British Universities Film & Video Council

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Mark Antony

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 CafferyMark 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

Record Stats

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