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ILM Now Capable of Realtime CGI
Sandman1971 writes "According to the Sydney Morning Herald, specialFX company ILM is now capable of doing realtime CGI, allowing actors and directors to see rough CGI immediately after a scene is filmed. Actors on the latest Star Wars film watch instant replays of their battles with CG characters. ILM CTO Cliff Plumer attributes this amazing leap to the increase in processing power and a migration from using Silicon Graphics RISC-Unix workstations to Intel-based Dell systems running Linux."
...my webserver has been doing realtime CGI for years.
Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
We have Real-time CGI Porn?
Where ever you go, there you are.
The way that is worded, it makes it sound as if the processing power of an Intel/Linux combination is superior - whereas it is a matter of the bang for the buck instead.
You can get more processing power with the latter since it is cheaper (I would imagine even moreso with AMD) and easier to maintain. But not because it is inherently special or faster in any way.
I wonder if this will bring Silicon Graphics back into the favor of Intel boxes - for awhile they were okay with WinNT and Intel boxes, but then they dropped all of that - presumably for a higher profit margin and less hassle of maintaining multiple systems (also likely some break in business politics - perhaps someone at MS pissed someone off at SGI).
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
In the Fellowship of the Ring DVD, Peter jackson can clearly be seen watching golum on a monitor (low poligon, but golum none the less) performing the mo-cap Andy Serkis is performing IN REAL TIME; as it is happening (not after).
So does this make this old news??
I dunno, I feel the ILM have been behind the bleeding edge for sometime now...
alnya
Its a pitty they haven't got one of those to write the script!
Steve.
well, I guess they need to get that jar jar binks death scene juuuuust right.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
Technically, perhaps. I think this is a great tool for directors and actors. Instead of having to wait weeks/months to incorporate CGI and see the interaction, it can be done in minutes/hours or as fast as the CGI people can splice things together. The director can give near-immediate feedback to the actor(s), which could really help the movie get done more quickly and with fewer costs in the long run. Think about it: changing the expression/pose/color on a CGI character is fairly easy. Re-filming live actors, especially with live fx, can take much longer and be more expensive (salaries for actor, director, film crew... lighting, film, makeup, fx expenses).
Well, as more and more cgi houses move off of SGI (and on to whatever), they are only really left with their server business. It's really a shame to see a once proud pioneer in the industry reduced to a mere shadow of their former selves, though I guess in this industry, its very common (e.g. DEC, Lotus, Compaq, etc). At this rate it's hard to even see them being around in 4 years, a definite takeover target.
/. comment:
ob
SGI (aka Silicon Graphics Inc.) was found dead today at the age of 20. After being a high flyer in his youth, often seen hobnobbing with Hollywoods power elite, the latter years were not so kind and saw him in the throes of an identity crisis. Eventually his reliance on a small circle of friends was his undoing, as he was slowly replaced by more mainstream competitors. He will be sorely missed, as while he was at the top, he was a role model for "cool" in the industry, and helped to usher in one of the most exciting (and abused) technology shifts in the motion picture/video entertainment industry since the advent of talkies and color.
not even close
further proof that commodity hardware is killing innovative companies like SGI, and a FREE UNIX is helping it happen.
Linux is great for a company like ILM which is stuffed full of coders who can adapt it to suit their needs, not so good for many other companies.
That was classic intercourse!
would be to develop a program that re-writes Lucas's inane dialogue in real time...
This is particularly important as they aren't using film.
WIth HD Lucas is shooting actors on Video...and now doing previsualization with the CG elements on set.
Did Liam look in the general direction of, but not AT the eyes of the CG character? Reshoot. etc. etc. etc.
Additionally a rough edit can be done off the video tap on set with the rough CG edit.
Unfortuantetly this still means nothing without good acting, a good script, or alternate footage to make decisions from.
You make a film three times.
Once on the page, once while directing, and once in the edit. But if everthing is so storyboarded and timed down the moment that you can't have options, you can't discover anything in the edit at all.
Oh well, at least you can see what the giant CG creature looks like
Post your server's url to slashdot, and we'll see just how realtime it is.
Dark Helmet - "What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie?"
Col Sandurz - "Now. You're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now."
Dark Helmet - "What happened to then?"
Col Sandurz - "We passed then?"
Dark Helmet - "When?"
Col Sandurz - "Just now. We're at now, now."
Dark Helmet - "Go back to then."
Col Sandurz - "When?"
Dark Helmet - "Now."
Col Sandurz - "Now?"
Dark Helmet - "Now."
Col Sandurz - "I can't."
Dark Helmet - "Why?"
Col Sandurz - "We missed it."
Dark Helmet - "When?"
Col Sandurz - "Just now."
Dark Helmet - "When will then be now?"
Col Sandurz - "Soon."
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley