as many others, including The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He was 79. W R E C E N T A W A R D S E D I T O R I A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Karen Moltenbrey e: karen@cgw.com t: 603.432.7568 DIRECTOR OF WEB CONTENT Marc Loftus e: mloftus@postmagazine.com t: 516.376.1087 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Kathleen Maher, Jon Peddie, George Maestri, Barbara Robertson PUBLISHER / PRESIDENT / CEO William R. 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Computer Graphics World cannot be held responsible for the safe- keeping or return of unsolicited articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. Address all subscription correspon- dence to: Computer Graphics World, 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204. Subscriptions are available free to qualified individuals within the United States. Non-qualified subscription rates: USA—$68 for 1 year, $98 for 2 years; Canadian subscriptions —$98 for 1 year and $136 for 2 years; all other countries—$150 for 1 year and $208 for 2 years. Digital subscriptions are available for $27 per year. Subscribers can also contact customer service by calling 818-291-1158, or sending an email to csr@cgw.com. Postmaster: Send Address Changes to Computer Graphics World, 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA 91204 Please send customer service inquiries to 620 W. Elk Ave., Glendale, CA 91204 Karen Moltenbrey, Editor-in-Chief karen@CGW.com

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