Gentlemen's Duel - Blur Studio @ XSI LA

[TeviH]

http://www.xsila.com/

Watch blur studio's new short film, Gentlemen's Duel at XSI L.A., November 2! (Beer, drinks and pizza will be served!)

[Mathias]

Looks nice! I wonder if that image represents the look in the animation itself.
Cant wait to see it if thats the case. I have a hard time getting 3d to look truly handmade and 2d animated. :P

[AnimWatch]

yeah, if those are renderings, I am very impressed.

[AnimWatch]

Got an answer from one of our friends at Blur, and he assures me that image is NOT a rendering, but rather a nice piece of concept art.

Still, nice pic, and a good target for them to aim at.

[TeviH]

darn.. i was excited.

From what I hear, though, it's Blur's best. (I for one loved Gopher Broke and In the Rough, so that makes me happy) :)

[Mathias]

Same here! Still will be nice to check out where the artdirection goes from that kind of concept art. Think atleast it looks very promising although I havent seen much to judge on :P Let's wait and see :)

[ZooRocket]

Looking forward to seeing this one... Wish I could drive down and see it... would be a fun start to the weekend... but not realy in the mood for the 6 hour drive :P

[Sky]

For being such a small studio that place sure makes some great work. And lots of it. It seems like every couple of weeks there is a new blur made cinematic released. And they are always high quality.

[ZooRocket]

For being such a small studio that place sure makes some great work.

From my understanding, they are not that small anymore. With that Disney X-Mas movie they made, they expanded quite largely for feature film production work.

[Mathias]

I think their Rockfish short is getting made into a feature film aswell. I dont know if they are doing that one, but cant see why they wouldnt.

[agentcub]

Aren't they planning on doing their own feature length animated movie? I thought I read somewhere that that was their goal and that these short films are just little test movies to see if they could do it. But, I could be wrong.

[ZooRocket]

Nice article and some pics of the short over at CG Society

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3829

[TeviH]

apparently vin diesel's company picked up rockfish to make it into a feature film.

Great article! Beautiful pics!! I'm waiting to see this one!! :D

[edit] - any panda xpress fans notice one of the duelers' names is Weatherby?? ;)

[AnimWatch]

any panda xpress fans notice one of the duelers' names is Weatherby?? ;)
I was wondering about that...

[Sky]

I love the look of this film and the subject matter. I can't wait to watch it. The design is very appealing to me.

[Zensho!]

Funny how i couldn't find any mention of this short on their website. Was hoping for at least a little snippet.

[Mathias]

Not sure how many of you guys noticed this before me, but just saw a teaser of The Gentleman's Duel at Blur's website: www.Blur.com
It will probadly take some more time untill atleast I'll get to see it in its whole so a short glimpse have to do for now.

[AnimWatch]

Guess you could go to Annecy and see it. I hear it's going to be in The FESTIVAL!!!!

"I HATE Festivals!" - Doctor Tiberius McCracken.

[Mathias]

Yeah :) Although I doubt I'll get the opportunity to go down there this year its definatly one of the festivals thats on my wishlist to visit some time in the future.

Anyway, the short looks really great. The visuals is spot on although I wonder how it plays out. Heard some comments about jokes being abit to much and under the belt, but often its better to build up an own opinion and see how far it stretches for yourself.

[ZooRocket]

I have always been impressed with Blur's stuff. I am looking forward to seeing this one online in the future.

The company has really grown. I personally have always wanted to work for Blur... ever since I met the owner years back at a 3DS Max 6 launch tour.

[bishoplynx]

on top of everything else I love the visual character design the most on this one.

I really hope that Blur is succesful with their adventure into feature films.

[AnimWatch]

I've had a Love/Hate thing with Blur from the start. On one hand, they're technically brilliant. On the other hand, their films can be technical to a fault, eclipsing the art and the story. (Rockfish, anyone?)

Gopher Broke was the first one of Blur's films that I sort of liked, although I wasn't much on the flow of the story or the joke, and the color palette on that film took some of the fun away. Once again with the techical over the artistic.

In the Rough, however, was just right for me. Great color, great character design, great flow of story and good jokes.

Gentlemen's Duel looks like it's going to top even In the Rough. I have high hopes for this one.

You know, one day when it's through with its festival run. :eek:

[TeviH]

ooh! It's in the festivals?? It must be good!

I LOVE festivals!

;)

[Slartibartfast]

Rockfish is one of my favorite cgi-shorts ever. I know that's a bold statement...but it's true. On the surfs up thread, I mentioned how tired I am of Animalation...well, Rockfish is the perfect example of what I want to see made feature. I cream over sci-fi distopian societies...like 1984 or THX or Blade Runner.

[Slartibartfast]

Go to: http://www.blur.com/

and check the Gentleman's Duel teaser in QT. There's what you're looking for. Looks great so far.

[TeviH]

Slarti, I'm with you! Not that Rockfish is the best short ever, but it is certainly in the direction of what animation needs more of! Animation is a perfect medium for making sci fi films, I don't know why it's taking so long to get it main-stream. Oh, wait, I do: Because the suits haven't proved it will make them money, yet.

[Slartibartfast]

Ok ok...so Rockfish isn't my most favorite ever...that' a pretty hardcore statement...I would need to think more on that. But yes, what you re-confirmed is they need to go in that direction. Either more sci-fi or more fantasy. Titan AE was another one that bombed...but I enjoyed it. It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty cool.

[lmartell]

I had forgotten all about rockfish! I saw the trailer a long time ago but found the short here: http://www.atomfilms.com/film/rockfish.jsp

Animation is a perfect medium for making sci fi films, I don't know why it's taking so long to get it main-stream. Oh, wait, I do: Because the suits haven't proved it will make them money, yet.

Well that and Final Fantasy practically redefined the word 'flop.'

[lmartell]

Oh! And I just found this. Read the part titled "Reception"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within

I never saw Treasure Planet but it's pretty interesting that the 2 biggest flops in film history are both animated sci-fi movies. I don't have any good theories myself, just thought I'd throw it out there for discussion.

[Mathias]

"I never saw Treasure Planet but it's pretty interesting that the 2 biggest flops in film history are both animated sci-fi movies. I don't have any good theories myself, just thought I'd throw it out there for discussion."

I heard that The Treasure Island flopped because of lousy marketing because of some of the Disney companys leaders where unhappy with the guys who made the film, just to prove that the film was bad. But the facts here are just hearsay.. dont know how much substance there is in that.
I love the film myself and rate it as the best of the traditionally animated Disney films after The Lionking. But then again I dont think Final Fantasy is that bad either.

Rockfish is also one of my favorite shorts from Blur so far, so I kind of look forward to what they make out of it for a feature.

[Slartibartfast]

No one can really say why FF flopped. Because it didn't follow the true FF universe? Because the story was a touch weak? Because it rode so closely to "the uncanny valley?"

Uncanney Valley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uncanny_Valley

I thought FF was inspirational. I think it revolutionized the realism and detail that a CG film can house. I think all the FF fans came out of the woodwork to bitch, because it had nothing to do with the FF storyline...that didn't help the flop. But mostly, it's because they made the main character resemble Ben Affleck...that's my opinion--not a big fan of Ben. j/k (sort of).

[Zensho!]

Sorry to get the thread back on track, but I just had to say...

THIS SHORT LOOKS AWESOME!! I MEAN, GIANT STEAMPUNKED ROBOTS?!?!?!? Screw Rockfish, I wanna see THIS as a feature.

Back to the FF:Sprits within and Treasure Planet business, I don't think either really deserves the flak they got in the box office. Especially Treasure Planet. I enjoyed that one pretty well. Sprits Within was pretty lackluster though.

HOWEVER, the new ADVENT CHILDREN FF movie is one of if not the best ACTION you've ever seen so far (haven't seen 300 yet, but I think FF:AC can hold it off). The story was decent enough to hold the movie together, but I might have gotten a bit more out of it had I played the game all the way through (stupid computer didn't run it too well).

[Slartibartfast]

Advent should be great, and should capitalize (or fix) the problems the public had with Spirits.

However, I don't think Advent will hold up against 300 in terms of kudos, press, and box office draw. 300 did extremely well, and other than those that can't stand violence, or the bleeding-heart Persian's that have a problem with the historic accuracy or slander, every one loved it. All of my friends that have seen it (I haven't yet believe it or not), all said they would see it again right away--some did actually.

300 is a revolution and master piece. At least, that's what everyone is saying.

Ya, Duelers looks awesome. Simply awesome.

[AnimWatch]

300 is a really fun piece and I really liked it. Some of my friends at work who are a little TOO devoted to historical accuracy to relax and just have fun had serious problems with the movie, but I have little patience for that crowd.

If I want history, I'll read a history book or watch Discovery or the History Channel. If I want a fun, action-packed story, I'll take Frank Miller any day.

[TeviH]

Hahaha! I had a history teacher in high school who was once raging about "The Patriot", how they had fields of CORN when it should've been MAIZE!!

:D

[Slartibartfast]

Two words: Historical Fiction

[TeviH]

I had the opportunity to see the film on the Oscar's Shorts 2006 DVD ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NU2TJW/ref=pd_cp_d_1/102-2179618-5793769?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_r=1G284V3MCBGFGBGSPRTJ&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=252362301&pf_rd_i=B000FSMEDS ). I was disappointed. It looked really good, visually, but the story was really immature and not very original.

Meh.

2.5/5

[bleupencil]

Aww, that's depressing news Tevi :(
Still, I hope to see it for myself anyway.