愚弄了世界的学生视频作业

2013-07-09ByToryStarr

疯狂英语·原声版 2013年4期

By Tory Starr

Heres a story about the latest video to go viral on the Internet， and its a 1）doozy. In it you first see an eagle lazily soaring the sky above the Canadian city of Montreal， then it swoops down and grabs a toddler playing in a park， carries it a few feet， and finally releases the infant. Its crazy. It was posted on YouTube Tuesday evening， got about two million hits， but by the next morning doubts began to grow. Can this be real？ Short answer： no. Its a creation of a group of students at Canadas National Animation and Design Centre. Félix Marquis-Poulin is one of the students working on a class project for their degree in 3D animation and digital design.

Host： So， Felix， what was your assignment？

Félix： We had to do a video of a 2）hoax. We had a mission to make it very viral if more possible. We had seven weeks to do it， and we worked for it on this project， thats pretty much it.

Host： So your assignment was to create a hoax， obviously with no criminal element in it. Technically speaking was it hard to do， and what part of your video is fake and what parts are real？

Félix： The baby and the eagle is fake. All the other things—the father and the baby at the end of the video—is real. So we just create in 3D animation the eagle， then after， the baby who got caught by the eagle， then after fall on the ground.

Host： Now that sounds like something， if youve got the right software， anybody with a laptop could do.

Félix： Ah， no， not， its complicated…

Host： OK.

Félix： …yes.

Host： Which is why youre in college and Im not anymore， so it is pretty complicated to do？

Félix： Yeah， very much. Its a pretty long thing to do because we have to go through a lot of steps like， first of all we have to…like there was the eagle and the baby， then after that we have to 3）texturing them， then lighting them， then reading them， like to animate them after this， then the final compositing with the real images. It took us 400， we think， hours for four people.

Host： So， if the assignment was to produce a hoax， you succeeded. Two million hits in less than 24 hours. Did that surprise you？

Félix： Yes， a little bit. We were expected a little bit of views in Montreal or around Quebec， but not that much， and were very happy to see that. Host： So I gather this is not the first time that Canadas National Animation and Design Centre has fooled the public with wild videos like this. What else have they produced？

Félix： Theyve produced a video with the penguins escaping a zoo in Montreal， and wipeout. We can see a real time floating cars， little cars， like toys.

Host： So， for the eagle thats picking up this child in the park hoax， what grade did you get？

Félix： We will get an A-plus because， if we were about to have one hundred thousand views， we automatically have a A-plus， so I think we achieve it.

Host： You got two million hits， so you should just get your diploma tomorrow and just go on.

Félix： Yeah， thatd be fun， but we still got some much work to do， so…

我们有一个故事，关于在网上非常火的最新视频，那是一个非常棒的视频。在这段视频里，你首先看到的是一只鹰慵懒地在加拿大的蒙特利尔上空盘旋，接着，它突然向下猛扑，抓起一个正在公园玩耍的小孩子，带着他飞了几英尺，最终又把孩子扔下来。这是一段让人抓狂的视频。它在周二（指2012年12月18日）晚上传到YouTube，点击次数高达两百万次。但到了第二天早上，开始有人对此产生怀疑。这段视频有可能是真的吗？简单的答案是：没有可能。那是加拿大国家动画与设计中心的一群学生的一个作品。费利克斯·马奎斯-波林是该校三维动画与数码设计专业的学生，他与同学一起完成一个毕业设计项目。

主持人：那么，费利克斯，你们的作业要求是什么？

费利克斯：我们要做一段恶作剧性质的视频。我们的任务就是让它在网上越火越好。老师给了我们七周的时间去完成，然后我们就开始做了，就是这样。

主持人：这么说，你们的作业就是要设计一个骗局，当然不能有任何犯罪元素包含在其中了。从技术层面看，这么做难吗？在你们的那段视频里，什么是假的，什么是真的？

费利克斯：小孩子和鹰是假的，其他的所有东西，包括在视频结束时出现的小孩子与父亲都是真的。我们自己用三维动画做了鹰，然后是被鹰叼去了的小孩子，还做了小孩掉落的场景。

主持人：这样听起来，似乎是如果有了合适的软件，随便一个有电脑的人都做得到。

费利克斯：啊，不是，不是的，这个比较复杂……主持人：好吧。

费利克斯：……真的。

主持人：做起来很复杂，所以才会是你在上大学，而不是我。

费利克斯：对，差不多吧。这个事儿花了很长时间，因为有非常多的步骤。首先，我们要创作出鹰和小孩子，然后就要给它们加上纹理，再进行明暗处理，再读取数据，之后，还要让一切都动起来，最后还要把它们与真实的场景合成在一起。这个视频，花了我们，我想，四个人大约四百个小时吧。

主持人：好，如果说这个作业的目的就是为了制造一个骗局，你们成功了。在视频上传后的24小时内，点击次数达两百万次。这个结果出乎你们意料吗？

费利克斯：是的，有点意外。我们原以为在蒙特利尔或者魁北克省会有人看，但也不会太多，因此看到这个结果我们很高兴。

主持人：我想，加拿大的国家动画与设计中心用类似异想天开的视频愚弄公众已经不是第一次了。他们此前还做过些什么？