Legend of the Guardians The Owls of Ga'Hoole

[Darrell Lawrence]

Who has seen this? Legend of the Guardians The Owls of Ga'Hoole has some absolutely gorgeous CGI animation in it. Damn that was some sweet work!

[gmd3d]

no never even heard of it.. but I going to have a look see

edit: yeah looks great ... stunning stuff
here is a youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_lMihSKkgA

[Mapper]

It is amazing how far CGI has come.

[gmd3d]

yeah ,, what was the first true cgi film .. anyone know ??

[Darrell Lawrence]

Tron and Last Starfighter. Tron got more publicity, but Starfighter had the bigger impact.

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Warrior

Tron and Last Starfighter. Tron got more publicity, but Starfighter had the bigger impact.

ahh .. I liked Last Starfighter more... I think I will even watch it today

[Mapper]

I liked TLSF The story was much better. But I was amazed when Tron first came out. But I was also an Arcade Junky and loved Video games still do

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Mapper

I liked TLSF The story was much better. But I was amazed when Tron first came out. But I was also an Arcade Junky and loved Video games still do

OH I still like to play arcade games ... no change there for me

back when I was growing up my father used to work in an Arcade so I had the keys to crack up as many credits as I liked ..
never got bored either

[Darrell Lawrence]

Kinda funny, since Starfighter was a game based premise too.

[Redfern]

Let's not forget "The Wrath of Khan". True, the overall film wasn't CGI, just the now iconic "Genesis Simulation", but what it presented seemed a bit more sophisticated than the phong shaded objects in Tron. It presented "particle" effects (the missile striking the dead planet and the wave of "fire" sweeping across it), "texture" and "bump" mapping to present the cratered surface, and morphing "fractals" as the surface was reshaped once the wave had passed.

But wasn't a vector line simulation created as early as the 1960s? I saw a clip not terribly long ago showing a wireframe "paper airplane" soaring through an office type interior, the objects of that environment also represented as edge lines. I could be mistaken, of course, but I seem to remember the date being "1960 something".

Based on the same idea was the tactical simulation of the DeathStar "trench run". I watched another clip demonstrating how that was constructed. The modeler had a control board with dials he (or she) rotated to connect vector lines just to build the simplest of box shapes.

If I can find those clips I'll post the links.

Sincerely,

Bill

[Redfern]

Ah, here's the "building of the trench run" clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeSw00n3Ac

Fascinating stuff!

Sincerely,

Bill

[Redfern]

Haven't found the vector "paper" airplane sequence, but here's a clip of "hyper-cubes" animated at Bell Labs in the mid 1960s (at least that what's claimed in the text).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXYXuHVTS_k

I found another Bell Labs clip depicting a "ballet" of vector "stick" figures, but they just moved horizontally and vertically upon the screen with a trapazoid representing a "persceptive" floorspace. I felt the linked clip illustrating rotational parameters was the more sophisticated sequence.

Sincerely,

Bill

[Darrell Lawrence]

If you have the last Starfighter DVD, watch the Special Features. Has a piece in there about the SW franchise NOT using the CGI at the time that would have allowed the X-Wings to loop.

[Mapper]

Originally Posted by Warrior

Kinda funny, since Starfighter was a game based premise too.

True it was neat how it was really a test that accidently wound up on earth

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Mapper

True it was neat how it was really a test that accidently wound up on earth

yeah every teens dream at the time (at least it was mine, I think there was even a princess in there too. or am I crossing my dreams) - .)