SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

From the Pendulum website: "Pendulum chose a passionate monologue from Antony and Cleopatra [the "all is lost" soliloquy, IV ii], and proceeded to build a 3D Mark Antony and a richly textured environment appropriate to the play. The artists then sculpted over 40 facial "blend-shapes" for the character. These sculpted expressions can be realistic or exaggerated, allowing a digital character infinite stylistic possibilities, ranging from life like to cartoony. Next, they worked with the House of Moves team to simultaneously capture the full performance of the actor, including his body, hands, facial motions and even his voice. The data was then applied to the digital character using the studio’s new software, and Mark Antony came to life". The Gizmodo-UK squib links to the YouTube video.

Language

English

Country

United States

Medium

Multimedia

Technical information

Colour / Sound

Year of release

2006

Duration

2 mins

Credits

Director

Michael McCormick; Robert Taylor

Cast

James Michael Caffery

Mark Antony

Additional Details

Production type

Animation

Plays

Antony and Cleopatra

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

computer animation; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); 3D filmmaking

Notes

Notes

$50,000 estimated budget (IMDb).

General

Text from the website: "When it comes to testing the cutting edge in CGI characters - particularly the notoriously difficult facial expressions - it seems there’s no harder taskmaster than The Bard himself. The man who put the ‘T’ in tragedy has made, and broken, many actor’s reputations on stage but, getting animated characters to portray all of those emotions, is seen as the Mt. Everest in computer animation"

Online Availability

Online URL

http://uk.gizmodo.com/2006/12/14/shakespeare_tests_computer_gen.html

Production Company

Name

Pendulum Studios