"I am...inevitable."

 

Last night I attended a Langara College-sponsored presentation on the award-winning special effects process behind the character of Thanos in the Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame movies. The event was presented by Jan Philip Cramer, the Head of Animation for Digital Domain, whose resumé includes films such as Ender's Game, Days of Future Past, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avatar.

It wasn't a terribly technical evening, more of a commercial for Langara's new Centre for Entertainment Arts, mixed in with anecdotes about the production process for Thanos (along with advice for digital animation students regarding how to put together their show reels), but Cramer did provide a fascinating overview of the combination of acting, motion capture and programming that resulted in the menacing on-screen character of Thanos the mad Titan.

Cramer's well-delivered presentation made me aware of two aspects of the latest Avengers movies that I hadn't really thought about while watching them.  First, the degree of ease with which I accepted Thanos as a person, rather than a special effects creation. Thanos is a skilful blending of Josh Brolin's motion-capture performance and the astonishing digital effects work done by Cramer's team, resulting in a nuanced, emotional, physical presence on screen.

 

Their approach to both body and facial motion capture produced a digital character who was then seamlessly integrated with the live-action performances, although, really, in this case it's more a question of integrating the live actors into the digital realm.

 

Second, the breakdown of the digital process was a stark* reminder as to the degree to which Endgame does not exist, or rather exists only in the form of terabytes and terabytes of code stored on a rack mounted server somewhere**, rather than in the form of video recordings of actual sets and performances.

It's a tribute to the art of acting - or perhaps just plain make-believe - that the actual actors were able to create performances where the other characters, the scenery, and even the props and costumes were added later in the process.  As Sir Ian McKellen sadly discovered during the shooting of the first Hobbit film, it's a lonely job when it's just you, thirteen photos of your fellow actors on sticks, and a green screen.

- Sid

* No pun intended.

** And presumably very well backed up, let's not forgot the cautionary tale of how nearly all of the Toy Story 2 files were deleted, and they were only able to complete the film because one of the animators had a copy of the files that they had been using to work from home.

"FRAGILE - that must be Italian!"

 

Hey Sid, I was wondering if you, as a collector of SF stuff, would be interested in my Star Trek mugs? Yours for the asking. Also I have two Dr. Who bobbleheads (Dr's 10 and 11?) who might like to join the migration (can't remember if you got any of those). Let me know. 

- Colin

Recently my friend Colin found himself facing a problem that we've all at some point in our lives:  too many possessions, not enough room.  As part of his solution, he regretfully decided to clean house, figuratively and literally, and divest himself of a few tchotchkes whose day had come and gone.

But what to do with the culled items?  Deciding that donating them to the Salvation Army would be an ignominious conclusion to their years of service, he decided to contact me and ask if I'd be interested in adopting some SF-related pieces, as per the introductory excerpt.

I declined the two Doctor Who bobbleheads, since Colin had actually given me a set of 10 and 11 for my birthday in 2016, but cheerfully (and gratefully) offered to take the other items off his hands. 

 

The Star Trek line of collector's mugs were distributed by now-defunct novelty manufacturer Applause Inc. Their initial 1994 release featured Kirk, Spock, and McCoy from the original Star Trek series; Data, Worf, Crusher, Troi, La Forge and a Borg from The Next Generation, Odo, Quark and a Cardassian from Deep Space Nine, and Neelix from Voyager, which suggests that Colin did his shopping early in the release cycle.  Q and the alien Gorn were added to the lineup in 1996, and in 1997 they were joined by Sisko, Jadzia Dax, Janeway and a Kazon from the Delta Quadrant. (Oddly enough, Jean-Luc Picard does not seem to have made the cut for porcelain immortality.)

Applause, which opened its doors in 1966, was noted for a wide range of licensed pop culture items, but declared bankruptcy in 2004,* thereby making their themed mugs even more collectable. (Sadly, Colin's mugs aren't completely mint, it's hard to own a mug for 25 years without a mark or two, but I am no less pleased to have them.)  I don't know if their choice of products had any bearing on their eventual corporate downfall -  the whole idea of head-shaped mugs seems a bit strange, and, honestly, they're not very practical for morning coffee, they're ridiculously difficult to clean.

The astute observer will have noticed that one of the mugs in the photo is in fact from Doctor Who rather than Star Trek, an unexpected bonus item.

 

Similarly, there was also a Weeping Angel bobblehead from Doctor Who, which my wife apparently does NOT want to unexpectedly find snarling at her from inside the medicine cabinet when she's sleepily getting ready for work in the morning.

Now, ironically, I face the same problem that prompted Colin in the first place - all I have to do is to find room for my new acquisitions in my already overcrowded second bedroom/library/study.  Well, as they say on Star Trek, space IS the final frontier...

- Sid

* Following the death of its CEO, who committed suicide when it became obvious that the company was not going to survive - I have to say that this is unexpectedly dark for research results on a company that made head-shaped mugs. 

Moss piglets in spaaaaaaaace!

(With apologies to The Muppet Show.)

 

It's a little fascinating when something pops up in my current events news feed that actually resolves unanswered questions from Star Trek - life imitating art, as it were.

Apparently back in April, Israel Aerospace Industry's Beresheet* lunar mission crashed-landed on the Moon.  Along with a sample of human blood and a 30-million page archive of human history, the probe contained several thousand microscopic tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, one of the toughest organisms in existence.**  Tardigrades have already proven that they are capable of surviving exposure to space, and in this case they were dehydrated - which placed them in a state of suspended animation - and then protectively encased in artificial amber.

 

Fast forward 237 years**, and boom, we have a captive giant space tardigrade manipulating space using the mycelial network spore drive on the USS Discovery.  Well, at least now we know why it's a tardigrade - the next question is how it got to be so damned BIG.

 - Sid 

* Hebrew for "In a beginning" - the first word of the Torah.

** If you're wondering why any of this would be on a moon mission , there's a group called the Arch Mission Foundation that wanted to create a backup of Terran lifeforms, history and knowledge. 

*** According to the Memory Alpha Star Trek database, the events of Season One of Discovery take place between 2256-2258 AD.