Third Largest Supercomputer... at Weta Digital 245
Designadrug writes "This story at the BBC details how the worlds third largest supercomputer (conditions apply) lives at Weta Digital - the company that provided CGI effects for The Lord of the Rings movies. The article also goes on to discuss the 500 TeraBytes of data generated for the films and how the epic Battle of Pelennor Fields almost defeated the film itself."
conditions apply (Score:5, Insightful)
What processors? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just the beginning... (Score:2, Insightful)
only number is processor number (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:3rd Largest? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:3rd Largest? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe not, if you render frame by frame you end up with lots of independ tasks.
Jeroen
Re:3rd Largest? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wetta@home (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Looking forward ... (Score:3, Insightful)
In my opinion what makes special effects add to a film like LOTRs is not how spectacular they look in isolation, but how the director integrates them into their film.
From what I gather, Mr. Jackson was heavily involved (and very knowledgeable) on what effects were being used where, and he was also very specific as to what he wanted.
A hallmark of a good effects film is where you can't tell where the effects begin and where the effects end. Regardless of how good your effects are, if the audience can identify them directly your not going to captivate them as completely.
Re:conditions apply (Score:3, Insightful)
Close to one of my ideas.. instant translation between any two spoken languages. I sure could have used it in Paris. God help me if I have to go to the Tokyo office!
Re:Looking forward ... (Score:4, Insightful)
There are certainly scenes though in movies where it's an obvious effect and doesn't look real. But the ultimate moments in modern effects is where the ONLY way you could tell it's an effect is knowing in your head that such things don't exist.
To this day, one of the most convincing scene is still the original "Jurrasic ParK" where Jeff Goldblum strikes his flair and waves it at the T-Rex...the scene where the T-Rex is chasing him looks like they captured a real T-Rex and put it in the movie. I mean, my jaw just dropped.
There are certainly parts in the LOTR movies that are like this also, that you only know they are effects because they couldn't have done them in real life. Sure, there are parts of these movies where the effects fall short...with the amount of shots in this movie and the amount of time and limit of money (yes, 350 million for 3 huge movies isn't really that much these days), there will be some scenes that could have used more attention. For instance the warg scene in "The Two Towers" could have used more work (PJ even comments on this in the commentary for the DVD). But still, the scene works.
Re:conditions apply (Score:2, Insightful)