Thanks For The Lift DEEDS!

Right on Topic

2011-08-10T20:26:00.002-06:00

Found this video online that just goes write along with my most recent post. Check it out.

a short history of CG characters in movies from lnrdshelby on Vimeo.

#1

2011-08-07T12:24:00.010-06:00

Everything from Jurassic Park

In reality, nothing even really needs to be written here. As far as I’m concerned Jurassic Park is the King of CG creatures. I know a lot of the dinosaurs were actually big old animatronics, but at the same time the parts where they are completely CG are just as awesome. They look very realistic even though this movie came out nearly 20 years ago.

The T-Rex and the Raptors. Probably right up there with some of the best movie villains in history. Let’s not forget about the Brachiosaurus, the first dinosaur we see in the film, standing on his hind legs to get them leaves off the highest branch. Let’s not forget the dilophosaurus shooting out its neck shakers and spitting acid in Dennis Mitchell’s face. Let’s not forget about the herd of gallimimus running across the plains. Let’s not forget about the big triceratops that ate the berries and got diarrhea. All of these dinos were awesome and they set the tone for what special effects would be in future blockbuster films. How many of you still will pound on a table with your fist to make the ripples of when you got a cup of water sitting there? I admit it, I do it. How many of you start shaking your hand when you are scooping up bites of jell-o? I would be ashamed of myself if I didn’t do it every time. Whenever you are out there wondering what movie you should pop in the old dvd or blu-ray player just remember these iconic words from John Hammond:

P.S. I’m convinced this movie is actually a documentary. Have a feeling this place exists somewhere out there. Might be the reason why everything looks so real… it’s cuz it is. So pretty much my Top 10 CGI creatures ends with a bunch of dinosaurs that are alive and well on some island in the pacific.

Honorable Mention Everything I Forgot

Pretty sure I forgot about a lot of CGI creatures while compiling this list. Transformers come to mind. Couple of creatures from The Lord of the Rings. Oh well, I hope I have inspired you all to put together your own list. Godspeed.

#2 – Gollum/Smeagol from The Lord of the Rings

2011-08-05T22:23:00.001-06:00

I don’t even know where to begin with Gollum. So I will just start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, when you read you… uhm. So anyways, once upon a time my knowledge concerning The Lord of the Rings was limited to the single fact that I knew it was a book. That is all I knew about it. I was a 15 year old Caucasian boy living in Bakersfield, CA. I remember seeing little ads for this movie advertising collectors cups from Burger King based on characters from the movie. One Saturday morning my dad says to my brother and I, “Hey, let’s go check out this Lord of the Rings show.” I went, not really expecting too much. By the time the credits rolled, my mind was blown to pieces. That, my friends, was an epic film. From then on I was pretty much hooked. Between the release of the 1^st and 2^nd movies I would watch the movie pretty frequently, but I did not read the books. When the trailer for the 2^nd film was released my mind was blown again and there was something in there that caught my attention…

Wait a second. Who was that little scrawny guy creeping down that cliff face. Wait, what? Is that the Gollum dude they talk about a couple times in the 1^st movie? He shows up in the middle of this? How naïve I was. To make a long story short December 2002 arrives and I go see The Two Towers in the theater. The best part of the whole movie was Gollum.

That right there is a scene for the ages. For two straight minutes the only thing you are focused on is a complete computer generated character. Everything came together perfectly for this character. Andy Serkis provided the voice and the body/facial refereces for Gollum. Its no wonder that the visual effects team that made Gollum come to life would go on to be the company that produced the visuals for Avatar. Crap, I’m gonna throw another clip on here.

Alright that’s it. I think I have proven my point. Gollum is great and for those who have seen the movies you know how critical he is to story. Can’t wait to see him do a freestyling rap battle with Bilbo in The Hobbit. What does it have in its pocketses… my preeeciiiouusssssssss?

Honorable Mention Scrawny Pale Dude

Dobby from Harry Potter

Hero of the day saved their life, saved their life! Hero of the day saved their life. Dobby. Mi amigo. He’s a hero!

#4 and #3

2011-08-04T23:24:00.002-06:00

4. Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

So in the first Pirates movie you have some real classic movie characters. Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa. Both were perfect for their swarthy roles. I was really worried about the other Pirates movies when I heard there would be sequels and honestly the sequels have not lived up even close to the first one. The only exception is Davy Jones. They successfully pulled off a dude with tentacles for a beard. He’s got some weird back story I think having to do with a giant black woman, but I don’t really care too much about that. The way he is portrayed makes him come across as just a legend. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him. He’s got an agenda. He’s sticking to it. He has a ship filled with guys that are turning into sea creatures and his ship is named after some flying dude from the Netherlands. Oh, here is a clip that you can watch with him in it.

“Do you feeear daythhhh?” Yeah, watching that little clip just reconfirms the reasons why he is on this list. Taking puffs on his pipe and blowing smoke out of his tentancles. Its tough for CGI creatures to play main characters, that is why you don’t see it too often. Credit has to be given to the man that brought Davy to life, Bill Nighy. Excellent work. Chalk up another point to the Davy's out there. Crockett and Jones! Sorry your heart fell out and got put in a treasure chest though man.

Honorable Mention Noseless Being

Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter

The actor himself actually does have a nose, but they take it away using CGI so he qualifies. What can I say. Voldemort is a really good bad guy. The guy just didn’t quite have it figured out all the way. Should have put together some more stable horcruxes. Look at Bill Gates… you’ll find Internet Explorer on every PC in the world and nobody uses it or can delete it. Is it just an internet browser… I don’t think so. There’s a chunk of Billy’s soul living in that program.

3. Everything in Avatar

When you get to thinking about special effects in movies Avatar seems to come up a lot. You think about the flying pterodactyl things, the big old triceratops guys, the horses that they plug their dreadlock into sometimes, and the Navi’i people themselves. When it comes down to it you can’t pick just one of these creatures. So the whole movie of Avatar gets 3^rd place in this ranking. Here’s why:

Every single thing you saw in that scene is fake. It doesn’t exist. Nothing there was filmed. It is all in a computer. If you really stop and think about it, it’s kind of ridiculous. Every leaf on every tree, every shoot of bamboo, had to be put in there by some animator. This movie pretty much changed the way moviemaking is going I think. You don’t need to build sets, you don’t even need actors really. The only problem with this film, as most of you have heard by now, is that it’s a complete rip off of Pocahontas. If you kind of forget about that fact for a while you realize that this movie is epic. Jake Sully ftw!

Honorable Mention Completely CGI Film

Toy Story. If it wasn’t for Toy Story you wouldn’t have Avatar. I chose not to include anything from films such as Toy Story since they are going for a more cartoonish effect rather than realistic. All 3 movies in the Toy Story Series are genius. A feat not often accomplished when putting together trilogies. If you got a problem with Woody and Buzz, then you can just get the crap out of here.

#6 and #5

2011-08-03T21:38:00.002-06:00

6. Count Dracula from Van Helsing

Whaaat??? That’s just some weird dude with long wispy man-bangs. Yes, I know this guy isn’t CGI at all. I didn’t want to post an image that would spoil all the goodness for you. It just so happens that there comes a moment in this film when he transforms into his true Count Dracula self. Watch it happen below:

Now I haven't gotten into the whole Twilight scene. Not the books, not the movies, so I’ll try not to judge them too harshly here… but this guy Dracula would destroy any character or the secret vampire/werewolf love child of anybody in those stories. These are what human bat hybrids are supposed to be. Van Helsing, another example of “Sucky and Classic”. The theme I am noticing in these types of movies is that they are good at putting together memorable creatures, but not much else. You’d think they spend all their budget on the special effects rather than paying for someone to write a decent script and yes you’d be right. The fact is, people want to see Wolverine transform into a Werewolf and do battle with a guy that just turned into an albino steroid bat. I remember after this movie came out I paid a little visit to Universal Studios Hollywood and they actually had a Van Helsing themed haunted house thing set up. Yep… Dracula was in there. Scarred me for life.

Honorable Mention Human That Turns Into Flying Creature

The Fly in The Fly. This movie is about Jeff Goldblum turning into a human-sized housefly. Also, this website exists: http://jeffgoldblumiswatchingyoupoop.ytmnd.com/. Nothing more to be said here… moving on to #5.

5. Fell-beasts first appearing in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

These guys are awesome. In the first Lord of the Rings movie you got the Wraiths riding around on horses. A legit way to travel, but why not hop on an enormous black scaled snake dragon. Don’t mind if I do. Just watch this video. A scene where you can really see what the beasts are capable of.

So here is the deal with the Fell Beasts. The guys that ride on top of them are called Wraiths. They are pretty bad dudes themselves (The Witch King, honorable mention #8, is the leader of them). They hunt the ring and kill anybody who gets in their way. The Fell Beasts themselves are what really seal the deal for me though. They’re like Batman’s bat mobile or the Wicked Witch of the West’s broom stick. You know… just your traditional mode of transportation. The only difference being that the witch’s broomstick doesn’t fly around busting through trebuchets like they’re toothpicks, mowing down people with its giant talons, and actually snatch soldiers off parapets and drop them from 1,000 feet in the air. So not only are you going to die, but you get to think about what you did to piss off the Fell-beast bad enough for him to punish you so severely. The thing that is awesome is that you didn’t piss him off at all… he was just doing his job. Another awesome fact about these is that they used actual donkey sounds as their main sound effect. Works for me.

Honorable Mention Snake Dragon

Smaug from The Hobbit

The first of 2 movies doesn’t come out until next year, but something tells me Smaug may find himself securing a spot in the Top 10. You might be the odd man out Draco. At least it will be a fellow dragon taking your place though.

The list continues, #8 and #7

2011-08-02T21:58:00.002-06:00

8. Dementors from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

“The worst part about prison was the dementors! They fly around and they’re scary and they suck the soul outta your body and it hoits!” – Michael Scott from The Office

Michael hit it right on the head with that description. My first memories of the Dementors are actually from the trailer for the 3^rd Harry Potter film. So why don’t you go ahead and take a look at it below to relive a piece of my youth with me.

Well, turns out you don’t really get a good look at the dementor in the trailer, but that may be what made it kind freaky to me at the time. You got this skeletal hand pulling the window open and you know he means business. At this point I don’t think I had seen any of the Potter films. Luckily you get to know the dementors pretty well throughout the rest of the films and they’re pretty creepy little hovering guys.

Honorable Mention Dark Hooded Faceless Creature

The Witch King from The Lord of the Rings

Not CGI at all, but don’t care. The Witch King is awesome. Almost wished he’d killed Frodo when he had the chance. You da man King!

7. Kraken from Clash of the Titans

Release the Kraken! A lot of the reason why this mythical creature makes the list is because of Liam Neeson. If it weren’t for those epic words in the trailer for this movie it probably wouldn’t be on here and I probably never would have seen the movie. Just go ahead and watch the trailer below if you need a reminder.

Yeah, you got it. The Kraken is a giant mythical sea creature that kills people. Once again, this movie is Sucky and Classic. The Kraken got a major upgrade from its portrayal in the Pirates of the Caribbean. Instead of just a mouth with tentacles that eats Jack Sparrow you got this big ol’ Takeo Spikes looking sea beast. Well done Kraken. I was rooting for you the whole time.

Honorable Mention Mythical Creature

Basilisk from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I saw this movie on t.v. the other day and the Basilisk scared the living crap out of me. I didn’t remember the guy being so freaky the first time I saw it. Didn’t make my list because for all his scariness he spends his time just sneaking through the walls instead of coming out and regulating on the witches and wizards at Hogwarts. Glad your fangs could come in handy though buddy. R.I.P.

New Post

2011-08-01T22:08:00.007-06:00

Well, the time has arrived for my bi-annual blog post. Most of the blogs you see these days include pictures of children barfing on themselves, announcements of babies being born, or other family happenings. Perhaps someday I will have such blog posts as well, but in the meantime I will stick to other random useless topics. A good while ago my brother-in-law posted a note on Facebook counting down the Top 50 video games of his lifetime. As I read through his list, I was inspired by the commitment and research he devoted to this post. Since reading his Top 50 list I have pondered posting my own Top 50’s. Obviously I would choose movies as the general subject matter and that got me thinking about what movie-related Top 50 I could do. I figured nobody wants to see a list of my top movies of all time because I don’t think I would even be able to rank them. So after much deliberation I have decided upon the following post. It is only a Top 10 because really I couldn’t think of that many. I’m sure I have forgotten some, but I hope you enjoy the discussion, images, and videos below. Starting with #10 and 9…

Top 10 CGI Movie Creatures/Performances/Etc.

I understand not all of these are completely CGI or maybe they aren’t even at all. The point is, they would have been if they were made today.

10. Draco from Dragonheart

The reason for this choice is simple (Listen closely):

Yep. You got a dragon with the voice of Sean Connery. The perfect recipe for a classic movie. I think I first stumbled upon this film on one of those Saturday mornings flipping through the channels and for whatever reason I ended up on AMC. Dennis Quaid’s little Robin Hood mullet thing must have caught my attention. The dragon itself isn’t too bad considering the movie was made in the mid-90’s. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure the main plot of the movie is that Quaid’s character cuts a deal with Draco the dragon. According to Wikipedia: "The two form a partnership to defraud local villagers with staged dragon-slayings." This way Quaid can look like the heroic legend, so he can become King or something medieval like that (Not quite sure what Draco got out of the deal...). The bottom line is that Sean Connery is a dragon. No other reason needed.

Honorable Mention Dragon:

Saphira from Eragon. The dragon looked pretty good. The movie just sucked so bad, I couldn’t put her on the list. My apologies Saphira.

9. Imhotep from The Mummy

For some reason this movie is most associated in my mind with staying over at the Starkey household. I think we just played Goldeneye and watched this movie every time I went over there. This is one of those movies that I like to describe as “Sucky and Classic.” The overall acting and such is pretty lame (Brendan Frasier), but for whatever reason you like to see people get devoured from the inside out by ancient human eating beetles. Then you got, as he is named on IMDB, the High Priest Imhotep. He has to kill people in order to regain physical form, so throughout the movie you see him in various stages of part CGI, part man. Turns out he wants to bring his lady friend, Anck Su Namun, back to life. So I don’t know if you can really blame the guy. She was probably a good lady. Took care of him when he was alive. Anyways, get a look at Imhotep in his full CGI glory:

Honorable Mention Living-dead Human Creature:

The Inferi from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. They probably could have made it on here, but we just don’t get a long enough look at them. Sorry inferi.

Epic

2009-07-12T18:42:00.005-06:00

So a lot of the times when I am bored I'll just go to yahoo.com and check out their little news stories they have on there. Sometimes you'll find cheesy little articles on there other times there is more serious news. But this one caught my eye and I found it to be really awesome:

Makes that whole "never judge a book by its cover" saying make a lot of sense. What a chicken catching hero!

Classic Dream

2009-07-02T11:32:00.003-06:00

Well, I figure this is as good a place as any to post my classic dreams that I have. This one was a goody.

So the dream starts off with me and my brother just chillin at a golf course. We were just hanging around the club house with not much going on and not too many people there. My brother notices a golf bag just sitting there nearby so he goes over and reaches in the bag to look at the putter (I guess it looked interesting to him). Next thing we know, who strolls around the corner... Tiger Woods. He walks up to my brother who has just quickly put the putter back into the bag. Tiger then says, "Don't mess with my putter..." Then he reaches into his golf bag pulls out his putter, sets the head of his putter on his shoulder, looks down the shaft of the putter as if it were a shotgun and says, "... or I'll shoot you with it." At that point Tiger starts cracking up and we realize he's joking. We then go on to talk for a few minutes. I don't really remember that part. Then I wake up.

Dreams are weird. How the crap my brain put all that together, I have no idea. But it was funny nonetheless.

Haven't Written Crap On Here In A Long While

2009-06-27T00:08:00.000-06:00

Got too busy with college to write on this blog... and also I kinda forgot that it even existed. Not much has been going down. Just doing my summer off thing. I'm taking a golf class right now which has proved to be pretty epic so far. I'll be sure to be challenging Tiger any day now. Speaking of Tiger... apparently his niece or something is supposed to be good at golf. You should look her up... her name is Cheyenne Woods and she kinda looks a lot like Tiger. Kinda weird. Anyways. That's it... maybe I'll write more frequently on here in the future.

BYU Football

2008-10-16T22:27:00.001-06:00

I am here to state that BYU football is not as good as everyone was thinking. I never believed they were ever since the first game this season. I knew this loss was coming eventually. The defense is absolutely horrible. The cornerbacks play off the receivers so they don't give up the deep pass. Here is the little secret though, they do give up the deep pass... and the short pass. Either way the other team is moving down the field. And who knows what has happened to the offense. Terrible. Oh well, it doesn't phase me. I'm fine with having a "good" football program. And as the Versus commentators said today "There is way more to BYU than just football. It's about faith and about these players' families." And yes.... if a commentator ever says that during a game you know you are getting you're butt completely stomped upon. But seriously, they are a football team. I am sure their primary concern during those three hours was the football game. The problem was simply that TCU's players are, athletically, a level above us. But I got news. We're still top 25 nationally in Cross Country. Woo woo! Run them routes. Run and be not weary. Woo! Word of Wisdom! Yeah! Woo! Woo!

The Solution

2008-10-06T09:55:00.000-06:00

Welp... I found the solution to the whole political situation that is going down right now:

And besides that not much has been going on except for the fact that I have a new little nephew named Jack. He is pretty awesome and just loves to sleep and eat... just like me. Look at the little dude:

Yeah, that is one of the many choice faces he'll throw at you. The 49ers are 2 - 3, but at least they are scoring points these days, so that is an improvement. The Lakers have their first game in precisely 22 days and I am pretty pumped about that. If we can avoid injuries we should be playing in June once again.

Yoda

2008-09-21T17:29:00.000-06:00

So we discovered this new site and I thought I needed to share this with you. If they were ever able to combine Yoda's and my DNA this is what would happen:

I think BG's comment said it all when he said it looks like an old filipino man. I can't help but agree. Besides that the 49ers won again today. And I am so glad that ex-Ute Alex Smith will never play another down in a 49ers uniform. Hopefully the niners will secure Max Hall some day. That would be epic.

I Couldn't Resist

2008-09-17T16:19:00.001-06:00

I stumbled upon this in today's Daily Universe: "Sept. 13: Police responded to a call reporting suspicious characters at the OIT construction site on the south end of campus. Upon arrival, the suspects were discovered to be construction workers." Now if that isn't a classic Daily Universe Police Beat entry I don't know what is. I walk past that construction site two times a day and I have never thought the construction people looked suspicious. Some people need to get outside of Provo more often. When a beard and a hard-hat make people suspicious you have to wonder about whoever this person is that called the police.

New Design and Such

2008-09-16T22:17:00.000-06:00

It's amazing what a little photoshop knowledge can do for you. I have started the "Pimp My Blog" process starting with a new title logo or whatever. Pretty good if you ask me. I'll probably get bored and change it like every other week, but this seems like a good start. On the other hand BS was over here the other night and we got to talking about hurricanes. Why do people live where there are hurricanes. They come every year and they just completely destroy your life. And some people may argue the same saying "Why do you live in California if there are earthquakes?" To which I respond "How many earthquakes have destroyed California in the last 5 years?... Zero. How many hurricanes have hit the Gulf Coast in that same time period? Like 5 every year." So my advice is for those people to pack it up and move it to Canada with those Parogi eatin hosers. That's it. Peace.

Stupid Teachers

2008-09-11T21:22:00.000-06:00

Today I had physics. It started at 12 pm with the physics lab... and the T.A. that is in charge of the class opened up by saying, "I am not allowed to answer any of your questions. The instructor that supervises this course will not allow it. I am simply here to watch." And almost instantly I thought, "Well, this class is retarded." The main reason there is a TA there is so we don't break the equipment. Are we 3rd grade exchange students that don't speak english? Are we like that flying white girl robot from the WALL-E trailer that goes around nuking everything that moves? No... we are in college. So if we really can't utilize our T.A.'s knowledge on the subject of physics let us come in and do the lab whenever we want and don't force us to do it in groups with dip weeds that only slow you down (and make we wonder if I really am working with 8 year old foreigners).

At 4 pm (after having spent too much time in the physics lab because of the above situation) I had physics lecture. In which the professor began talking about everything we learned last week and then after two hours, finally decided it would be good to learn some of the new material. Holy hellfire.

Well I was at a loss for words. Oh well. I am pretty used to it by now, but I thought I would just share this. I'm sure others can relate. Stop wasting our time monards!

And on a side note. Today was September 11th. So I thought it was a good touch when BYU stationed military guards around the flag today as it flew at half staff. As Eagle Ryan texted me this morning "Burn in hell Osama! And God bless America!"

I Got Nuked...

2008-09-08T16:01:00.000-06:00

So I came up with the most splendid and delicious way to spend my Friday evening... eating Cafe Rio and watching the Dodgers game. So I plowed through my Pork Barbacoa

salad in mere minutes like I usually do and that's where the whole night went to crap (literally). Right after I ate it I said to my sister Sherwi, "I think I'm gonna barf." Sho 'nuf I barfed about 3 hours after that around 11pm. At that point I was happy again, because usually when you barf you think the suffering is over... this was not the case this time around. To make a long story short I spent the next 5 hours throwing up 7 more times and also the whole going #2 wasn't very pleasant either. If you want a more detailed and funnier story ask me about what happened after I decided to take a bath (its a classic story). All of saturday I was just exhausted and I kept the throwing up tally limited to 1 for the day. Sunday was more of the same... a little bit better, but still feeling pretty crappy. And here I am today, Monday, going to work and school (still not feeling 100%, but someone's gotta bring home the bacon).

Besides that little episode the weekend was pretty good. The Dodgers are in first place again (set up perfectly to drop into third by the end of the season or make the playoffs then lose in the first round), and BYU won their game in a controversial fashion. A little word of advice for everyone... if you get a touchdown - Don't get too excited cuz you could pretty much blow it for your whole team. Ask Jake Locker... if his teammates haven't killed him yet.

Football and Stuff

2008-09-05T08:12:00.000-06:00

So there was some stuff that went down last night. First and foremost, the NFL started up once again. My brotha Brian Kehl represented BYU pretty well with 5 tackles (second most for the Giants) so that was good. Also I watched John McCain's little speech... and I verified that I think politics are stupid. The best part was watching all the crazy protestor people getting regulated on by security. Also I like John McCain's little Matt Foley impression or whatever it was that he did at the end of his speech. If you don't know what I am talking about go ahead and watch his speech then look at the end when he gives like a bear hug to some invisible person... I didn't know if he was about to have a seizure or what. Anyways, politics is dumb... don't ever go watch and go crazy about someone who is saying a bunch of crap that he is going to do when we know he will only make about 5% of it happen. Oh and also tones got married. And when I say married I mean engaged. You can check out the precious that he got for his woman here on her blog. Not too shabby. Tones pulling out all the stops.

First Post

2008-09-04T15:20:00.000-06:00

I decided to make this blog just because I get bored sometimes and to just let people know about random things that might interest them. Or maybe I just made it cuz I will have a fun time making graphics for it on photoshop. Who really knows, but anyways. For whoever reads this... if anybody, I hope you enjoy. Oh, and I just barely made this so I know it looks crappy, but I'll be sure to pimp it out... no worries.