Silent Bob
04-17-2003, 11:11 AM
ILM Now Capable of Realtime CGI
Posted by chrisd on Thursday April 17, @08:38AM
from the ilm-has-a-raleigh-mann-too dept.
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."
Discussion on Slashdot.org
Original Article: Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/15/...0172572718.html (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/15/1050172572718.html)
The magic gets faster
By Adam Turner
April 15 2003
Coming nose to nose with the computer-generated tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic Park was a terrifying cinematic experience, but actors on the set were menaced by a somewhat less frightening cardboard cut-out.
A decade on, actors on the latest Star Wars film watch instant replays of their battles with CG characters, says Cliff Plumer, chief technology officer at special effects house Industrial Light and Magic.
Founded by George Lucas in 1975 to create the special effects for the original Star Wars film, ILM has produced on-screen magic for a string of blockbusters from Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones to Pearl Harbor and Harry Potter.
Many of the tools used on post-production special effects have made their way onto the set, says Plumer. Increases in processing power mean CG characters' performances can be edited on the set in almost real time.
"When an actor is looking at an empty space and doing a performance, right after that take they can look at their performance and see a representation of the CG character," he says.
"It's not at full resolution, but at least it gives them something to work with rather than working completely blind after each take."
In the middle of producing Star Wars Episode II, ILM switched from using Silicon Graphics RISC-Unix workstations to Intel-based Dell systems running Linux. The company deployed 600 Pentium 4 workstations that were about three times faster than the machines they replaced yet a fifth of the price, says Plumer.
ILM's move to Linux has been a long and gradual process. "Linux is still maturing," says Plumer. "When we started working with it a few years ago, it was still in its infancy and a lot of things we took for granted coming from (Silicon Graphics') IRIX operating system just weren't there - supportive drivers from different graphics cards and other things.
"It took a while to mature, but right now it's going extremely well."
ILM developed its proprietary file format, OpenEXR, for the first Harry Potter movie and has since released it to the open source community.
"We've always had our own proprietary file format, which in some ways would handicap us because a lot of other facilities are accustomed to working with the Cineon format," Plumer says.
"We always prefer to work with a higher-dynamic range because it gives us more data to work with. It's not something that we necessarily felt was a competitive advantage to use, but we wanted to give something back to the industry to allow the whole industry to work with a higher-quality image."
Plumer is addressing the Australian Effects & Animation Festival on May 12 and 13 at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne's Federation Square. Fellow speakers include Greg Juby and Jay Daniels - digital effects supervisors on The Matrix Reloaded - and dual Oscar-winner Jim Rygiel, visual effects supervisor on The Lord of the Rings.
For more details call (02) 9319 4277 or visit http://dmw.com.au
Posted by chrisd on Thursday April 17, @08:38AM
from the ilm-has-a-raleigh-mann-too dept.
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."
Discussion on Slashdot.org
Original Article: Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/15/...0172572718.html (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/15/1050172572718.html)
The magic gets faster
By Adam Turner
April 15 2003
Coming nose to nose with the computer-generated tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic Park was a terrifying cinematic experience, but actors on the set were menaced by a somewhat less frightening cardboard cut-out.
A decade on, actors on the latest Star Wars film watch instant replays of their battles with CG characters, says Cliff Plumer, chief technology officer at special effects house Industrial Light and Magic.
Founded by George Lucas in 1975 to create the special effects for the original Star Wars film, ILM has produced on-screen magic for a string of blockbusters from Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones to Pearl Harbor and Harry Potter.
Many of the tools used on post-production special effects have made their way onto the set, says Plumer. Increases in processing power mean CG characters' performances can be edited on the set in almost real time.
"When an actor is looking at an empty space and doing a performance, right after that take they can look at their performance and see a representation of the CG character," he says.
"It's not at full resolution, but at least it gives them something to work with rather than working completely blind after each take."
In the middle of producing Star Wars Episode II, ILM switched from using Silicon Graphics RISC-Unix workstations to Intel-based Dell systems running Linux. The company deployed 600 Pentium 4 workstations that were about three times faster than the machines they replaced yet a fifth of the price, says Plumer.
ILM's move to Linux has been a long and gradual process. "Linux is still maturing," says Plumer. "When we started working with it a few years ago, it was still in its infancy and a lot of things we took for granted coming from (Silicon Graphics') IRIX operating system just weren't there - supportive drivers from different graphics cards and other things.
"It took a while to mature, but right now it's going extremely well."
ILM developed its proprietary file format, OpenEXR, for the first Harry Potter movie and has since released it to the open source community.
"We've always had our own proprietary file format, which in some ways would handicap us because a lot of other facilities are accustomed to working with the Cineon format," Plumer says.
"We always prefer to work with a higher-dynamic range because it gives us more data to work with. It's not something that we necessarily felt was a competitive advantage to use, but we wanted to give something back to the industry to allow the whole industry to work with a higher-quality image."
Plumer is addressing the Australian Effects & Animation Festival on May 12 and 13 at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne's Federation Square. Fellow speakers include Greg Juby and Jay Daniels - digital effects supervisors on The Matrix Reloaded - and dual Oscar-winner Jim Rygiel, visual effects supervisor on The Lord of the Rings.
For more details call (02) 9319 4277 or visit http://dmw.com.au