I saw this film and I thought they did a great job . . . but I kep thinking two of the kids were played by posers. I speak of the stocky German boy and the female gum-chewing athlete.

The boy most looked digital - especially when the charcter is first introduced.(Something about the face shading.)

What software would be used to create and animate film characters like this? Poser? Maya?

What did you think of this film and these characters? Just curious.

Seattletim

The children's faces (except Charlie's) were digitally "airbrused" to look too perfectly smooth. They're real actors. Poser isn't used for Hollywood films. However, I just saw an animated video piece at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, clearly done in Poser, that had me laughing out loud. It featured a bunch of untextured Victoria 3's jumping up and down. I exclaimed aloud "Naked Vicky in a Museum with a Clone" to my friend, which got some weird looks from other patrons. The piece didn't appear to have much of a context, but it was funny to finally see Poser work in a respected museum. I don't care much for Tim Burton as a director. Evidently I'm the only person on earth who doesn't worship everything he does. I think he's guy with great ideas that end up suffering from mediocre execution. IMO his best movie was "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," which succeeded largely due to the talents of Paul Rubens; Pee-Wee Hermann was still fresh at the time. The "Wonka" redux isn't all bad, but pales by comparison to the first version, even if this one is generally closer to the book. I very much enjoyed Depp's weird character and great acting, but to me, it's just not Wonka. Neither was I blown away by the art direction, unlike many critics. The opening title sequence was atrocious. I thought that the man who played Charlie's grandad was especially good, though, and the young man who played Charlie was fine. Best new movie I've seen so far this year was "Rize." Sorry, no CGI. :-)

Attached Link: http://www.vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=319b255d&atype=articles&id=2563&page=1

I saw the movie thought it was a cool "take" on the original..Tim Burtons darker interpretation...different! I don't think the Boy was "CG" at all! The makeup job they did gave him a very surreal sorta look though! The girl was CG at one point (not poser though) when she was doing all those acrobatics! Here's a link for more "behind the scenes" info if you're interested

I enjoyed the movie. I'm a big fan of Willie Wonka and enjoyed the more in-depth look at Mr. Wonkas past in the new version. I thought Mr. Depp did a fantastic job. I didnt realize they "airbrushed" the actors. Pretty cool. ;) The best new movie I saw was Constantine. :) Maya is used a lot in movies. I think Lucas Films has their own 3D software developed in-house...not 100% sure on that. Clint

Attached Link: http://www.apple.com/shake/

The article say some of the compositing was done in "Shake".

OMG!!! Johnny Depp!!!! faints I've been a fan of his from way back...though I didn't like him at all in "21 Jump Street"... he was just too "pretty boy" then.

I liked him in Donny Brasco. I think that was one of his best parts. Tom

"I didn't like him at all in "21 Jump Street"... he was just too "pretty boy" then." Well, I did think it funny that he made a rather convincing woman in that episode where he had to crossdress.

Not to contradict you or anything ( well yeah I am going to contradict you) poser is used in movies, a lot of movies, but mostly as wireframe 3d Images of humans on computer screens :)

"poser is used in movies, a lot of movies, but mostly as wireframe 3d Images of humans on computer screens :)" Do you have any references to this? I'm not aware of a single Hollywood-produced flick that ever used Poser for anything outside of storyboards/pre-production viz. I guess wireframe humans on a computer screen wouldn't get much press in the vfx world. ;-)

"What software would be used to create and animate film characters like this? Poser? Maya? Maya, XSI, Lightwave, and 3dsmax have all been used in film FX. Maya is usually the application most associated with movie animation these days, followed by XSI. Lightwave and 3dsmax get used a lot more for production work on TV and video games. Most of the big time FX studios use their own proprietary solutions in combination with some very customized versions of these applications. Poser isn't used often, if at all, for major VFX work. Perhaps in the future it will see some action for certain types of shots, but it's not really at the point where it fits comfortably in a production pipeline... yet.

I saw the Poser Cartoon figures (Minnie, Gramps, Barnie, etc.) used in a commercial about text messaging. It was "right out of the box" Poser work. NO frills ... just poorly animated Cartoon figures ... although I think they did perhaps use the cartoon shader, so points there I guess.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=2233959

Just tonight I saw Posette used on the Science Channel (Discoveries This Week) simulating a new technology for grocery shopping.(Some kind of card that reads your shopping preferences while in a grocery store to help you find what you want). Pretty low budget for the Science Channel I thought but there she was. I believe kromekat (Adam )said Poser was used in the Star Wars Revelations Project he was involved with. (Post #8 specifically) This is a very interesting thread in the C4D forum http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=2233959 Kudos to Adam too. Tom

Poser is being used in quite a few films in the previz stage. There used to be an article on Apple's web site showing Poser clips for Jet Li's "The One", and my DVD of "Moulin Rouge" has also few Poser shots in it's "making of' section.

It is in Spiderman 1 on the screen when Osborn is taking about his super serium, wire frame of the dork, hmmm,,, there are more but it is too early to think :)

The Poser 4 woman is used at WalMart as well. The self checkout line has a LCD register screen with what looks like the P4 woman walking up to the checkout station providing the user with instructions on how to use the self checkout station... Was pretty umm..interesting. :) Clint

I've been a fan of his from way back...though I didn't like him at all in "21 Jump Street"... he was just too "pretty boy" then. Ditto! Have you seen Chocolat? Not only is he yummy in it, the overall theme of the movie appears to be "chocolate can change the world for the better" which, of course, is true.... ;-) As for Wonka, haven't seen it yet, but I intend to. The book is very dark, and the Wonka figure in it has moments when he appears almost sinister. I actually read the book before I saw the film, and when I did see the film I was thinking, "That was Willie Wonka? Huh?" because Wilder's version was so very different from the one I'd read. All of Roald Dahl's work is dark and weird, IMHO. Seems a good match for Depp and Burton. ;-) bonni

Attached Link: Edward Scissorhands

Tim Burton has used Depp before. Edward Scissorhands comes to mind. Tom

Also Sleepy Hollow, Ed Wood, and Corpse Bride (which is an animation). bonni

Thanks for the link about SW Revelations, I had no idea. And it premiered in my backyard!

I use Poser for a lot of the large scale fully-3d holograms that can be seen in mueseums, corporate events and various trade shows. The T-Rex, Michael, and Millenium Dragon have all been turned into holograms to name a few. I'm going to be using V3 -- more specifically V3's eye -- for an upcoming smaller scale hologram which should be appearing on product packaging that most people will have a good chance of seeing later this year. Hope to use multiple figures to create a "layers of the human body" large-scale hologram as well.

Best,
Tim