You’re welcome to use them in a story if you’d like. I probably won’t be using the little goobers again.
2 Likes
Woah, haven’t watched the Dark Crystal in forever…
Now I know what I’m watching tonight.
1 Like
Such a good movie. I’m still annoyed that the prequel series was cancelled.
2 Likes
Same, it really fed my hunger for far out fantasy in weird alien worlds.
As nice as a typical West European fantasy setting is, sometimes I just need to see somewhere out there that feels like some kind of horrid acid trip like the DC or Morrowind.
1 Like
Always happy to promote anything by Jim Henson. 
CG is all well and good, but I’m old fashioned enough to feel that something physical still has something ‘special’ about it that trumps CG.
For example, I still prefer buying physical discs over digital media, not least because I can’t lose all access to my library because a company decided to change its terms of service on a whim.
3 Likes
I’m exactly the same about physical Media, even to the point that I have an external CD drive for my computer and I burn all of my games, movies and music directly to discs.
When it comes to physical over CG and movies and television, my argument against CG goes like this. The Dark Crystal will look just as good 100 years from now while most of the Hobbit will look like it was thrown together in a kid’s basement as a summer graphics course project.
1 Like
Earlier today, I was explaining to my mom how amazing Georges Mélièrs’s special effects were, back in the early 20th century. The Olympic opening ceremony made reference to him at one point.
Practical effects have a solidity and charm that few computer graphics ever will. The only real lasting example of CG I can think of is the original Jurassic Park.
1 Like
And to be honest you would be surprised how many of those famous scenes were either done with animatronics or CGI overlaying an animatronic.
1 Like
I don’t understand why Jackson didn’t go with practical effects like in the LotR movies. With chemical and other advancements, he should have been able to blow his own work out of the water. Instead, we got some of the weakest CG I’ve seen. It was an insult to the performances in The Hobbit, especially from Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage.
If he had kept things to two movies, he’d have had the budget to really let Weta Workshop shine.
1 Like
Oh, yeah. One reason the CG was so good was because it had to compete with or supplement animatronics and other practical effects. Plus, if the effects flopped in that particular movie, no-one would have ever used them on a large scale.
I miss the days when quality was important.
Me too… I’d pay good money to see a high budget fantasy movie with at least 90% practical effects again
1 Like
Now I want to watch Willow again. It was a neat little movie with some great effects. Also, Warwick Davis is fantastic, and deserves more leading roles.
1 Like
You guys should watch Labyrinth again; meets the criteria of 90%+ practical effects and a seriously high fantasy movie.
They didn’t even use blue screen for the fireys as a technical decision - they had a stage covered with black velvet and the puppeteers in head to toe black velvet bodysuits, as black velvet absorbed all the light, allowing them to chroma key the fireys into the scene.
2 Likes
I adore Labyrinth, such a product of its time and yet it has somehow transcended into being timeless.
1 Like
Labyrinth is one of the best fantasy films ever made. I’ve seen various docus on how it was filmed, and it’s fascinating. I think as a kid, when it first came out, I preferred the behind-the-scenes stuff to the actual movie. XD I hope the sequel actually gets made, though it’ll be strange without Bowie.