After getting Chairman Lee Jungho’s promise to invest, I tensed my legs and barely managed to step out of the room.
Then, as if he had been summoned, Chairman Lee’s secretary passed by after giving me a light, formal nod.
“Phew…”
The moment I stepped outside KMD Group headquarters, I filled my nose with clean air.
When I took a deep breath, my legs wobbled, as if some of the tension finally slipped away.
A few people glanced at me as they passed, but I did not care.
The pleasant beginning of spring.
The thought that I could start it with such good news made a smile come to my face on its own.
With that smile, I headed for the Seonghyeon Productions office.
“So, how did it go?”
The moment he saw me come in through the door, Junseong wore a desperate expression. Then, when he noticed my smile, his eyes went wide.
“It worked? Really?”
“I told you. I’m a safe asset, okay? Not a speculative pick.”
At my words, Junseong let out a breath of relief.
“Damn… You actually persuaded him in the end. Then the slave contract too…?”
“Yeah. The moment I mentioned that, his ears opened.”
“…”
Junseong looked at me, uneasy.
“Make it work. Don’t become a slave. Five films is five films. How long is it going to take you to shoot all that and pay back what we took in investment?”
“Of course it’ll succeed. But we should aim for more than that.”
“Anyway, when are the packages with Taylor’s universe arriving?”
“About a month. If we fill out the staff in that time, the timing will be perfect. And I need to contact Juri noona.”
Kim Juri.
The art director I had worked with all this time.
This time, the work would have a completely different flavor, so there were countless things I needed to ask of her, and I also needed to have her meet Taylor.
“For props?”
“Yeah. There are a lot of details we need to be really careful about this time.”
“We’re keeping the title as is, right? <Space Vagabond>?”
“Hmm… Is it okay? I just made it a working title for now.”
“Rather than going with ‘Space Wanderer’ in Korean… yeah, ‘Vagabond’ is definitely better. ‘Wanderer’ doesn’t quite land. This time, going with English feels a lot better.”
Junseong repeated my movie title again and nodded.
“It doesn’t look cheesy, like some kids’ movie made overseas. What was the title of that American movie that came out last time? <Space Party>? It’s way cleaner and better than that. Did you see it?”
“No.”
“Better not. I ran out halfway through.”
Junseong shook his head and continued.
“So who are you thinking for the male lead this time?”
“Kim Seunghun hyung would probably be fine.”
The male lead in my film, Victor. His Korean name was Ryu Seongmin.
The cliché of clichés in space movies: a fighter pilot who is playful, but whose skills are second to none.
But if that is all he is, the character loses his appeal.
Usually he looks endlessly light, but in truth, he needs a deep, dark backstory.
Only then will the audience be drawn to the character Ryu Seongmin.
And there is no actor better than Kim Seunghun at expressing that.
“Hm, that’s safe enough… but the villain looks pretty important too. Honestly, I like the villain character even more. Who are you casting for the villain?”
Nyxrod, the one who rules the planet Selene.
Born on Selene, he preaches fair and honest politics on the surface, but in reality, he is a villain.
Because he is skilled at political maneuvering and agitation, he plans to capture the protagonists after they crash land on Selene and use them to boost his approval rating.
“I’m thinking about it. Sort of… hmm. I kind of want to make him completely new through motion capture…”
“Motion capture?”
Junseong asked, his eyes wide as if truly surprised.
“Yeah. Because he’s an alien from a different species.”
“Hmm… What about asking the art team? If it’s Juri noona, I feel like she could do great makeup. I’ve never seen a movie that made a big fuss about using motion capture and turned out good.”
Resting his chin in his hand, he closed his eyes, as if thinking something over.
“It’s a horrifying technology. The facial acting doesn’t even come through properly, along with all the clumsy movement. It makes you wonder why they used it at all… and you want to use that? And for an alien, too?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, my ass. Ugh… Even among crazy ideas, this feels like the craziest one. Didn’t you watch <The Lord of the Rings>?”
Junseong grabbed his head and let out a deep sigh.
“Gollum in that movie! You saw that was made with motion capture! And after seeing that, you’re still saying ‘motion capture’…?”
“…”
When I stayed silent, Junseong spoke as if he truly could not understand.
“Because of that, the Tolkien fanboys even protested. It sounded like plans for the sequel, <The Two Towers>, got scrapped completely. And you still want to use that technology?”
Junseong looked frustrated, but I felt just as frustrated.
If Junseong had seen the real <The Lord of the Rings> that I had seen, he would have nodded and welcomed it.
Gollum in the 2002 <The Lord of the Rings>.
That character was parodied often even on broadcast TV and swept the country, but <The Lord of the Rings> made by some unknown director instead of Peter Jackson disappeared quickly.
At best, it was a film only people interested in movies, or people who had enjoyed the original novel, would watch, and they would only be shocked in a bad way.
“The risk is too big. I’m not even sure Taylor is someone we can trust to that extent.”
Junseong looked worried.
“And it costs way too much money. Like I said before, this isn’t Hollywood. The scale here is tens, no, hundreds of times smaller.”
“Let me meet Taylor first. Then we can talk again. We don’t even know yet whether this is something we can solve technically or not.”
“Nngh… Yeah, that’s true. Phew… I don’t know.”
From the day after she arrived in Korea, Taylor kept a busy schedule, looking into CG hires.
The facilities Gyeong Chanhyeon had prepared were far beyond what she had imagined.
Specs so high they cost close to ten million won per computer, and even a server room of an enormous size.
Even if Chester offered to support it, it was the kind of scale you could not accept lightly.
But because Gyeong Chanhyeon treated her without putting on airs, as if he truly saw her as a colleague, her heart felt more at ease instead.
“Taylor. Director Gyeong said he’s coming today, right?”
Nick asked as he organized the interview candidates beside her.
“Yeah. He said he had something to ask. So I pushed today’s interviews to later.”
Taylor organized the list of people she had interviewed yesterday.
There were quite a few people with strong skills.
But what she was really looking forward to was the diligence that was so typical of Koreans.
The sight of them in LA Koreatown, coming out at dawn and working until late at night, had stayed vivid in Taylor’s memory.
If they could show that diligence in CG too, nothing could be better.
Computer graphics require special skills, but most of it is intense, repetitive labor.
Some coworkers back in the U.S. had been lazy about that work and wrapped it up roughly, so they could not draw out real quality, but if they were people with diligence…
Maybe they could succeed.
Knock, knock.
“Sounds like he’s here?”
Nick hurried to the door and opened it, and Gyeong Chanhyeon walked in with a smile.
In each hand, he was carrying a box of energy drinks.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Thanks to you. And that is…”
“It looked like neither of you can live without these, so I brought some.”
“Hehe… Thank you.”
Taylor took the boxes and quickly put them in the fridge.
“Is Korea okay?”
“I love it. Especially since you made this office so well. Haha. My old office has completely disappeared from my head.”
To Gyeong Chanhyeon’s question, Taylor answered with a bright smile.
“But the favor you said you needed… what is it?”
“I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say this when you haven’t even finished hiring staff yet…”
Gyeong Chanhyeon trailed off and checked Taylor and Nick’s expressions.
“Whatever you want, I’ll try to make it happen.”
“I want to try using motion capture in this film.”
“Pardon…? Motion capture?”
“I came because I wanted to ask whether it can realistically come out at a decent quality.”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s sudden question, Taylor rolled her eyes.
Motion capture.
There still hadn’t been a work that succeeded with this technology naturally.
<The Lord of the Rings> had failed, and because of that, people even predicted that fantasy novels being adapted into films would disappear entirely.
“You’re doing it because of the alien, right…?”
“Yes. If we can just make it look natural, I want it to come out at least at the level of the universe quality you made, Ms. Taylor.”
At his words, Nick cleared his throat.
“Director. We’re… CG designers. To do motion capture properly, we’d need new equipment, and… programmers too. It’s not something you can solve by just drawing…”
“I’ll handle the money somehow. If we need programmers, we’ll hire them. Assuming there are no issues at all, answer this question. Can we do motion capture properly or not? Is it possible?”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s firmness, Taylor’s heart started pounding.
The way he looked like he was half missing a screw.
He was too handsome to call a nerd, which was a shame, but somehow, she felt the scent of her own kind from him.
Wanting to help him and succeed together, Taylor burned with motivation.
“I know a programmer. Someone who actually participated in <The Lord of the Rings>. If it’s him, we can do it.”
“But the quality of <The Lord of the Rings> was the absolute worst. I’m not looking for that level. I want something that isn’t even comparable. A level where you can’t tell if it’s real or CG.”
“That part is the designer’s territory. The coordinate calculations were solid. The problem with Gollum in <The Lord of the Rings> was that the designers did the work terribly.”
Taylor spoke with confidence.
“If we work with the programmer I just mentioned, the quality you want, Director Gyeong Chanhyeon… we can draw it out.”
“Taylor!”
Nick shouted from beside her, and Taylor lifted her index finger to her lips and said,
“We can do it. If money isn’t the limit. Look around. With these facilities, we can make anything.”
“…”
At Taylor’s words, Nick let out a deep sigh.
“You’re sure?”
To Gyeong Chanhyeon’s question, Taylor answered.
“Yes. I’m sure. But… to use motion capture, equipment matters, but the actor matters just as much.”
“Yes. I know.”
At his answer, Taylor nodded, relieved.
Even if you overlay CG onto a face, the character’s fundamental expressions come from the actor’s expressions.
That is why, the more an actor can make exaggerated expressions and exaggerated movements, the better motion capture can capture them.
“You’ll need an actor who’s good enough for that, first.”
“I’ve already thought about who it will be.”
At Taylor’s words, Gyeong Chanhyeon smiled and said,
“Haha. You’re fast.”
T/N:
What is motion capture?
Motion capture, or “mocap” as it’s often called, is the process of attaching sensors to different parts of an actor, recording their movement, and using that data to animate digital characters.
While Gollum wasn’t the greatest in terms of CG, he was a pivotal character. Here’s the process of making Gollum:
Technology has evolved to where mocaps are now used by everyday people such as Vtubers.
Here’s the BTS for this epic scene from the game Where Winds Meet:
And if you ever rooted for your best girl in Umamusume: Pretty Derby…
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