Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 14, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Academy Award-winning special-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) relied on digital-entertainment software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) to create thousands of visual effects for this summer’s most sought-after cinema hits, including “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Terminator Salvation,” and “Star Trek.” Using Autodesk visual-effects software, including Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Inferno, which forms part of ILM’s proprietary SABRE compositing system, ILM was able to produce breathtaking special effects.
“The quantity and quality of films that make extensive use of visual effects increases year after year. ILM continues to push its technological and creative boundaries to the limit, creating breathtaking visual effects that delight audiences worldwide,” said Stig Gruman, VP of Digital Entertainment at Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Autodesk is proud of its association with ILM and its army of visual-effects pioneers, who have created some of this cinema summer’s most striking and breathtaking special effects.”
This year’s cinema summer began with the worldwide release of “Star Trek” in early May. For this title, ILM produced a total of 797 shots featuring some of the most extensive CG models the company had ever constructed, using a combination of software tools that included Maya and Inferno. “‘Star Trek’ is one of the most creative, entertaining, and artistic projects I have ever been involved with,” remarked Eddie Pasquarello, ILM’s Associate Visual Effects and Compositing Supervisor on the film. “We deliberately chose to use the Inferno/SABRE system on this project because we knew we could create something truly special. Given the reliability of the system and the extraordinary capabilities of our staff, spectacular results are virtually guaranteed. ‘Star Trek’ is the product of an almost magical combination of extremely powerful software and incredible talent.”
“This film is a new beginning for ‘Star Trek.’ Working closely with director J.J. Abrams, we wanted to give the entire film a genuinely new and fresh look,” said Paul Kavanagh, Animation Director at ILM. “Thanks to Maya’s hardware-rendering capability, we were literally able to animate 70 shots in just five days - a process that would normally take months to reach production readiness. Maya’s speed, the ability to iterate easily, and the ease with which the software connects to our proprietary Zeno software platform gave us a toolset that enabled boundless creativity and was absolutely crucial to the project’s success.”
With more than 555 shots and 46 different robot heroes - some comprising more than 50,000 individually animated components - together with the need to produce an IMAX version, the “Transformers” sequel presented the ILM crew of more than 250 artists involved in the project with a whole series of challenges. The crew calculated that a conventional home PC would need 16,000 years to render the film. Associate Animation Supervisor Jeff White commented: “Considering that different artists with different skills in different specialist areas collaborated on this film, the continually improving interoperability of Autodesk tools is an enormous advantage.” Throughout the “Transformers” production cycle, ILM used various features from a whole range of Autodesk applications: Autodesk 3ds Max was used for digital matte painting, Autodesk Softimage for artistic work, Inferno/SABRE for compositing, Autodesk Backburner for network processing, and Maya as the primary tool for animation, rigging, and layout. White added: “Maya enabled us to push the robots to their limits. This film is not only about the action sequences - much of the story focuses on artistic and emotional aspects, particularly in the key scenes between robots and live actors. Maya and the general flexibility of the Python scripting language allowed us to meet that challenge. Great animation artists using excellent tools contributed to a fantastic film.”
In addition to “Star Trek” and “Transformers,” an ILM team of more than 150 people created 366 effects shots for “Terminator Salvation” using Maya and Inferno. “Autodesk software was an essential factor in enabling us to realise the demanding visual effects in ‘Terminator Salvation’ within the very tight production window,” explained Ben Snow, ILM’s Visual Effects Supervisor on the film. “Maya was the central element in ILM’s animation of all the Terminator robots, and the software’s flexibility made it easy to integrate into our proprietary software. Inferno was an essential part of successfully creating the digital Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 because it allowed us to blend the CG model seamlessly into the real actor double,” Snow added. “Inferno also gave us the power, speed, and flexibility required to create the demanding digital shots of the human T-800 being bombarded with grenades and the resulting damage.”
The latest Harry Potter sequel, arriving in cinemas this summer, also involved 80 artists who delivered a total of 165 shots for the film using a combination of Maya and Inferno. ILM’s work ranged from extensive photorealistic fluid animations of fire and water to multiplying crowds on screen, including thousands of animated characters in a single shot. ILM is currently involved in the production of Gore Verbinski’s first animated film “Rango,” James Cameron’s “Avatar,” and M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender,” and plans to use a similar combination of Autodesk tools.
