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Digital Actors in Rings Can Think
Wired News ^
| 12-13-02
| Courtney Macavinta
Posted on 12/24/2002 4:41:33 AM PST by LadyDoc
Edited on 06/29/2004 7:09:35 PM PDT by Jim Robinson.
[history]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- In a sparse, sunlit loft, programmer Stephen Regelous quietly works alone every day to the hum of his laptop. But what he's really doing is leading the masses.
Regelous created Massive, the special-effects program behind the colossal battles in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Using Massive, the Oscar-winning Weta Digital team pulled off anticipated scenes for the latest installment, The Two Towers -- such as the battle at Helm's Deep -- by digitally generating smart crowds to supplement the live action.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Music/Entertainment; TV/Movies; The Hobbit Hole
KEYWORDS: lotr; specialeffects; tolkien
for LOTR and special effects fans
1
posted on
12/24/2002 4:41:33 AM PST
by
LadyDoc
To: 2Jedismom; Alkhin; Anitius Severinus Boethius; AUsome Joy; austinTparty; Bear_in_RoseBear; ...
Ring Ping!! |
2
posted on
12/24/2002 5:00:31 AM PST
by
ecurbh
To: LadyDoc
Hmmm. Huge crowds of synthetic, artificially sentient individuals, all generally the same with slight individual variations. Sounds like Democrat Underground.
3
posted on
12/24/2002 5:39:04 AM PST
by
ovrtaxt
To: ovrtaxt
LOL! Too true. I enjoyed the effects on the screen and had a hard time discerning the real Uruks from the "Massive" Uruks. I love a movie where you can forget about all the CGI because it is so seamless and natural.
To: LadyDoc
I saw a similar version of this story a few weeks ago; I forget the source. It might have been via a Slashdot link. Anyway, it was pretty funny, in an early version of the software, Regelous and Peter Jackson watched the Massive program start a battle scene, and some of the fighters on one side appear to decide to desert and run away. Pretty darn funny; apparently "rational" behavior from very simple AI programs.
To: LadyDoc
I'd heard about and seen about this for months. Yet with both viewings of the movie, I basically forgot even to look for it in the battle scenes. They are so essentially unflawed that you don't think, "Wow, is that well-done!", you think, "Wow, how can the good guys survive
that?!?:
Dan
6
posted on
12/24/2002 9:49:08 AM PST
by
BibChr
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