Too Good to Be True
Computer-developed images allow moviemakers to film adventures using creatures and scenes they've created from their imaginations. With the computer, one creature can be copied to make an entire crowd, which can be covered with the same patterns. But do real animals or even twins ever look exactly alike or are features ever perfect matches? You can explore the challenge moviemakers had in the making of the Lion King wildebeests.
- You will need: a picture of a wildebeest from a computer clip art program or a book. (What? You can't find a wildebeest? Okay, another animal will do.) You'll also need a photocopier and scissors.
- Use a computer to copy the art five times and put six of the same animals in the same scene. If you don't have a computer, you can use a photocopier to make and then cut out six copies of the animal. Six identical ads, flyers, or pamphlets can be used, too.
- Move the identical images around to try and create a realistic looking scene - animals in a herd, people in a crowd, or plants in a garden. Add additional art for scenery with the computer graphics program or with markers. Can you make this look like the real thing?
- Moviemakers, like scientists, study the unique differences between even the same animal species, through inherited traits and changes caused by injury and development. Use the computer to make alterations to each image. Change the look of the skin covering or the size of some features, or slightly move the position of some part of the image. How do your effects help improve the real look of the group?
- If you are using copier or cut-out images, use markers, white correction fluid, or even scissors to create changes in the perfect copies. Which changes are the most effective for a more true-to-life look?
- Computers can create perfect images, but what happens if they are too good to be true?
Curious for an answer? Look Behind the Scenes.
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