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Behind the Scenes

Posted by michael on from the these-are-the-penguins-you-are-looking-for dept.

JosefK writes: "Film & Video is running an interesting and fairly in-depth article on the technology that's been used by Peter Jackson's crew and WETA for the production of the Lord of the Rings. From satellite video feeds for overseeing remote shoots, to the development of WETA's Massive program for depicting large scale battle scenes with tens and hundreds of thousands of "agents" (and it runs on Linux!), the article covers the gamut of the interesting things Peter Jackson's been doing Down Under." And Salon is running a lengthy article on the increasing use of Linux in the special effects industry.

9 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Special Effects by Unknown+Bovine+Group · · Score: 4, Funny

    But as (Dungeons & Dragons) we all know (Dungeons & Dragons), special effects alone (Dungeons & Dragons) without good characters and (Dungeons & Dragons) plot development (Dungeons & Dragons) is (Dungeons & Dragons) crap.

    (Dungeons & Dragons)

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    m00.
    1. Re:Special Effects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Lord of the Rings is boring. There is a distinct lack of giant robots in it. Good movies have giant robots, bad movies don't.

    2. Re:Special Effects by sharkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      The only thing that could've ruined this movie is if they placed Leo DeCaprio as Frodo.

      Or cast N'Sync as Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Fatty, with Britney as Eowyn and Christina as Arwen Evenstar. Throw in Clooney as Strider and Stallone as Boromir, and you open the way for Jim Carrey and Gary Busey to steal the show as Legolas and Gimli. With Travolta as fearless leader Gandalf the Thetan, LOTR would have rivalled the Batman movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward for space in moviegoer's hearts.

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  2. Once again Quake to the rescue by PeterMiller · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the Salon Article:
    "At Dreamworks, Leonard laments that the thing that drove graphics card performance on Linux in the early days of the migration was the first-person shooter computer game Quake. Gamers who were fans of Linux and Quake hacked on Linux until Quake ran smoothly."

    This once agian proves that the Quake engine was the primary driver of technology over the last 7 years.

    What will take us to the next level of computing? Why, Quake 4 of course.

  3. RTS-Game! by Ch_Omega · · Score: 3, Funny

    Imagine using that setup and those machines for an ultra-realistic realtime strategygame based on LOTR!

    Okay, I just shut up now..

  4. Weather by Levine · · Score: 4, Funny

    He said that the shoot turned out to be one of the worst of Jackson's career. "We had horrendous weather and all kinds of problems in the production... At one point, production had to be stopped when they were shooting in Queenstown, because there was so much torrential rainfall that the entire crew had to help sandbag the town so that it wouldn't be washed away."

    I'd think the ruins of a town washed away would make an excellent set, but hey. Whatever works.

    Cheers,
    levine

  5. I didn't realize by wiredog · · Score: 4, Funny

    that a PBS station was involved in the production of LoTR. Does this mean that I'll stop hearing them beg for money twice a year?

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  6. Re:No Balrog in book 1 by typical+geek · · Score: 1, Funny

    The more important question is "Do Balrogs have fuzzy pink slippers?"

  7. Software created battle scenes by dxkelly · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this mean if we look close we'll see stupid bots trying to run through walls due to bad waypoints?