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General discussion (archive)Movie release: Mars(39 posts)(39 posts)
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Posted October 22, 2014
Rotoscoping the Red Planet

Mars, a rotoscoped romantic comedy taking a cast of unlikely astronauts on a monumental quest to set foot on the Red Planet, is available 33% off on GOG.com. That's only $3.99 for the first three days!

Mars is told in the playful style of a graphic novel- using a unique animation process that director Geoff Marslett developed specifically for the film. Underneath the silliness Mars is also an exploration of exploration. Why do we want to know what is out there? How do we react to what we find? Is it really that important? And where does love fit into the whole thing? A new space race is born between NASA and the ESA when Charlie Brownsville, Hank Morrison, and Dr. Casey Cook compete against an artificially intelligent robot to find out what's up there on the red planet. 'Mars' follows these three astronauts on the first manned mission to our galactic neighbor. On the way they experience life threatening accidents, self doubts, obnoxious reporters, and the boredom of extended space travel.

You can get to Mars 33% off until Saturday, October 25, at 2:59PM GMT.

<iframe width="775" height="436" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Exp-Y2B6R9U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Post edited October 22, 2014 by G-Doc
Posted October 23, 2014
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BreOl72: Now, I'm not an expert, and maybe the rotoscope-technique had to be re-invented for this movie (though according to some comments, it was already used in "A Scanner darkly (2006)" - which I haven't seen),
The rotoscoping in A Scanner Darkly is vastly superior and appears to have actually involved real artists, but. This film appears to have had some kind of digital filter applied to it, if that is the case then I would argue that this isn't real rotoscoping.
Posted October 23, 2014
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SirPrimalform: Huh... doesn't look like genuine rotoscoping. More like an annoying photoshop filter.
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catpower1980: Looks like they used the "cartoon" effect from GIMP on every frame :)
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SirPrimalform: So it's not just me!
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Wishbone: Uhm, it's a movie, not a game ;-)
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SirPrimalform: I'm guessing even more not for him. :P
The effect.. I don't know it looks to me like they shot everything behind a green screen and in post production they used a cheap effect either on the camera or using a program to batch process all the frames in a single sweep applying the cartoon filter like in a photo editing program. It comes off looking really cheap.

A scanner darkly & Waking Life is true rotoscoping having the artists redrawing each frame by hand to give that more fluid and beautiful craft to it. The trailer.. well I just couldn't get past the cheap aesthetics although it is cool to see it on GoG and we have the choice to buy, am I right?
Post edited January 16, 2015 by porjay
Posted October 23, 2014
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BreOl72: Now, I'm not an expert, and maybe the rotoscope-technique had to be re-invented for this movie (though according to some comments, it was already used in "A Scanner darkly (2006)" - which I haven't seen), but I know for sure, that Jordan Mechner used rotoscoping for his classic game "The last Express" already in 1997.
Depending on your definition of rotoscoping, it was used much earlier than that. The light sabers in Star Wars (1977) were made by rotoscoping for instance. According to Wikipedia, rotoscoping was first used in 1915.

Still, the movie card refers to "a unique animation process developed specifically for the film". It's not claiming the director invented the concept of rotoscoping, only that he developed a new way of doing it. Since we, the (potential) customers, can only see the end result however, the process is irrelevant. A cookie is a cookie, regardless of how it was baked.
Posted October 23, 2014
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Wishbone: A cookie is a cookie, regardless of how it was baked.
Mmm... which in this case is a cookie that looks like it was baked with a photoshop filter. >_>
Posted October 23, 2014
Hmm... finally something I will actually buy.

I originally thought this might have been written by the Duplas bros but I guess not. It looks good anyway.
Posted October 23, 2014
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Wishbone: Depending on your definition of rotoscoping, it was used much earlier than that. The light sabers in Star Wars (1977) were made by rotoscoping for instance. According to Wikipedia, rotoscoping was first used in 1915.
Aww, I was going to point out the 1978 Lord of the Rings movie, but I guess Star Wars was earlier (and I figured it was even older than '78 anyway).
Posted October 23, 2014
whoo another movie ...hooray

at leats its not another bloody gaming documentary
no im just here to say that rotoscoping was used among others in

the lotr movie ( the orcs are rotoscoped )
the dance sequence in disney cinderella ( 1950 )
the light sabers in the original star wars trilogy are animated by rotoscoping ( the original light sabers are actually alluminium and carbon sticks )
as well as in spaceballs

hell its even used now in guardians of the galaxy

lots of games used it too
the most obvious and famous are off course prince of persia and another world

but the last express and hotel dusk room 215 used it too
and lester the unlikley

it is cool it looks cool but its certainly not new or unique
Posted October 23, 2014
Interesting idea to use a filter like that, certainly a way to meld the lack of budget for effects :) However watching the trailer I think its not for me. It just looks to odd and didn't get a feeling of _why_ I wanted to watch it from watching the trailer.
Posted October 23, 2014
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Wishbone: Uhm, it's a movie, not a game ;-)
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SirPrimalform: I'm guessing even more not for him. :P
Very true! :-D
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General discussion (archive)Movie release: Mars(39 posts)(39 posts)
(39 posts)