Saturday, October 3, 2009
Toy Story 3D Double Feature
Available in theaters now is a double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. This time, they've been re-rendered the entire film from the original 3D mesh data. When the first Toy Story movie came out, the huge computer grid that they used to render (calculate the 3D imagery of each frame) took over an hour for each frame. Considering there are 24 frames per second in a movie, that's over a day of waiting for every one second of final footage. And that was not for a 3D display. OK, OK, so this gets a little confusing... The original was 3D, but it wasn't 3D? Yes. You see, the computer was "aware" of a 3D scene and 3D objects and calculated the lighting, reflectivity, transparency, etc... to display each frame of the movie. Each frame is a 2D image (just like a photograph is a 2D image). Even if what you're taking a picture of is real life 3D, the photograph itself is only 2D. That's how the original Toy Story movie was. It was a 2D representation of a 3D environment, but when you watched the movie, you saw it in 2D (just like any movie).
Today's new release of the old Toy Story 1 and 2 is different. They rendered all of the frames again, this time with MUCH faster computers (more on that in a moment). Then they told the computers to do it all over again, but this time from an angle about 2 virtual inches to the right. So now, they've got TWO versions of both movies, each version shot with a virtual camera a couple of inches to the right (or was it to the left) of the original camera.
When you go see this double-header in the theater, the projector will be projecting BOTH the left camera image AND the right camera image onto the movie screen at the SAME TIME. Without 3D glasses, the images will look fuzzy with both images overlapping each other. Put the 3D glasses on and the left lens blocks the right-eye image so your left eye sees ONLY the left image. Vice versa for the right eye. The result? Your brain interprets the scene as true 3D space. You'll experience woody and crew right up in your face or waaaay back, sunken into the screen. Everything will have the perception of actually "being there".
How fast does it take Pixar's computers to render a full length feature film? Well, in 1994 and 1995, when the first Toy Story movie was created, their multi-million dollar bank of computers took over an hour per frame. With 24 frames per second and a feature length of 81 minutes, that's 116,640 frames and even more than 116,640 hours to render all the frames. But, that was in 1995. Today's computers are MUCH faster. In fact, they're SO MUCH FASTER that their new set of computers were able to render the movie at one frame every 1/24th of a second. For those of you not doing your math, that's REAL TIME. In other words, the computers are able to render the movie as fast as the movie plays in real time. So, in 2009, it took them 81 minutes to render the 81 minute movie. That's 86,400 times faster!!! But WAIT! Remember when I said they rendered TWO frames for each frame for the new 3D versions? (one for the left eye and one for the right eye)? So DOUBLE that speed to 172,800 times faster in 2009 than in 1995!
How's THAT for progress??
But, you'd better hurry! It's only going to be in theaters for 2 weeks and it started on October 2, 2009!
Brett Favre's nephew Dylan Favre Blows Away Records
It must run in the family. Dylan Favre, Brett Favre's nephew, just blew away records. Mississippi's high school football records were rewritten as Dylan completed 40 passes (out of 48) for a total of 506 yards. 6 touchdowns resulted.
Brett Favre sent a text message immediately, congratulating his nephew with "Awesome achievement. I'm proud of him."
The previous record was 9.309.
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Holly Hester is one of David Letterman's "Girls"
Holly Hester (not pictured at left), who was a college intern at "The Late Show with David Letterman" in the early 1990's, has come out publicly admitting that she and David Letterman had an affair. She says she would have married him if at all possible, but he broke it off after about a year, citing differences in their ages. Letterman, who admitted recently on his own show, that he was being extorted about a past affair, has apparently had multiple affairs. Now we just have to sit back and wait to see how many more girls come out from under the desk.
Kandi Burruss ex-fiancé Ashley "A.J." Jewell dies
Kandi Burruss', whom you probably know from Xscape and fantasia, has just lost her ex-fiancé Ashley "A.J." Jewell in a brawl in an Atlanta strip club parking lot from a brutal and fatal blow to the head. He was featured regularly on Housewives of Atlanta.
Fredrick Richardson was charged with voluntary manslaughter. Pictured above is a Google Earth satellite photo of the parking where it happened.
Mark Herzlich Cancer Story
The Amazing Story Of Mark Herzlich
Mark Herzlich came down with a rare form of cancer called Ewing's sarcoma that attacks the bone and soft tissue. He decided to fight and says he is now 99% cancer free. He plans on returning to practice soon.
Erin Andrews Peephole Video
As most everyone knows by now, Erin Andrews, the highly attractive ESPN sports announcer was videotaped, without her knowledge, through the peep hole of her hotel room. The video shows her getting ready, completely in the nude.
An arrest has finally been made. The man arrested in Michael David Barrett. Barrett, a 48 year old man had been calling around at hotels to find out which one she was staying at. Once he found the right hotel, he requested a room right beside hers. He has 8 nude videos of her and has sold 7 of them. He attempted to sell them to the highest bidder after he solicited multiple parties to bid. One of the potential bidders he initiated contact with was TMZ, who refused to bid and then contact Erin's attorneys. Good for TMZ! Barrett was arrested on stalking charges.
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