Now we know, thanks to a very speedy report from a fan who went to the SFX conference in Wellington today (more)
Month: December 2000
There’s just been a conference in Wellington on movie SFX and of course one of the invited speakers was Adam Valdez, Animation Supervisor.
Helpful correspondent MN emailed us instantly it seems with this report:
He gave a talk based “around” Lord of the Rings. I mean “around” because he was unable to really give any details whatsoever on his work, and couldn’t show us any clips or footage, which was a little disappointing.
He gave one or two interesting snippets:
– He said that working on the project was ‘intimidating’ because of the worldwide love for the book
– The flavour of the animations would be very ‘unique’, unlike what would be seen in standard Hollywood studios
– One of the interesting visual treatments that falls under his unit is to portray the ‘wraith-world’ that Frodo enters when he puts on the Ring. He couldn’t be very specific but mentioned that it was full of ‘weird stuff’
– He went on to mention some of the CG creatures: giant octopus,(The Watcher in the Water? – Tehanu) digital doubles for Frodo, trolls, Balrog, Uruk-hai, Treebeard, Shelob, oliphaunt, and of course Gollum.
– He said that Gollum would be the greatest challenge of the movie for him.
– A lot of work had been done on Gollum, but ‘he’s not there yet’
– Their crowd work, using ‘Massive’, would raise the bar to new heights for crowd scenes.
– One of the most important things to take into consideration when animating is what music you’re listening to at the time.
Many thanks to MN for that.
So, Shelob and Treebeard are in (I’ve heard people complaining that they weren’t)and we have a hint about how they’ll show the Ring or its effects when Frodo has it on.
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Merry of The Palantir contacted us to say he’d posted a great interview with somebody who knew Tolkien at Oxford in the Fifties. You get a sense of the man and his environment from reading it. Find it on Merry’s site here
Are you from the Pacific Rim, or just an early riser? Are you hooked on our great discussions of all things Tolkien? We have a special treat for you this Sunday! By popular demand, we bring you an extra Hall of Fire this weekend. Click here to find out more about the topic, “Peregrin Took: Piece of Luggage or Hard, Bold Halfling?” and the time.
Hullo Tolkien Fans! This Sunday there is a special edition of The Hall of Fire, to test the waters of fandom down in the Pacific. The chat will be held in the evening for those down under; see below for exact times. If enough interest is generated, this chat time will join the other two. The topic for this Special Edition chat is:
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin: An unquenchable hobbit with a desire for adventure, and the youngest member of the Fellowship. During the course of his journeys, he gets caught in a tree, captured by orcs, and gets up to all sorts of other mischief. But did this son of Paladin achieve anything worthwhile on the quest, or would he have done better to be sent home, as Elrond wished? What do you think? Come on down to share your views on Pippin this weekend.
Time: Sunday, December 3rd, 8:00 p.m. Sydney time, 10:00 p.m. in NZ, 9:00a.m. GMT, 4:00 a.m. EST.
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to our chatroom Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire
See you there!
From: Leonides
I work part-time as a bookseller at Waldenbooks, a division of Borders International. Anyway, today I was intrigued to find a large white envelope lying upon my manager’s desk with a bright orange sticker with white lettering on the front proclaiming ‘Lord of the Rings material inside.’ [More]