Sign In
Sign in
English

TopBanners12062503.jpg
 
June 25, 2012 8:00 AM
by B.N. Reporter

A notable short film using Blender is about to be released on August 8, 2012 by a well-organized  international body of artists. A representative of www.BlenderNews.org who had a look at the WIP intermediate preview of the short film described it as a "Syntel-quality" short film at the least.  "Carlo" the organizer and the director for the short film "REVERSION" has responded to an interview with www.BlenderNews.org.

 

Thank you for responding to this interview, Carlo. Would you like to introduce yourself?

My full name is Giancarlo Chan Ng. I currently work as a middle manager in the business district of Makati in the Philippines. I started studying film and animation on my own starting 2006. My interest in CG immediately fell into the quadrant of semi-realistic human actors in mature situations (mostly action-oriented). REVERSION represents a culmination of my interests not just in CG animation and 3D modeling but also in Project Management (yes, I actually like managing projects!), film promotion, story writing, story telling, and interacting with people.

Reversion_shot01.jpg

What is REVERSION about?
REVERSION is an 11-minute film so at the end of the day, it's about one experience that's wrapped in another experience.  
Somewhere in the Congo, a lone security guardian under Ethercorp, the same company running the research facility, is breaking into what seems like an abandoned Ethercorp edical/research facility. The mission of this individual is not entirely clear for the audience, but in truth this is not very essential to the core experience of the 11 minute film.  What is clear from the get-go is that there is some kind of purpose involving information inside the facility.
But just then a previously unseen threat emerges... Something not entirely natural.  A chase ensues, and there is some action... The chase eventually leads to a revelation that changes the way the action is perceived from that point until the end of the short.
Basically the tormentor becomes the victim and what was previously believed to be the victim becomes the tormentor.  The one with advantage becomes the one at disadvantage. This is partially where the title comes from - because everthing "reverses".  But the title has multiple meanings not just in terms of story-reversals, role-reversals, but also has some roots in other areas of the short. 
I wish I could say more but we're trying to keep things spoiler free until August.

Could you introduce your MAGIC MOVIE MACHINE team members for this project?
We've had Sidney Carlos Morae, Jr (a professional aritst in Brazil well known for "Yo! Frankie") and Jeffrey Alan Pitts (an experienced sound designer) as well as about 9  talented artists and students invited for this project.

What's your goal for making this short film?
Simple enough, the goal originally  was to finish.  The team on REVERSION was a heavy mix of people who had experience but not enough time, and young people with no experience, but who also had limited time available to work on a picture.  Around the entire project was this sense of exploration and learning about how to make the best images possible with little more than just what we had at home. As the film started coming together, and as we started doing select previews, it became clear that the film (and the Team) had more potential in it and thus we are having to assess our goals now with a view to what is possible.
It helps that REVERSION, in the end, has become a story larger than the 11-minute time frame can allow.  So we have to see what comes.

Reversion_shot02.jpg

Why did you choose Blender?
For students and people like me with no means to access the kind of software and assets used by professionals, Blender was the only real choice.  But that is not the complete answer, and is only valid to answer the question of why I chose Blender to learn Computer Animation a few years ago. 
REVERSION partially came about from the growing understanding amongst all of us that Blender was quickly maturing into something that is very capable. Everything you see in REVERSION is done in Blender. Modeling, Animation, Visual Effects, Lighting, Smoke, Atmospherics, IK rigging.  The color-grading is also done in Blender Compositor using Nodes. There is nothing in this film that was created in another application, save for the texture maps which were made in either Gimp or Photoshop.
The music was done in Apple Logic and I believe Jeff uses Apple Final Cut Pro for the Sound Design.

Other than Blender, what softwares are you using?
We used Blender for Modeling, Rigging, Animation, Visual Effects, Video Editing, Video Compositing, Color-Grading. We used Photoshop and Gimp for Textures.  We used AVIDEMUX for some video processing compatibility with Apple Final Cut Pro. Apple Final Cut Pro was used in Sound Design.  VirtualDub Surround is used for final multiplexing of the Images and Audio together. 

Did you utilize motion capture technology?
REVERSION does not use Motion Capture technology.  We have been asked this question a number of times and the truth is that REVERSION's final motion is done in passes.  At the root of REVERSION's animation is a very old-fashioned method involving video footage study and thumbnail drawings. 

Reversion_shot03.jpg

What's your plan after the release of REVERSION?
Since the trailer came out, some parties have started approaching us about the potential of this film.  We are evaluating our options and we cannot reveal much in this area at this time.

Thank you, Carlo, for your response. And we hope the best for your MAGIC MOVIE MACHINE team and for REVERSION soon to be released on August 8, 2012.

REVERSION is a pioneer project for decentralized "cell production", as Carlo puts it, where artists from all over the world can be organized to produce a professional quality film. Please tune in for a future article, where Carlo will illuminate on the process.

Related Links:
1. http://reversionmovie.blogspot.kr/
2. http://www.blendernation.com/2012/04/16/movie-project-reversion/
List of Articles
Subject Date Views
Blender Retrospectives 2020 Blender Retrospective Feb 20, 2021 210981
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 25, 2020 563083
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 25, 2020 426189
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 431938
Tutorials Top 15 Highest-Rated Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2019 file Jan 25, 2020 375826
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 for Blender 2.8 file Jan 23, 2019 344944
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for CG, Games & Viz file Jan 23, 2019 684257
Tutorials Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 Worthy of Your Note - for Animation & VFX file Jan 23, 2019 408340
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2018 file Jan 23, 2019 344859
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2018: Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2019 381609
Blender Retrospectives 2018 Blender Retrospective file Jan 02, 2019 375995
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2017 file Jan 09, 2018 968943
Blender Retrospectives 2017 Blender Retrospective file Jan 01, 2018 696729
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2017: Winners Annouced file Dec 26, 2017 550699
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials (Videos) Released in 2016 file Jan 16, 2017 765358
Blender Retrospectives 2016 Blender Retrospective file Dec 29, 2016 1060247
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2015: Seven Winners Annouced file Jan 20, 2016 790499
Blender Retrospectives 2015 Blender Retrospective file Jan 12, 2016 762216
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2015 file Jun 26, 2015 805567
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2014: Five Winners Annouced file Jan 02, 2015 813779
Tutorials Top 12 Free Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2014 file Dec 11, 2014 852657
Render of the Week 'MX-DROID' by Robert Ferenczi - the Winner of the Week of February 24, 2014 file Feb 24, 2014 50327
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of February 24, 2014 file Feb 24, 2014 33002
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of February 17, 2014 file Feb 17, 2014 48691
Render of the Week 'Sound of the Forest' by Artur Szygulski - the Winner of the Week of February 17, 2014 file Feb 17, 2014 58640
Render of the Week 'Nocturne' by Den Voloskov - the Winner of the Week of February 10, 2014 file Feb 11, 2014 36145
Render of the Week 'The Rabbit and the Train' by Gleb Alexandrov - the Winner of the Week of February 3, 2014 file Feb 05, 2014 39786
Render of the Week 'Santa??' by Derek Goff - the Winner of the Week of January 27, 2014 file Jan 28, 2014 36677
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of January 27, 2013 file Jan 28, 2014 35285
Render of the Week 'Jordi' by Daniel Camino - the Winner of the Week of January 20, 2014 file Jan 21, 2014 37348
Render of the Week 'River Side' by Enrico Cerica - the Winner of the Week of January 13, 2014 file Jan 13, 2014 44859
Blender Retrospectives 2013 Blender Retrospective file Jan 08, 2014 27861
Render of the Year Render of the Year Awards 2013: Five Winners Annouced file Jan 01, 2014 54398
Render of the Year 2013 Voting Begins for Stage Two: Top 10 Finalists from Famed Render of the Week Winners! (Public) file Dec 20, 2013 36844
Tutorials Top 12 Online Blender Tutorials Released in 2013 file Dec 16, 2013 33926
Product Visualization PRODUCT VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of November 25, 2013 file Nov 25, 2013 48006
Render of the Week 'Of Butterflies and Astronauts' by Markus Nowak - the Winner of the Week of November 25, 2013 file Nov 25, 2013 47011
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of December 24, 2012 file Dec 25, 2012 49592
Render of the Week 'The Brushes' by Gleb Alexandrov - the Winner of the Week of December 2, 2013 file Dec 02, 2013 40216
Architectural Visualization ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION IN BLENDER for the week of December 2, 2013 file Dec 02, 2013 35069
Render of the Week 'What Is the Word?' by Szabolcs Toth - the Winner of the Week of November 18, 2013 file Nov 18, 2013 38365