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WETA Digital Operations Mgr. Talks Special Effects

Posted by timothy on from the and-a-one-and-a-two-and-a dept.

Xoanon (from TheOneRing.net) writes "I was recently privileged enough to view a lecture by Milton Ngan. As far as IT stuff goes, Milton has a pretty good job. You see, he is the Digital Operations Manager at Weta Digital. He is basically the architect for all the technical side of things at Weta. Last night he came and gave a 1 hour lecture at Victoria University outlining the hurdles and obstacles that needed to be overcome to produce the stunning 3D graphics lying in each of the Lord of the Rings movies. The lecture itself was full of lots of facts about Weta, the IT side of things and it also included some very cool behind the scenes shots of The Two Towers. The following is a detailed report from the event, where Ngan gave us an amazing behind-the-scenes look at WETAs infrastructure, their mainframes and various workstations. There is also a TON of info in regards to the special effects process, and news about MASSIVE. Take a look."

5 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. AI? by Metallic+Matty · · Score: 1, Redundant

    My friends and I were discussing the huge battle scene at Helm's Deep, and someone mentioned that the legions of orcs, humans and elves were not only rendered with 3d graphics; but also used AI to make the battle more compelling. Now, I'm unsure as to where he found this information, but it sure sounds interesting.

    1. Re:AI? by Snowspinner · · Score: 0, Redundant

      There's also a cute urban legend that, the first time they ran the AI program, the "smart" mobs simply fled the battle instead of fighting.

      --
      Philip Sandifer's academic website
    2. Re:AI? by calyxa · · Score: 0, Redundant

      I seem to remember reading somewhere that when they first programmed up the AI for the battle scenes, the two armies ran away from each other!

      -calxya

      --
      Decay! Decay! Decay! -Helium
  2. Re:Someone please explain to me how by PhoenixK7 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    (2*192)+(2*448) = 1280

    (2*192)+(2*448*2.2) = 2355.2

  3. Re:Could you fix the title? by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Um. You do realize that words written in all caps are not actually spelled with all capital letters, right? The name of the company is Weta, not WETA. It's named after a giant bug native to New Zealand, a bug called a weta.

    --

    I write in my journal