Taste a buttery popcorn tub while asking yourself How did they do that?? Watching a big movie like this can be half fun Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones. Many of them burning behind the scenes questions and more were answered during the first season of lucasfilm documentseries Light and magic Disney+. Now, back to the second season, Technology and Film Buff has the opportunity to learn about the very realistic visual effects artists who make magic in films and how they handled the challenges during the dawn of digital filmmaking.
One of those technical wizards is John Norr, who began his career in George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic in 1986. You may not know his name, but if you’ve used Photoshop, you can thank John and his brother Thomas. The duo co-written the original software It was used later in the 1980s The groundbreaking 1989 James Cameron film Abyss. Since then, Knoll has Academy Award Winner For his team’s work to bring the sea-pirate hybrid ship to life in 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chestin addition to the other five nominations.
Popular science Recently we talked with Knoll about his work and career. The answers are condensed for clarity.
Laura Baisas: How did your upbringing among scientists affect your career?
John Knoll: Growing up in a family of scientists, engineers and medical professionals, I have gained a powerful amount of scientific methods and logic analysis. How to analyze problems, break them down, and solve them, etc. My dad modeled after many of the actions that had a huge impact on me. Watch him get interested in something, practice, get good at it, apply it to many different fields. I copied the same thing.
It was also a family that values art. Even with this powerful emphasis on technology, art was valuable. I was probably heading towards a certain kind of engineering field, but when Star Wars It came out, I’m like, “Oh, something really exciting is happening in filmmaking.” But if the field of filmmaking is like engineering for film, that’s really the visual effect. The mixture of almost equal parts of art and technology is a fusion that I really find very enjoyable. It allows me to exercise some of the brain engineers and scientists with my love for art and expression.
LB: You might think that some of the things that work with visual effects might be surprising.
JK: Scientific methods are very convenient and apply to almost anything. Obviously, it applies to the fields of technology and engineering, but also to the arts in ways people don’t really think they’re grateful for. I am constantly moving on by looking at any problem we are facing and determining whether it is an art or an aesthetic problem. Next, narrow down where the problem lies. Is this a problem of movement or appearance? And if I stop it, will I still see the problem? Apply some of the same to software debugging. So I apply all these same engineering principles to the art I do. That really helps me.
[ Related: How ‘Rogue One’ resurrected the Death Star. ]
LB: Can you identify any particularly memorable technical or artistic challenges and how you worked to overcome them?
JK: Starting motion capture is a big thing. Between Star Wars In the first part, the general methodology used for CG creatures was to cast actors to play that role on set. We rehearse and film reference stakes with the actors in the frame. Then we stepped out to them and let the camera operator forget to frame it like they did the actors they were still on the shot, and we put in the CG characters. And they did their best.
First Pirates of the Caribbean Film, I started with that methodology. But I had lots of shots that started out as actors in their photo costumes [for the scene where the cursed crew of the Black Pearl turn into skeletons in moonlight] And we had to move them into these CG skeletons. The only methodology that really makes sense for those sequences is shooting the actors in the costumes of the photo, and when they get moonlit, we render to suit their movements. After that, I was able to draw parts that the CG skeleton didn’t hide.
The methodology turns out to be better for everyone. For the other actors in the scene, it was much easier as they weren’t trying to remember where they were looking. And it was a better operation as the camera operators were framing the shots, all the elements they were composed were present in the frame.
lb: What do you think? The role of AI in visual effects?
JK: I think AI will become more of an artist’s tool. I think the vision of someone simply entering the prompt and getting the completed shot is pretty unrealistic. The best way to overcome fear of such things is to actually use these tools to see how limited they are. I think the tool to take a simple prompt is a gimmick now.
What we are now available, skilled artists with good eyes and talent can make something great with those tools. And those who don’t have that skill and talent create a terrible look for those tools. I’ve already seen it on an AI diffusion image generator. People who don’t taste good are looking at people who make bad looks. And we see people who taste better make something that looks good. So I think it will only become more extreme if the level of control that is needed appears. People with good taste will do a good looking, attractive job. Don’t be afraid of a future where skills and talent are not valued.
LB: A very serious question to put things together. Who is your favorite fictional scientist?
JK: I grew up with the original Star Trek The TV show and I love Commander Scotty. I love when the clock is ticking and everything depends on him, he has to bring the warp engine back online and he’s splicing the wires there. He has been the hero of the show many times. I think scientists and engineers are extremely important to the world and should get the respect they deserve.
Lucasfilm’s Light and magic Season 2 will debut on Disney+ on April 17th.
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