Doug Hogan » Trailers

“avatar” take 2

Doug — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:24:41 +0000

So is the new “Avatar” trailer less “Ferngully” and more “Terminator 2″? Is all the hype surrounding this film actually based on something real and exciting? I’m starting to get the feeling that it actually is. But decide for yourself and watch the official full trailer below for James (Don’t Call Me Jimmy) Cameron’s newest blockbuster.

And remember, everything you’re seeing that’s out in the jungles of Pandora is completely 100% CG. The only reason I’m reminding you is because you’ll quickly forget. I know I did.

UPDATE: Switched video sources to a higher quality Yahoo trailer…this ones in English! Added a link to the official Flickr gallery that has a ton of new stills from the film. And also a link to the official website that’s now up and running. Be sure to have some headphones, because it has some pretty sweet background music from the film!

LINK: ‘Avatar’ Flickr Gallery

LINK: ‘Avatar’ Official Website

Avatar Trailer

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Toy Story Made Me a Pack Rat

Doug — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:22:21 +0000

Well after a 3 hour train ride, a 9 hour plane ride, a 5 hour lay over in New Jersey, and then a 3 hour flight to NOLA…we’re back in the States! It was a great trip but I can’t tell you how good the stars and stripes look. TV, Diet Coke, and 3G…god bless America! The next few days are going to be spent catching up on all the stuff that’s been going on since we’ve been abroad, so without further ado…let’s talk “Toy Story 3″ and how this trilogy has forever ruined my closet.

While Jess and I were away in Italy, dodging tour buses and learning the words “No Gratzie” VERY well…Pixar at long last released the full trailer for “Toy Story 3″. This time around, Andy…like the rest of my generation who was around for the original “Toy Story”, is all grown up and is going away to College. Facing the dilemma that I think most of the readers of this blog probably wrestled with as well, ‘What to do with your toys once you’re not a kid anymore?’ Me included.

Watch the trailer below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looks pretty great, huh? Well now back to my main point, there’s really only two roads you can go really when it comes to childhood toys. Goodwill…or despritely clinging onto your childhood and trying to expain to your new College roommate why THIS Ninja Turtle is so much cooler than other ones because when you press down his turtle shell he does a “back-flip”. But in reality it usually just lands face first. Which is actually a problem with the slope of the desk, NOT the precise mechanical workings of this Mattel masterpiece. If you can’t tell…I didn’t go the Goodwill route.

Luckily for me though, I went to art school. A place where nerdy collections are encouraged and man-boys are a dime a dozen. Which, true to the stereotype, is the norm in most VFX studios as well. Now why is that? Well Pixar’s new trailer really made me start to realize…they’re partly to blame for an entire generation of pack rats out there!

Think about it. No longer is there only the normal excuse of “Hey, this might be worth something one day!” Which is still to this day why I hold onto all my old Bartman comics. Not because I’m all that big a fan of the pointey haired cartoon vigellante. But because of this simple question. Do you know anyone with the entire origin series of Bart Simpson as Bartman? Nope, me neither. That crap is RARE! And rare means dolla dolla bills.

But I digress, because now thanks to the influance of the “Toy Story” trilogy, there’s also the added pressure of hurting your toys feelings if give them away! This type of anthropomorphic behavior is dangerous damn it. Could your inner child take that type of pressure?! Mine couldn’t that’s for sure! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I found out one day that I hurt Capt. Picards feelings because I gave away him OR any of his best friends who populated the crew of the playset bridge of the USS Enterprise! Make that NOT so.

So…I hold onto them. And every other toy I could find in my parents attic. Though sadly if I’m honest…there were unintended casualties along the way from child to semi-adult. I still to this day have no idea what happen to my Stretch Armstrong, probably a distant garage sale or a date with a pair scissors to find out the secret to his stretchyness. (Secret: Cornstarch). And I can’t wipe away the atrocities I commited on an entire platoon of GI Joes during that tragic Operation Bottle Rocket of ’89.

How do I go on? Well I take trips to Toys-R-Us to atone for my sins, like many other kids of my generation, and collect everything I can. Vowing never to leave a toy behind again and find a special place on the shelf for each and every one in my man-boy office.

So thank you Toy Story, you taught me the error of my ways. And luckily I found a girl out there who actually encourages this addiction to my inner-child. I guess I just got lucky.

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Well that’s it for today, but man it feels good to post again! I can’t wait to get back to the regulary scheduled blogging. Which shouldn’t be too long from now. But tomorrow we’re back on a plane bound for Indiana, and then it’s a 5 hour drive back up to good old Michigan with our two cats and puppy. So Sunday I’m gonna be pretty much catatonic. But keep an eye out for a bunch of pictures from our wedding and honeymoon. They’re pretty beautiful if I do say so myself, but then again…it’s kinda hard to take bad pictures in Italy.

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‘avatar’ teaser released!

Doug — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:03:57 +0000

Alright everyone, drop what you’re doing and check out the new and REAL trailer for James Cameron’s “Avatar”! Fans have crashed the Apple Movies site for the 1080i HD trailer, but traileraddict.com is up and running. So check it out below and let me know what you think in the comments below! Looks like we’re in for something special come December…

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um…avetar?

Doug — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:46:33 +0000

Check out the sweet teaser trailer that just linked for James Cameron’s, um…Avetar? Ahhhh, damnit. Guess we’re stuck still waiting.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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two for the price of one

Doug — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:35:25 +0000

Pixar is so good that they can make a trailer for two movies that I already own and seen MANY times, but still make me want to shell out the $20 to see them all over again! Which this time you’ll get two for the price of one, and in 3D to boot! Not too shabby and a great way to give audiences a taste for whats in store for next years “Toy Story 3″.

Click here to view the embedded video.

BTW, wanna see what the world would look like if Walt Disney all of a sudden came back to life to reveal his true diabolical purpose 60 years in the making? Well thanks to Offworld, we can wonder no more.

FYI, if you put your ear close to the computer monitor you can actually hear the terrify giggle of Mickey von Mouse.

“MUWA-HAHAHA!”

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roland loves waves

Doug — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:00:55 +0000

Is it just me or does Roland Emmerich have a hard on for giant waves crushing cities? Help me decide by checking out the new trailer for ’2012′. What do you guys think?

Click here to view the embedded video.

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toy story toylogy

Doug — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:00:25 +0000

Get it? Toylogy, trilogy? Eh…eh?! Ok maybe that doesn’t quite work because I am only two letters away from toilet. But it’s still copyrighted damnit! So hands off or pay up!

Now this has been out in the ether for a few days now, but here’s the teaser trailer for Pixar’s next film, ‘Toy Story 3′!

I’m really excited about this one. Simply because ‘Toy Story’, like many other artists in my generation, was one of those top 3 films that made me want to do what I’m doing today. And plus I’ll take any chance I can get to relive my childhood. Especially when it’s in sterescopic!

But you know what I’m really blown away with though? The fact that ‘Toy Story 3′ looks exactly like ‘Toy Story 1′! With all the advances in technology that Pixar been responsible for, Woody and the gang still look exactly like they did back in ’95. Which I’m sure was surprisingly hard to do with such a powerhouse of a renderer like Renderman. Anyways, I can’t wait to see more about this in the coming months!

Check out the teaser trailer below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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a surrogate trailer

Doug — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:21:31 +0000

Check out the trailer for the new Bruce Willis flick ‘The Surrogates’!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I really don’t have many expectation for the film, but based on the trailer it looks pretty good to be honest! Pretty interesting story, and the VFX work ILM is doing looks top notch as well. No surprise there though.

I just gotta say though that I love the only difference between the ‘ideal’ version of Bruce Willis and good old regular BW is that he has golden flowing hair, haha. Awesome.

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henson makes wild things

Doug — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:36:57 +0000

I loved two things when I was a kid. ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and Muppets. So it’s no surprise to friends of mine that I’m excited for this movie to come out. Like, REALLY excited.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Framestore and RSP could have easily taken a que from ILM and gone the route of using iMocap to get CG wild things running alongside a kid in a homemade wolf costume. Lord knows it probably would have looked awesome and been a hell of a lot easier on principle photography.

But thankfully they didn’t. And ‘Don’t Panic’ Magazine has the skinny on how Spike Jonze and the Jim Henson Company made these amazing practical suits.

So follow the link below to read this interesting article. And if you’re out there Mr. Jonze, my inner child thanks you.

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LINK: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – CASEY STORM

The creature costumes were built by Jim Henson’s company. The process was long and ever-changing. I had a role in the development of these suits and the way they were aged and dressed on set, but the actual design and construction was carried out by the Henson people. How they were made is a long story, but the short version is that they are foam walkabout costumes with people inside of them. It made for a tedious shoot because vision and movement were extremely limited. They toyed with placing cameras and monitors inside the heads, but the weight of the electronics proved to be too much for the actors and so they were stripped down to the essentials.

LINK: Where the Wild Things Are – IMDB

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district 9

Doug — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:02:40 +0000

What started out as the short film, ‘Alive in Joburg‘ by the front runner director of the ‘Halo’ movie, Neill Blomkamp. Has grown into a full length feature with the help of Peter Jackson. I, for one, am very excited about this. ‘District 9‘ has the feel of an independent film, but with WETA level VFX behind it. And that combination really gives this film some promise. Check out the trailer below!

‘District 9′ Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Alive in Joburg’

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Really amazing stuff. But what’s really cool is if you do a little digging you’ll find one of his earlier commercials for Citroen. Which any compositor out there who started learning shake will recognize this one. Since it was the asset for a tutorial in the old Apple Pro Training Series ‘Shake 4′ book!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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LINK: D-9 – Official Movie Site

LINK: District 9 IMDB

LINK: Neill Blomkamp – Aspiring Director

Today It’s Neill Blomkamp, a Johannesburg native, is a fairly gifted young aspiring director. One that grew up with all that new technology and computers and he doesn’t fear using it in his shorts and advertisements, which he has been doing so far. He uses CGI as it is just a cutting method, you can’t tell whether the shown object is a built prop or just digitally generated. Absolutely great to see.

He has done commercials for Nike and Citroen most notably.
Groundbreaking and certainly important for his future film making are his shorts Tetra Vaal and Alive in Joburg. The latter features some sort of aliens that are stranded on earth and live in the shantytowns of Johannesburg. You could clearly read it as a critique, because it describes a situation that resembles Apartheid.

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