Well folks, it looks like New Zealand Woman’s Weekly has scored bigtime with these wonderful images of scenes in mordor.
A fan from New Zealand was kind enough to send us the details on how to contact New Zealand Woman’s Weekly Magazine. Hey, I’m going to try and get myself a copy! Here’s the info:
Ph +64 9 360 3820
Fax +64 9 360 3829
Post:
P O Box 90 119
Auckland Mail Centre
New Zealand
Email
editor_nzww@nzww.co.nz
(the editor probably won’t be thrilled to get magazine
requests, but there is no other email address given,
and she can always forward them) The magazine costs
NZ$3.10 +pp.
In the meantime, here is the text:
“Lord of the Rings actors Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, who play hobbits Frodo and Sam, look perfectly happy clambering over rocks and taking advice during the filming of these scenes at Whakapapa, near the bast of Mt. Ruapehu, recently. But the chill in the air obviously proved too much for them – the pair sat on hot water bottles to keep warm during the breaks in filming.
Our exclusive pictures show the shooting of scenes from Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor. A series of marching scenes and battles between warriors and Orcs were also shot. Often, three scenes were filmed at one time.
“The whole thing was very well organised,” says an on-looker. “The equipment they’re using is very high-tech and each of the filming units is linked by satellite, so director Peter Jackson can watch all of the scenes being filmed at once on screen monitors.”
Spectacular armour, including shields and intricate motifs, was worn for the battle scenes.
There are 700 cast and crew members involved in making the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They suffered a setback about three weeks ago, when a sudden dump of snow caused the roof of a costume tent to collapse. Some costumes needed repairing but no other problems arose during the four weeks spent filming at Whakapapa. The cast and crew have returned to Wellington to continue filming and will head to the South Island soon. – Karyn Henger.”
And the pictures…
Check out this wonderful article in New Zealand’s Woman’s Weekly Magazine with their exclusive pictures of Frodo and Sam, the Men of Gondor, and orcs! (contact information to get your own copy of the magazine included) MAJOR SPOILERS. [more]
Thanks to Ringer Staff members Gamgee and Elwing we have some new character descriptions of Hama, Haldir, Lotho Sackville-Baggins, Ted Sandyman, and Ugluk! Check out the complete character listing to see the other great descriptions and images of these characters.
Ringer Spy Aglios sends in the latest news on some of the cool computer jiggery pokery involved in LOTR. A whole lot of compu-jargon here, so amateurs be warned! [More]
For more CGI and SFX craziness, be sure to check out our SFX section!
Story Filed: Monday, May 22, 2000 4:35 PM EST
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, May 22, 2000 (INTERNET WIRE via COMTEX) — LambSoft, Inc., introduces a Pipeline Productivity Pack for large game development projects requiring both motion capture and file translation between the top 3D animation packages; discreet 3d studio max, MAYA and SOFTIMAGE 3D.
Designed to streamline the production of large projects, the LambSoft Pipeline Productivity Pack is a bundle of ProMotion and all of the spokes of MoveTools at a specially priced bundle for 10 animation seats. Normally $58,000, the LambSoft Productivity Pack is priced at $19,995 for a limited time. A monthly rental option of $650 a seat is available for smaller or less time intensive projects. All rental fees can be applied to a purchase within 90 days.
ProMotion, a plug-in to discreet 3d studio max, is a full feature animators tool-kit for working with motion capture data. Designed in a real world production environment it provides the most artistic and effective tools available allowing the animator to clean, filter, and edit motion capture data, to apply the data to any character, blend the moves together and change the timing of sequences. The beauty of motion capture data is that it contains all the nuances of the performers motions. To maintain these subtleties the data must be dense making it difficult to edit with standard key frame editing tools, ProMotion also includes a special curve editor SWURVE specifically designed for filtering and drawing over dense motion capture data. Sometimes motion capture doesn’t always capture your complete vision so ProMotion allows you to key frame on top of the motion capture data. You can also use 3d studio max expression mapping or MaxScript commands to expand the functionality of ProMotion.
Matthew Wynn of EA Sports; “Thanks to ProMotion I was able to… (deep breath) organize and direct a shoot in about a week;…All in all it was the fastest turn around we’ve had from idea to shoot, to in-game. I think the marketing dept. here is planning on stressing that we have the coolest looking pit-crew ever. YEAH!!!”
MoveTools, a plug-in to discreet 3d studio max, MAYA, and SOFTIMAGE 3D, allows the animator to transfer and convert cameras, lights, motion, hierarchies, skeletons, geometry (polygons & NURBS), material names and texture coordinates between animation packages. This enables animators in time-pressured production environments to split the production pipeline among multiple animators working simultaneously on character modeling, scene building and animation and create workflow transparency between different hardware and software platforms.
“LambSoft MoveTools has rapidly become an integral element in the pre-visualization of the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ ” says Sean Mathieson of Weta Digital Ltd. “It gives us the opportunity to quickly experiment with many shot possibilities using cost effective software & hardware and then, once pinpointed, easily and efficiently transfer that animation into the Weta production pipelines. The process allows us to dramatically increase our overall shot quality while keeping production costs under control. MoveTools fits in like a jigsaw piece, connecting necessary extremes.”
LambSoft Inc. is a leader in motion compositing and motion integration products. LambSoft software products also include ProMotion and SMIRK. LambSoft customers include game development, animation production and special visual effects companies around the world including Electronic Arts, Weta Digital, MicroProse Software, Saffire Corp., Pyros Pictures, Digital Anvil, Rainbow Studios and others.
Thanks to Aiglios for the news!
Super Ringer Spy Xtem and his Spy in training TaupoGrrl dish out the latest from the LOTR camp. [More]
