What the hell happened with CATS? | VFX Notes Podcast Ep 62
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- (Chapters available) This week Ian and I reviewed the now 'legendary' film CATS from 2019. We discuss the film, the VFX process, the compositing challenges, the backlash after the trailer, the technology, the relationship of the Director with the VFX vendors, the Oscars's bake-off, and so much more. Enjoy
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Chapters:
00:00:00 - intro
00:00:32 - a word from our sponsor
00:01:22 - podcast begins
00:02:11 - we review CATS
00:11:35 - that trailer, oh boy!
00:12:28 - a very good Blu-ray edition
00:13:01 - the original concept art is very beautiful
00:15:10 - the many attempts to make this film
00:16:44 - the Chemical Brothers music video and The Mill's test
00:21:10 - let's be honest, the film has some amazing CGI
00:22:28 - some incredible stats and shot count
00:23:12 - the challenges of leaving the actor's real face
00:26:21 - how did everything go along with this?
00:28:11 - difficult to know how it looks until it's finished
00:31:08 - Taylor Swift
00:33:11 - got slammed by the critics and their actors
00:35:11 - onset supervision - fur spheres
00:36:59 - it's sad to watch how happy the dancers were while filming
00:39:40 - the director lacked experience with the VFX methodology
00:42:44 - how difficult is the compositing process?
00:50:15 - a tool they had - face lab
00:53:14 - unfortunately it became the poster boy for bad CGI
00:53:43 - the bake off at the Oscars
00:59:35 - that audio commentary
01:02:01 - interesting experience at the Oscar's Bake Off
01:06:48 - the film was updated after the premiere
01:08:10 - some positive aspects - the set design
01:15:55 - a lot of awards - The Razzies
01:18:48 - we feel for the VFX artists
01:20:15 - the butthole discussion
01:21:58 - Patreon and Members credits
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#cats #cgi #vfx - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Worked as a compositor at Mill Film for around 6 months on Cats. You guys are pretty spot-on with conditions, grid warps and compositing challenges. Very rough project, all over the place, worst show I worked on in 10 years. On the plus side, it's quite the project to namedrop in a discussion to make heads turn lol. Great episode!
I remember the influx of people arriving for 3 months in Montreal at MPC/Mill to finish that film. Man the nightmare stories from some to end up fixing half baked renders and just making numbers month before release. Bless the hearts of all the artist, specially Compositors that made this film.
At one point we mention Basement Jaxx's 'Where's Your Head' music video, and I say that maybe Framestore, or CFC or The Mill worked on the VFX for it. But it was MPC, just to be clear (and I love that music video, and the VFX is 'meant' to look that way in the music video, of course.)
I worked on this movie in the VFX division at MPC and I can tell you I always call it the Vietnam of VFX. Whoever worked on it has scars for life to the point some people would refuse to even chat about it even today. The worse experience of my career… so far.
ohh why is it the Vietnam of VFX? 😮
I think its important to know how much pain and suffering went into this film from the side of VFX workers. This for many of us was our entry into the industry. This film was made abusing a LOT of junior artists, unpaid overtime, 12 hour days, many artists on visas were abruptly let go after cats wrapped. Mill Film halved its employee count after this show. Many experienced and non-experienced artists wanted to quit and did quit the industry. Technicolor is a crooked company.
Worth it to stick around to the end and hear Basement Jaxx referred to as Benjamin Jazz 😂 But for real though this is an amazing, nuanced discussion. Shout out to the dancers and the vfx artists.
Man, I love this podcast.
Thanks so much for saying that! We love doing it too!
love your podcast as always. Can’t wait for you guys to talk about Mad Max Fury Road & Furiosa 😍😍
It’s coming, we promise. We are just waiting for some breakdowns and behind the scenes to come out first. Thanks for watching
Cats is still the only film I’ve heard about so far where the VFX studios were doing “Midnightlies” review sessions.
so as far as audio commentary - if you haven't heard Roland Emmerich's commentary for 10,000 BC you've got to listen to it - it's so bad it's amazing
I worked on this film. Was brought in as a roto Anim artist my first day in a training program. The dancing never once did tposes or anything to allow syncing. So all the dancing had to be manually rotod in 3d frame by frame. By people who never did it before lol. 1 week of training 😅😢
3 months before it came out lol
The more details I hear the more it sounds like Tom Hooper was running this project with 0 regard for the knowledge of experts in their field and no respect for pipelines and the fundemental tricks of the trade in CGI. He ended up making it harder for the CG artists and technicians than it had to be.
It's a decades old technology. He was walking on the shoulders of giants yet acting like they were pioneering the tech.
Reminds me of how during Les Mis he went against the fundementals of music and wanted the orchestra to play to the actors' singing (instead of the other way around) whom he encouraged to just change tempo at whim in the puruit of a "dynamic" performance. I recall the musical director/composer/conductor(?) losing his temper over it all in the behind the scenes footage.
Hooper comes across as super arrogant and pretentious.
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I was wondering if the butthole thing would be mentioned. Originally I heard one person was tasked with painting them all out of the shots but apparently not true. I also heard that it was under tail around the butt area that the UV's ended and rendered like they had buttholes. Butt, apparently that got fixed early in development. Would love to know the actual story though.
Cats the musical was a 80's hit with kids, there was no need to make it realistic and gritty
I was there at the team of cats … it was terrible.
thank you for your service
I liked the music despite it being off note 😅
I am in credits and I bought DVD XD It was my first big production😅
thank you for your service
watch the video by @Sideways about the music. it's a good analisys
I worked at Mr X at the time of Cats.
thank you for your service
Horrendous is accurate