They sure know how to make legendary CGs...

[Zeze]

WTF.

Screw their games, they should just do a full CG movie.

The market is ripe for an 'adult' CG film... not just Pixar stuff.

You may watch the whole thing from start if you wish.

 

[Vic Vega]

They did make a full CG movie not too long ago IIRC.

 

[shortylickens]

WTF.

Screw their games, they should just do a full CG movie.

The market is ripe for an 'adult' CG film... not just Pixar stuff.

You may watch the whole thing from start if you wish.

The Princess Has Come of Age.

 

[Zeze]

They did make a full CG movie not too long ago IIRC.

That abortion of a film 'Spirits Within'? That wasn't even fantasy. Just scifi.

 

[KeithTalent]

They did make a full CG movie not too long ago IIRC.

Yep. I actually quite liked it though I think it was shat upon by most.

KT

edit: ^^ haha, yep.

 

[fralexandr]

spirits within (saw it on bluray recently) had amazing effects for its time though, nowadays the lighting/shadows seem almost pathetic though. netflix has spirits within on instant stream hah (not HD though )

advent children was pretty too.

there are a lot of really impressive video game cinematics.
I still like the cutscenes from diablo II and warcraft III ROC, they're pretty impressive given how old the games are.

 

[Zeze]

spirits within (saw it on bluray recently) had amazing effects for its time though, nowadays the lighting/shadows seem almost pathetic though. netflix has spirits within on instant stream hah (not HD though )

advent children was pretty too.

there are a lot of really impressive video game cinematics.
I still like the cutscenes from diablo II and warcraft III ROC, they're pretty impressive given how old the games are.

I remember I was FLOORED when FF:SW came out. My dad was WTF too.

It's amazing how we train our eyes. It seems near perfect back then. Now you can pick out the flaws, insufficient polygon count, etc.

 

[TecHNooB]

starcraft 2 heart of the swarm will have some amazing cg. i would not mind if blizzard made a starcraft movie, as the terran, protoss, zerg conflict looks splendid in cg.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I remember I was FLOORED when FF:SW came out. My dad was WTF too.

It's amazing how we train our eyes. It seems near perfect back then. Now you can pick out the flaws, insufficient polygon count, etc.

Advent Children is pretty good. You see that one yet?

 

[Schfifty Five]

starcraft 2 heart of the swarm will have some amazing cg. i would not mind if blizzard made a starcraft movie, as the terran, protoss, zerg conflict looks splendid in cg.

You know how much it would cost them to make a full length CGI movie at the caliber they make their current cut scenes? It'd be an insane amount I would assume.

I don't know exactly how much good CGI's cost to render/make, but I was always under the assumption that even a 30 second to 1 min really well done CGI cutscene costs millions.

 

[Zeze]

Advent Children is pretty good. You see that one yet?

Yea that was pretty good I guess. But it didn't have mass appeal.

I want them to make a LOTR style epic fantasy battle story just like the clip in OP. Full fantasy genre.

American CGs suck at doing epic battles.

 

[destrekor]

You know how much it would cost them to make a full length CGI movie at the caliber they make their current cut scenes? It'd be an insane amount I would assume.

I don't know exactly how much good CGI's cost to render/make, but I was always under the assumption that even a 30 second to 1 min really well done CGI cutscene costs millions.

I could not possibly believe it would cost that.

Perhaps if they stretch and strain to produce something so epic as to seem impossible by the standards of even a few years/decade in the future, but that would mean production costs of some video games would be upward of 200-300 million. I think it's generally seen as insane when development budgets stretch beyond $30-40 million, and few titles have actually spent more than that.
A quick google confirms this: a few titles have cost over $50, but they are all recent and due to an insane amount of time and team-size. The most expensive (at time of the article) was Grand Theft Auto IV at $100mil. FF XII cost just shy of $50mil.
Shenmue (Dreamcast) apparently held the title of most expensive production budget for 10 years, with a pricetag of $70mil.


FF: The Spirits Within cost $137mil, and that's inclusive of all production/development (not sure if it includes marketing).

I'd wager that, for the same cost, which is far from unheard of for major productions, they could produce a feature film today with far better visuals and a much higher-caliber story.

The biggest downfall of Spirits Within was, from the gaming community, it just lacked any of Final Fantasy inspiration, and the only shared similarity was in the film's title.
For critics at large, it was a technical marvel but everything else felt tacked on, including the biggest piece of cinema: story, and overall acting. It had a fairly bland story (albeit with some neat ideas), and the emotional aspect of the characters and film was fairly dull.


I'd love to see another film of its style get the green light, but I don't think we'll really see anything for awhile.

 

[Zeze]

You know how much it would cost them to make a full length CGI movie at the caliber they make their current cut scenes? It'd be an insane amount I would assume.

I don't know exactly how much good CGI's cost to render/make, but I was always under the assumption that even a 30 second to 1 min really well done CGI cutscene costs millions.

30sec to 1 min is 'millions'? It's not like consulting where they charge by time.

Once you got capital of a full fledged studio, it wouldn't matter that much if the movie is 10 mins or 90 mins.

Pixar does this all the time.

Also Sony-Square opened up a full-fledged CG studio in Hawaii to make FF:SW. They went bankrupt and sold the studio because the film was a flop, not because the movie cost some unrealistic colossal amount.

FF:SW was
Budget $137 million
Box office $85,131,830

 

[Zeze]

The biggest downfall of Spirits Within was, from the gaming community, it just lacked any of Final Fantasy inspiration, and the only shared similarity was in the film's title.
For critics at large, it was a technical marvel but everything else felt tacked on, including the biggest piece of cinema: story, and overall acting. It had a fairly bland story (albeit with some neat ideas), and the emotional aspect of the characters and film was fairly dull.

I sort of disagree. FF:SW sucked because the genre + CG combination didn't have mass appeal compared to Pixar's all-family stuff And gamers just thought it sucked, not because it wasn't FF enough.

I mean when Advent Children came out, it still didn't do well outside of Asia because it's just a video game fan service. No family or kids are going to see that in theater. Same goes for any teens or bachelors.

 

[destrekor]

I sort of disagree. FF:SW sucked because the genre + CG combination didn't have mass appeal compared to Pixar's all-family stuff And gamers just thought it sucked, not because it wasn't FF enough.

I mean when Advent Children came out, it still didn't do well outside of Asia because it's just a video game fan service. No family or kids are going to see that in theater. Same goes for any teens or bachelors.

I only slightly agree, mostly disagree.


For a film, there would need to be more to it for it to do well. It COULD do well if there had been more depth, and likely a change to the overall dynamics of the story/"cast."

Even if it was only essentially a "fan service" it still could have made more money in the U.S.. Even if initial box office was low, if reception was better, disc sales could have done real well. And it could have made more in follow up weeks at the box office, if the initial reviews were more positive of the overall film. For what is, most of the praise dealt focused on the accomplishments, not on the movie itself.

A good movie will generally do quite well, regardless of the initial details. Even a film of it's genre has the potential to stuff the pockets of the studio, if it has all the good points of quality films.

It doesn't have to be pixar and all cutesy to do well:

The Adventures of Tintin: ~$374mil at the box office (this being slightly more cutesy, but not of the same style as Pixar-esque releases.

And then mo-cap-derived works, but still entirely CG:
Beowulf: ~$196mil @ box office
The Polar Express: ~$306mil @ box office

Both films really didn't even do all that well in terms of critical reception.

With the right tone and marketing approach, even game-based movies can do well:
Resident Evil: Afterlife made nearly $300mil at the box office!
RE: Retribution made over $220mil. And not a single RE movie made less than $100mil (in order of release: $102, $129, $147, $296, $221mil)
And those are all fairly low-budget affairs (in terms of A-level productions), and it is also quite telling that the box office figures rose as production budgets rose. The budgets also peaked at $65mil for the most recent film (starting around $30mil for the first).

The Prince of Persia film made $335mil at box office (though with a shocking $150-200mil budget)
Tomb Raider (first one) made $274mil (on $115mil budget), though the second one $156 on $95)
Silent Hill made over $97mil on $50mil.

Hell, Mortal Kombat (in 1995) made $122mil (on an $18mil budget!). I loved that movie.


And most of those movies bombed at the critical reception level.

Even big-budget, live-action, non-game-based movies can fall flat.
Look at the John Carter movie. Though it did fairly well at the box office ($282mil), it cost somewhere between $250-350mil. That was a massive budget gamble that, even if there was profit, likely means there won't be sequels. If sequels are still on the table, the budget will drop almost assuredly.

There are so many variables involved, it cannot be pinned on the game origins and CGI.

 

[Schfifty Five]

30sec to 1 min is 'millions'? It's not like consulting where they charge by time.

Once you got capital of a full fledged studio, it wouldn't matter that much if the movie is 10 mins or 90 mins.

Pixar does this all the time.

Also Sony-Square opened up a full-fledged CG studio in Hawaii to make FF:SW. They went bankrupt and sold the studio because the film was a flop, not because the movie cost some unrealistic colossal amount.

FF:SW was
Budget $137 million
Box office $85,131,830

I would love to see a Warcraft or Starcraft full length CGI movie, don't get me wrong on that. I just think w/ the amount of detail and epicness that Blizzard puts into their CGI scenes, it would cost an insane amount plus take a loooong time to do.