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Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

thechoiceisyours.whatisthematrix.com

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Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#101

Post by echelon »

jjoonathan wrote: post #67
echelon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's my stupid text to speech website: https://vo.codes And you can try the alpha of "version 2" by visiting this, which has improvements in synthesis and vocoder quality, and also lets people contribute: https://api.vo.codes/enable This is far from state of the art, but you can see at the other end of the spectrum that it's an easy toy that anybody can use. I'm working on a photo -> 3D rigged model system and mode…

Very cool! This is fun and I can see big improvements from v1 to v2. I look forward to watching this evolve! https://vo.codes/tts/result/TR:s1rj02g34ppc7bhq1m8bf6p3thny6

Thanks!!

A few areas for improvement in the clip you posted:

I need to add better duration estimation. It's unfortunately truncated.

A lot of the community-trained voices don't fully leverage phonetic annotation, so some of the words fall flat.

I think the synthesizer has too much noise in it (you can see this in the image). The person who trained it probably used noisy data.

Finally, the universal vocoder isn't handling James Earl Jones' deep voice very well. It should be fine tuned.

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#102

Post by motohagiography »

Perhaps a bit meta, but between a new Matrix reboot, this weekend's Rick & Morty finale, and previously even Midnight Gospel among quite a number of other cultural themes about meaning, reality, good & evil, nihilism, I'm feeling a little metaversed out and wondering whether this kind of entertainment is a healthy thing to indulge in.

The idea that it is good to be unmoored from our senses and experiences in favour of filtering them through this flavour of intellectual dissociation seems unhealthy. When I think of the artists behind it, if you are invested in someone's happiness, "red-pilling" them is not generous or sharing, it's self interested and adding company to misery, and I am doubting that this is art by people actuated by the wellbeing of others.

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#104

Post by saltyfamiliar »

xvector wrote: post #48

Is it just me or does this feel kind of hamfisted? I think it would be a cool side detail to have (i.e. an analogue or digital clock shown somewhere in the trailer with the time), but it was kind of jarring and out of place to loudly hear the current time.

I felt the same way. The way the narrator's line is obviously spliced together just detracts from the rest of the trailer for the sake of a party trick.

I really hope this doesn't turn out to foreshadow the movie as a whole.

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#105

Post by JakeTheAndroid »

yepthatsreality wrote: post #47
leephillips wrote: post #30

Why is this called Matrix 4 when there is only one Matrix movie?

Disagree, the trilogy is one of the best Sci-Fi trilogies available and utilizes ideas about people and computing in unique ways. I always heard that the sequels didn’t live up to the hype and avoided them during release. It was only later that I rented them and found out I was taking advice from lowest common denominator action movie fans. I only label those fans like that because their criticism only makes sense if…

I wouldn't consider myself part of the lower denominator of action movie fans. I like a wide range of movies and I look for positive things in even the worst movies. I am generally along for the ride no matter the premise or film quality or even acting depending on the situation. I just like stories.

The last two movies just aren't that great. They aren't terrible, but they leave a lot to be desired. The second movie is fine, it gives us a lot of cool ideas, but the pacing is a bit off. It tries hard to manage being a cool sci-fi movie all about the concepts and an action movie. They just don't nail the balance, but it's not a complete miss as a blockbuster movie.

The third movie is where things really fall off. Everything setup in the second movie is ruined with this movie. They are balancing too many things; The Matrix world and the real world all with multiple subplots, and the concepts with the characters and action. They try to force in new characters that don't have any time to really develop, so we don't really care. And the last fight scene is just a bit dumb and the CGI is pretty bad. It's really just a lazy ending and fan pandering trying to capture the fight scene from the first movie. And because this is tying up the stuff we get in the second movie, it just makes all the cool stuff of that one sort of lackluster.

I won't flame you for liking all three, that's the joy of art. But I think people also have reasonable criticisms of the trilogy overall.

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#106

Post by arthurcolle »

rezmason wrote: post #96
arthurcolle wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice work, I remember trying this a while back. Is there a way to increase the stream density on the volumetric version? By the way on the videos in the original post, they look extremely similar to your volumetric one! I know yours predates it - maybe you inspired the volumetric design in the new trailers!

Thanks for expressing interest! You can use the "density" URL variable to multiply the number of volumetric raindrops, like so: https://rezmason.github.io/matrix/?volumetric=true&density=3... The full list of parameters is in the README.md at: https://github.com/Rezmason/matrix#readme The similarities you point out are probably because of my recovery of the original font, which is also in the repo, and may soon need…

I thought I remembered an issue on your repo where someone asked if there was a way to make it into a screensaver - am I misremembering, or was it removed? and out of curiosity - is that indeed possible or not? I scrolled through the README but maybe missed it. Thanks again!

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#107

Post by mike_d »

xvector wrote: post #48

Is it just me or does this feel kind of hamfisted? I think it would be a cool side detail to have (i.e. an analogue or digital clock shown somewhere in the trailer with the time), but it was kind of jarring and out of place to loudly hear the current time.

Sometimes you build something and realize the effect is too subtle. It has to seem a bit forced to get your brain to go "hey!" and then look at your clock.

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#108

Post by Apocryphon »

motohagiography wrote: post #102

Perhaps a bit meta, but between a new Matrix reboot, this weekend's Rick & Morty finale, and previously even Midnight Gospel among quite a number of other cultural themes about meaning, reality, good & evil, nihilism, I'm feeling a little metaversed out and wondering whether this kind of entertainment is a healthy thing to indulge in. The idea that it is good to be unmoored from our senses and experiences in favour o…

Don't forget Loki, or WandaVision for that matter.

I think there's been both qualitative and quantitative changes to American pop culture. Today's audience is able to handle more sophisticated or just convoluted complex narrative structures than in the past. From comic book cinematic universes to Christopher Nolan's gimmicks, we've come along way from straightforward standalone popcorn films. Now even dumb action movies have to be not just a sequel but intertextual, living within a cohesive fictional space. Everyone knows what "canon" refers to and most know common tropes. (Speaking of R&M, that show seems to be an example of running out of tropes to the extent of burning itself out, imploding into bigger and more meaningless reveals.)

That's also because of quantity. We've simply got too much content, across both films but TV shows, games, tie-in novels, comic books, and other media. Merchandising has been huge since the original Star Wars, but now every franchise has a Wiki and dedicated scholars. It's a whole new level of meta. Maybe that's the only way we can handle the scale of content we are bombarded by; to try to fit them together into cohesive contexts.

I don't know what that means for us as a society or as a culture, but I do note that The Matrix, or at least its sequels, helped to accelerate this process. Back in 2003, the series had both the Animatrix animated shorts and the Enter the Matrix video game that added to the story depicted on-screen, even introducing key characters that movie-only viewers would be confused by (such as the Kid).

I would say that dense intertextuality and cross-media world-building, not so much the Gnostic question your reality themes (which are old hat now), is the current defining legacy of The Matrix.

Re: Matrix trailer dynamically uses current time

#109

Post by crateless »

Apocryphon wrote: post #81
crateless wrote: post #78

I just found out that there is a new Matrix movie and I am honestly a little bit horrified. I have zero confidence that the downhill progression in movie quality will somehow be turned around given the current state of Hollywood.

This is the sequel that broke the camel's back for you and not all of the other sequels, prequels, sidequels, spin-offs, reboots, remakes, retcons, and reimaginings that Hollywood has been indulging in since it was founded?

Everyone has their pet film and it so happens that the first Matrix movie is mine. Anyway, I stopped watching movies over a decade ago and i can't pinpoint the precise straw that did the trick.

Maybe it was the million other straws underneath it.

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