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…a thousand army plug-in efx.
I dont know what efx to call it but I’ll give a description of what this efx is….
If anyone of us as seen the ‘Troy’ and ‘Lord Of The Rings’ movie…there were some scences were the soldiers looked more than a thousand or maybe 10,000 soldiers…I want to beleive that those were not real humans and some plug-ins were used in those scenes…does anyone have an idea…and is it achieveble in AE….tho’ I am still new to AE but a lil’ bit of info isn’t gonna hurt…right…
Regards,
‘kk’ -
11 Replies
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both of the movies that you mentioned used high end-3d software/hardware to create these effects. Not 2d AE.
LOTR created their own software and hardware to make these scenes, and they rendered using a system called ‘Massive’, just to give you an idea on what it takes to do this kind of work. On a side note: LOTR developed the technology, not to animate 10,000 orcs, but to create 10,000 orcs and tell them where to run. BIG DIFFERENCE.Having said that, if you hunt around the pasture you’ll find a couple of tutorials that can show you some amazing effects that will get you quite far. Using Trapcode’s Particular is very powerful.
Good Luck,
Todd at UCSB
Television Production -
…why is that everytime I try to understand the AE programme I get confused all the time…please forgive me for complaining…
…how did LOTR create thier own hardware and software…is it some kind of software and hardware that is not available in the market…
I know SGI (silicon graphics) makes some very cool hardware like this…is it possible that this was what was used…thank you.
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Massive was developed not BY LOTR, but FOR LOTR, by Weta Digital, Peter Jackson’s FX company behind LOTR’s effects. This was a cheap and easy task by NO means. It must have taken TONS of knowledge and smarts to write Massive, which basically allows you to set behavior for thousands of characters, even based off of what is going on in the scene.
Anyway, start small if you don’t really know how after effects is used. I’d suggest googling “After Effects Tutorials”, and first getting a feel for the capabilities of the program. Then, you can start tackling fancy effects, etc. AfterFX is great for compsiting, 2D/2.5D animations, and motion graphics, but it’s not a 3D package, and you won’t be able to generate life-like 3D figures with it very easily.
For 3D packages, check out softimage xsi, maya, and cinema 4D to name a few.
Hope I helped a little bit…
Alexander Gao
“When the revolution happens, I’ll be leading it.”
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by the way: http://www.massivesoftware.com
Alexander Gao
“When the revolution happens, I’ll be leading it.”
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ONE more thing!
After further review, I am not positive that MASSIVE was developed by Weta.
Alexander Gao
“When the revolution happens, I’ll be leading it.”
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Like he said, you aren’t going to replicate that look with AE.
Those crowds weren’t really animated, they were simulated. They created the behaviour and abilities of one orc, like you would for a video game character, and then let it run. AE has some powerful scripting and expressions capabilities, but that’s not really what it’s designed for.
The way AE works is you get twenty guys dressed in armour, shoot them in front of a greenscreen while they wave their swords around. Then you key out the green and layer bits of that footage over your battlefield until you have enough of them.
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O! gees…you guys have really done well. I appreciate all your responses and was really satisfied with all the replies I got from all of you…
I have visited the massive software website and read all about the capabilites of the software and what I read was really great…well, I want to beleive what I read will be as good as what I’ll see..lol! Just kidding, I saw some sample still images on the website and I really liked it….thank you so much guyz…
I think I have asked this question..is there a possiblity I get DVD’s on ‘the making’ of some films…films like ‘star wars’, matrix, ‘LOTR’ e.t.c…I really want t o know all that happened behind the scenes…
Once again, thank you guyz for all your responses, I am ever so grateful…
Regards,
‘kk’ -
Frequently the DVDs of the movies themselves include behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the movie. There are also several magazines that cover digital video, cinema and effects. CINEFX is dedicated to visual effects in movies.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Yes. I know the Matrix and the LOTR DVDs both had features on how some of the effects were done. It tends to be a broad overview, rather than at a level of detail that you could duplicate the effect, but I did have a few moments of “Now that’s a really good idea!” when watching both of them.
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And just to be clear, this will of course not look as good as the LOTR way of doing it.
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