Matt chimes in with a description of the luxury version of History of Middle-earth, Vol. 1, and another fan suggests a present that you could give the non-Tolkien-fans in your life that would still secretly delight your own eyes as a vision of Middle-earth….(more)
Day: December 3, 2000
From: Xtem
Shooting at the Minas Tirith set might possibly have begun yesterday, but is definately set to go on Monday.
Xoanon Note: At the time of posting this, it is currenty 9:37 AM Monday morning, in New Zealand. They could very well be fighting in Minas Tirith as I write this!
Follow the link to see if you can catch your favorite LOTR castmember on the small screen this week! [More]
Bernard Hill (Theoden) True Crime MAX & Catherine Cookson’s The Gambling Man Granada Plus UK
Hugo Weaving (Elrond) The Matrix MAX
Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Gods and Monsters TMN
Ian Holm (Bilbo) Beautiful Joe MAX
Sean Bean (Bilbo) Airborne MAX Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Amy Foster Sky Premier UK 
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) 28 Days TVND5 Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Restoration LOVEP & Apt Pupil Sky Premier UK 
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Progeny MAX & The Exorcist III Carlton Cinema UK 
Sean Astin (Sam) Boy Meets World TMN
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) The Passion of Darkly Noon TMC2 Ian Holm (Bilbo) eXistenZ SUNDAE Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Scandal TRUE & Gods and Monsters TMN
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) Marquis de Sade SHOWB
Orlando Bloom (Legolas) Wilde SUNDAE Sean Astin (Sam) Encino Man WFTE
Christopher Lee (Saruman) Return From Witch Mountain STARZ4 & One More Time TMC Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Interceptor Force SCIFI
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) A Walk on the Moon ENCORE
Elijah Wood (Frodo) The Faculty SHOW2 & Internal Affairs WTAT 
Paul Sutera (Lotho) The Brady Bunch Movie HBOS Christopher Lee (Saruman) Circus of Fear WSPYLP & The Longest Day AMC 
Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Scream of Stone STARZ5 & Color of Night MAX Bernard Hill (Theoden) True Crime MAX
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) The Thin Red Line HBOPL & American Yakuza SHOWX Sean Bean (Boromir) Airborne MAX & Ronin TMN Hugo Weaving (Elrond) The Matrix MOMAX
Miranda Otto (Eowyn) & Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) The Thin Red Line HBOPL
Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron) Sweet Talker STARZ Sean Astin (Sam) Memphis Belle XEWT & Staying Together SHOW3 Christopher Lee (Saruman) Moses TNTI Bernard Hill (Theoden) True Crime MAXS Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Color of Night MOMAX & The Exorcist III ENCORE
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) Boiling Point BETM Ian Holm (Bilbo) Beautiful Joe MAX & Hamlet KSTW & Dance With a Stranger SUNDAE Ian McKellen (Gandalf) Rasputin HBOPL John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) Catherine the Great A&E & Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam COURT
Andy Serkis (Gollum) Among Giants HBOSIG Bruce Spence (Mouth of Sauron) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome KOLR Sean Astin (Sam) Dish Dogs WABC & The Long Way Home WFTX & Safe Passage LIFE Christopher Lee (Saruman) Private’s Progress TMC Brad Dourif (Wormtongue) Nightwatch SCIFI & Death Machine KTXH Bernard Hill (Theoden) Shirley Valentine Paramount Comedy Channel UK
As it turns out, TORN fielded a respectable number of flies on the wall to report on the ‘December3’ SFX conference in Wellington. Thanks to all our correspondents, we have a good record of what WETA’s Animation Supervisor Adam Valdez talked about. (more)
It turns out that TORN had the SFX conference in Wellington pretty well covered. Two more people wrote in with slightly different details from the talk given by Adam Valdez, the WETA SFX guy.
This report thanks to Jim Wellington:
“Hello interested parties,
3December was an interesting event in Wellington (of course!!). I was disappointed that WETA were unable to show any clips during their talk, but Animation Supervisor Adam Valdez was funny and compelling. There was also some guy standing behind Valdez who must have been some publicist or something (“John” I think – likely name!!) – everytime someone asked Valdez something tricky he turned to “John” and then turned back and said “Sorry I can’t answer that”. Valdez looked genuinely disappointed and sorry that he was unable to show us any models or clips, and apologised anytime he had to be secretive. He would not comment when asked by someone “how are you uilding the models – bones, then muscle, then skin or vice versa?”, which really bummed me since this was the question I wanted to know!!
Interesting details:
*** I have complete confidence in Valdez to deliver – he’s not a software nerd, he just wants the computer to do what he has in his head. He didn’t seem like the type that just wanted to show off the effects, and he said that he would prefer it if people didn’t say “wow that’s the best cgi character I’ve ever seen” but rather “what’s he going to do next?!?!”.
*** He said that the “fell beasts” were cool and that they were basically dragons with longer, more snake-like necks and bat-type wings.
*** He said that the effects were not going to be typical Hollywood, but would rather be quite unique, and that he truly believed they have raised the standard.
*** He said that he preferred to animate pose-to-pose and that listening to music while working is the best thing any animator can do.
*** When asked about the continuity issues between films (ie. sfx will get better over the next two years, will we notice the difference in the progress of the films?) – he said they were lucky that the films gradually got more and more sfx as they progressed, so they can save a lot of their detailed work till last I guess.
*** They will be using both FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics) when modelling, and must be able to transfer between the two methods quickly.
*** James Cunningham’s “Infection” short film stole the show – fortunately for all of us he is now
working on LOTR.
That’s all for now.
Wellington Jim
P.S. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to answer anything that was even remotely related to what they are developing out there, so I didn’t bother asking any questions sorry.”
Well, as it is, that’s plenty enough. Thanks!
And Anonymous of Wellington remembers some variations:
“(1) Animation supervisor Adam Valdez isn’t the kind of person that just wants to show everyone he can do cool effects – in fact, he said he’d prefer people to be so convinced that the character was real that they weren’t even saying “this is the best cgi I have ever seen”. This is reassuring after so many cgi characters and shots of them have been just thrown in for the hell of it in the past (read: Jarjar Binks in The Phantom Menace). I think it’s safe to say from the way he was talking that Gollum will be 1000 times better and more believable than that stupid Jarjar Binks. Thank God.
(2) He mentioned the “fell beasts” and said they were really cool – they are basically dragons with longer, more snake-like necks and bat-type wings.
(3) One person asked how they will manage the continuity in the films concerning the rapid eveolution of special effects. Valdez responded that they were lucky in that the films naturally lay out so that more special effects is needed in each successive movie. This means that there won’t be heaps of cgi in film 1, which means they have more time to work on finer details for 2 and especially 3 (esp. concerning Gollum).
(4) Valdez did seem genuinely sorry that he couldn’t answer certain questions and that he had no footage to show – he said that next year there would hopefully be some (and that at the 3December next year the first film will be only “a matter of weeks away”). The main reason they could not show any was because it was over a year before the first film is out, and it would be just too early for any public appearances of footage.
“Valdez also said that the Balrog was “a half apparition, half monster thing” and that the Ringwraiths (and Frodo when he has the Ring on) see things differently to us: “We see light and colour, and they (the Ringwraiths) see … oh, well, I shouldn’t go into that”. Damn, he was so close!!!!
Hope that adds to the last report!!”
It certainly did. Thanks guys!