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Forget Avatar’s Graphics, Watch "The Third & The Seventh"

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25 comments January 9, 2010
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If you thought Avatar was mindblowing, check this out. Immediately watch, full-screen and in high definition, the following 12:29 minute short “The Third & The Seventh” by Alex Roman. Your sense of reality is about to be warped.

The film’s minimalistic synopsis reads like this:

A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.

Wait… fully computer graphics?! The age-old style vs. substance debate shouldn’t apply here. Visual wonder becomes substance. Seeing architectural spaces so beautiful and so eerily realistic, almost seems to enhance their possibility of existence. And we’re in luck, because they do. Sometimes, we let the wonder of the very structures that house us slip by unnoticed.

Check out more of Roman’s work at his vimeo site.

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from → Art & Design, Videos

  • Jesus


    Hold the phone, why didn’t they tell us they could do this? Holy blazing balls that was amazing…first!

  • lebzorx


    whoa whoa whoa, i can’t believe that this isn’t real! are you serious!?! my mind was blown.

  • leroy


    At first i thought whats so awesome about this, its just showing some shit going in and out of focus, then i realised it was all CGI… mind = blown

  • harvarvgar


    cgi always looks best in context of other cgi.

    • Sigh


      Yes but the rendering is exquist, I can not believe your comment here.

  • PhamPharm


    ” It’s almost as if seeing images so beautiful, yet so realistic enhances their possibility of existing.”

    I didn’t know what to feel but that pretty much sums it up:D

  • GodsGod


    Still cannot get over its CG…How the fuck?!

  • derp


    that was f’in ballin

  • http://yudhirkhanal.wordpress.com yudhirkhanal


    Really a 21st century master piece! How would you get all the textures right , fitting in great lighting. comparable to avatar! refreshing!

  • No One


    this was a nice video. i still think Avatar was much better. and as far as the “holy shit this is CG?!?!?” ummm… Beowolf. sure it wasnt the best… actually the movie sucked.. but the CGI in that was amazing. if you werent paying attention most of the scenery looked real. ok so this is mostly the inside of a building. some outside effects. lighting was done. but to be honest, im not all that surprised about this video.. its no secret that this lvl of CGI has been out for atleast a couple of years.. only difference now i think, is that its more readily available to private users that have the software to run the programs that can produce this level of CG video. give it 5 years and this “HOLY SHIT THIS IS CG?!?!?” will be “seen it… seen it…. seen it…” the video was nice though.

  • jct


    Textures and clouds are incredible!

  • Meh


    Sucked balls

  • Nick


    At about 9:20, that building is Milwaukee’s Art Museum. That is not a CG shot.

    • http://www.21stcenturyboy.net/ Michael Suen


      Hi Nick, thanks for visiting. From what I believe, all the spaces you see in the short film are real-life buildings, recreated in CG.

  • WOW


    No Words. I can’t believe this. this is so amazing

  • Coma


    While the artwork is phenomenal and the talent of the artist cannot be questioned, comparing this to Avatar by insulting the movie was a bit over the top. This was 12 minutes of boring, uninspired, uncreative drivel. The art in Avatar was so mind blowing because it was fantasy art, this is anything but. I have to question the point in using CG to replicate what could be produced with an actual camera.

    • Hifty


      It’s subjective. Just because it isn’t fantasy art doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate it for what it is. That being said, it’s also why you can’t compare the two. This is a 1-man project. The time, the creativeness and the talent you’re seeing in this video is unbelievable. So calling it boring, uninspired and uncreative drivel is an insult to the artist.

  • melly


    I agree with Coma. As much as this shows some great talent, there is no comparing it to Avatar which required a different kind of imagination and skill. Also, you have to take into account that much of the technology for Avatar was being created as it was used, where with this, there is nothing to tell us what software was used. We cannot determine if this cg somehow came to benefit by the research that was done FOR Avatar.

    Without knowing that this piece is completely independent of any progress that may have happened because of the research avatar (including any software upgrades that were inspired by the said progress); we cannot truly compare these two works to one another.

    HOWEVER! If you take the view that this is a more accurate and measurably accurate piece, I would have to agree. The subjects are much more measurably accurate than anything in Avatar. However very little in Avatar was measurable in accuracy as much of it was not something with which you could compare a real sample. If you would like to say that the movie Avatar could have benefited greatly from the input of this artist, I would agree.

    I would also like to point out that putting down one work of artistry in order to promote something made at a later date with no proof of independent progress, is not an acceptable move, and degrades the value of both pieces as well as the integrity of the comparing party.

  • Simon


    This is simply stunning! CG has developed so far in such a short time. I can’t wait until these graphics can run smoothly in a video game setting. Having that level of realism could bring a whole new level of game immersion.

  • CB


    you kids are fuckin retarted. What is depicted in the film has nothing to do with what the creator was trying to do. The entire purpose of this was to create life-like CG images, and as far as that is concerned it is a success. It makes avatar look like it was done in crayon. Sure avatar took creative effort, but that effort was done by the concept artists, not the renderers, not to mention this entire thing was done by one guy, probably for free, thats compared to avatars 100 million dollar budget. Not to mention that this was released in 2009, and posted only posted here in jan 2010 so Melly, yeah, you need to shut up. This came before avatar.

  • meh


    avatar = scifi updated version of Pocahontas.

  • James Ford


    If I were making a film and the focus puller decided to pull this crap, he would be out on the curb REAL quick. I can’t help but think that the jittery focus was being used to hide imperfections in the render, though. Overall, it’s far from impressive.

  • Chris


    holy mother fucking shit. its art. deal. like really, obviously someone put time into both avatar, and this. they’re both completely different, the quality doesn’t define the story in Avatar, and the lack of story in this piece doesn’t make it crap. ALL OF YOU SHUT UP! I’m 16.

  • Serious


    perfect presentation of imperfection :)
    to all critics saying this isn’t good: if you make something better than this, than you can complain, until then SHUT UP!

  • No One.


    Here is a video that gets way to much hype. Avatar was mind blowing because of all the detail and brilliant colors. This is a video of a rendered building and such, no mind blowing colors to dazzle your sight with. Watching this would give the same emotional feel as if I was there “this place is neat”, nothing like avatar where its more like “holy cow, look at that!!!”.