papamurf812 said:
Have you seen any of the Alien or Predator movies? Of course they can pull it off. Hunters can be part animatronic/ part CG and I can understand CG jackals, but real (meaning NOT CG) grunts, brutes, and elites wouldn't be hard at all. And all of the costumes would have plenty of room for animatronics to do the finer movements. All of the ships could be miniatures. I just don't know if CG is the way to go.
You don't really appear to be all that well grounded in the basic principles of biomechanics or for that matter, reality.
Can I advise you watch Farscape Season 1:EP9 (DNA Mad Scientist), Underworld, Underworld Evolution, Pumpkinhead and Wing Commander for examples in stilt/poweriser based monsters.
Please pay espechial attention to the camera angles and lighting used, plus how the action is edited and the framing of the shots. Then come back and tell me that you can do decent monsters en masse, in daylight and integrated with other practical and pyro effects, in combat with actors and stuntmen, in an outdoor set, on broken ground and all the while looking good (and then I will laugh at you.)
Grunts, I personally would rather avoid a hairless ewok fest...
I'm curious how you would have approched the trolls in LOTR, let me guess a couple of guys, standing one on top of another with a midget working the head?
Model ships? Are you trying corner the market on motion control rigs? twenty years after the fact...
Examples:
Battlestar Galactica (old)
Battlestar: Galatica (new)
Which has better space battles and the least reused footage?
Which was cheaper? (relatively speaking given the differance in age.)
Really models are dead, they were a pain and bloody expensive. Compare the amount of space shots in DS:9 when Foundation took over to the entirety of TNG.
Talk to any director or effects guy and they will all say the same. Yes some of the old guys may have a wistful look in their eye, but all will agree, CG is the way, it's a mature technology this debate died ten years ago.
The skill these days comes in doing a good job of the effect and it's integration into the composition as a whole, taking efforts to inject life and identity into the subject, somthing outfits like Zoic and espechially Weta are performing with great aplom.
Really, please go and get a clue.