It CAN'T be fake! - The most convincing and impressive pieces of CG

[TheRingBearer]

What do you think is the best CG in the film. I'd have to say Gollum but seeing as how Helm's Deep consists of many seperatly created character like the orc army that is also extremly impressive.

[Ahreron]

I'm so sorry but I just can't vote for this one! I love everything! Definately the Balrog, Gollum and the Ents at Isengard, but I loved it all! The weakest CGI I thought were the Wargs, but they were still great !

[TheRingBearer]

Ah yes, the Wargs. they looked great up close but cheesy in action and far away. Plus they sounded like dogs lol But they were cool nontheless.

[Tar-Ancalimë]

why why why! why would you make a poll with the word gollum in it, everyone loves him too much to vote anything else... bah humbug

Helm's Deep... wonderful battle, aragorn was incredible, the uruks looked real... everything was so well done :)

[Little Devil]

Even though Gollum is a good CG character made well, I still will not like him, yuk pfbbt. I thought all of it was brilliant, hard to pick one. But probably Helm's Deep, best action/CG I've ever seen. ;)

[Tar-Ancalimë]

oh cool...someone else who doesnt like gollum... lets start an i hate gollum club lol

[bowlover]

I like the trees! When the Ent is walking it really sounds like tree branches groaning! Also, Gollum is the best. Let's not start an I hate Gollum club. That is sooooo stupid!

[Huan the Hound]

I could not vote for just one. Most of the CG in the TT wowed me! :thumbs:
The wargs, however, paled in comparison to everything else. :(
The scene with Frodo and the fellbeast at Osgiliath was breathtaking to say the least. Beautiful.
Gollum was very realistic (most of the time). One of the main reasons why I will go and see the film again!
Gandalf and Balrog, holy cows!
I'm not sure how much of Treebeard was of the gigantic puppet that was used and what was CG, but the whole thing together was great! His eyes were just as I imagined from the book's descriptions, and the way he walked and talked was done well.
Helm's Deep, can't say enough about how well done the effects were. The line between CG and real live shots is difficult to pick out.
I think some of the most impressive CG shots are especially when you see the whole screen taken up by the departing Uruk-hai army from Isengard and when they are approaching Helm's Deep and the charge of the Rohirrim down the scree slope with that soaring camera shot.:thumbs:

[Keverzwijn]

I realle liked gollum but Helm's deep is also very impressive. Oh men, it all ruled.

[Bonos-Girl]

i chose helms deep.....the conversation with gollum/smeagol didn't work fopr me....and i didn't like the wargs either....more like hyenas than wolves!

[Rumil]

Originally posted by Tar-Ancalimë
oh cool...someone else who doesnt like gollum... lets start an i hate gollum club lol

HERESY!!lol

Go ahead and start your club... it will be very pleasant for you to have such a SMALL intimate gathering;)

In all seriousness though ... course i voted for Gollum because whatever you think of him he is technically incredible and represents a huge advance in the world of CG.

[Orkybash]

I thought Gollum looked too CG and overblown in the first few scenes with him. When he has the rope on him and he holds it out, he is *too* reminiscent of Doby (sp?) the elf!

After that, though, he is *brilliant* CG work., and the argument with himself is the best scene he has in the movie. That's saying a lot.

*joins the "I love gollum" club ^__^*

[Windwater Elf]

I chose the first option. That certainly was the most impressive although the Last March of The Ents and Legolas mounting Arod were great as well.

[bowlover]

all of it was good! This was such a hard poll!

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

Yes Gollum certainly looks impressive.

[Polly Sandybanks]

Gollum.. definitely!

[Sindarin]

I voted for Gollum, of course. :thumbs:

[Alatar]

Ents, they are so well created, there life-like and sound real and all. Besides i have always loved Ents since reading the book:thumbs:

[Gwaihir]

I've voted for Helms Deep. I had hard time deciding because all of them were done so well! Gollum was so well done I was really impressed. He's a bit cute, too. :p sometimes

[Elleth]

I voted Gollum. He is really beleivable.:thumbs:

[Alatar]

I still think Entslol i am obsessed with them

[Sharky]

We thinks (gollum) we've got something (gollum) in our throatses (gollum)

[Rumil]

I quite agree Sharky ... and I love the sig ...... <sigh> .... so true lol

[BeLLe_Etoille]

Hmmm..very hard choice..so many segments stood out for me! :huh:

I was quite impressed with Gollum's "argument with himself"...you really see and feel his "inner struggle" between good and evil and how "the ring" has warped his mind and soul! :wicked:

Treebeard and the Ents were also amazing! I actually "felt" their age and wisdom with each movement, glance, word (or "hoom hroom, I should say..LOL) etc... :)

[HobbitFriend]

I voted for Helm's Deep, but I think they did a very well job with CGI .... Everything in the film looked real. I don't think any of it really looked CG (with the exception of Theoden's face lift lol) Even the Balrog was extremely well done! (the flame looked so real! and that was CG!) But i thought it was really amazing how they did Helm's Deep... i mean it was only a tiny scale (they even have a picture of a dog laying in front of the Deeping Wall - shows how really small the model was!) but in the movie they made it look HUGE! I don't know how they made it look so realistic! It's fantastic! :thumbs:

[Miruvor]

I so much desired to vote for the Ents, but I had to admit the falling Balrog fight was absolutely perfect, and so the best.

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

Well well, time to revive this thread... Yepperz, I know they had to do up a program specially for the flames, and it's not even used commercially! They sure put in a lot of effort!

[Galadhrim]

I voted for Gollum. And not just because it's Gollum, but because that scene was simply outstanding. And I heard so many people around me who didn't know the story wondering if there were in fact two Gollums, and where the other one came from... His inner struggle was so well portrayed, many actors could not present it that well, and this was an animated character! So I say Gollum. Definitely.

[Gil Galad]

i went for the balrog fight, he just looked so cool and big and powerful

[Lessa]

I liked them all but the ents just edged it for me.

Lessa

[Gil Galad]

they used allot of CG in the battel of teh last alliance, didnt they? i thought that wos cool

[Celebrían]

Gollum hands down. :thumbs:

[Beleriel]

Although I thought Gollum was incredible, I voted other....

Because I loved the part where Merry and Pippin were escaping from the Uruk Hai.

I thought THAT was very clever indeed... when they ran underneath the horse etc.

oh.... mind you..... is that CG??

[Kenzie]

it was really hard to decide!!! lol

the ents were so cool and i think they looked realistic but...
helms deep was great (i'm a sucker for battle scenes)
but my all time fav was the balrog fight... exspecialy when it roared and you could see the heat... they did a wonderfull job!!!

[Gil Galad]

yeh i loved to balrog fight to, it wos so cool, they done a brilliant job on him

[Kenzie]

yhea and i loved how they had the flames under the skin... really neat

[Gil Galad]

they really made him look the way i imagined him, he wos cool

[Celebrían]

Beleriel, I thought the Merry and Pippin scene was very clever. I wonder how they did that.....I'm sure we'll find out in the EE DVD. :thumbs:

[Kenzie]

i can't wait till that comes out hehe!!!

i really like how they had the other ents look just like types of trees (exspecial the willow guy lol)

[Beleriel]

Originally posted by Celebrían
Beleriel, I thought the Merry and Pippin scene was very clever. I wonder how they did that.....I'm sure we'll find out in the EE DVD. :thumbs:

Unfortunately, Im sure we will!

Sometimes Im not sure I want to know how its done! I like to believe it is all real!! hahahaha roflmao

*sigh* sad... I know! ;)

[Lessa]

Not really B I know what you mean it takes some of the magic out of it. If you see what I mean.

Lessa

[Kenzie]

somtimes i like to think it's long lost history lol lol

[Lessa]

Yes I do too. I think that's what Tolkien wanted.

Lessa

[Kenzie]

well he sure did a good job!!! lol

[Gil Galad]

yeh same here, i think he really wanted to create a mytholgy

[Amoraq]

I really liked the battle of Helm's Deep. They must have used a lot of CG in that and it was very impressive

[Kenzie]

yhea i loved the scene where gandalf rode up (though i don't think it was CG i really liked it) with eomer and his men behinde him... the lighting was really cool.

[Celebrían]

Oh, that scene gives me chills! That wonderful music!

[Kenzie]

ya know when legolas flipped onto the horse during the warg attack ... well everyone in the thearter was like oooo aaahhhh lol

[Amoraq]

yeah, that was a really cool scene. Completely CG also!

[Kenzie]

yhea i figured that lol ... unless he's really talented!!!! lol

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

I have a confession to make... when I saw that, I did think he was really talented... :blush: :duh: lol
Oh well, but he is talented! lol
yep, that CG bit was real cool. But supposing he didn't break his rib, he might have done something just as cool when he gets up onto the horse lol

[Amoraq]

Yeah, but he did break his rib and that was a last minute patch. I think it was well done for a last minute patch. :grin:

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

yep... it was said that Orli went home and both he and PJ forgot all about the scene lol
Good thing about CG, and PJ being calm and cool. lol I would have panicked totally if I were PJ lol

[Amoraq]

Oh yeah! With people noticing every little mistake, it would've been impossible for people to miss the fact that Legolas never mounted! very good cool thinking and a calm head...I need to be like that. lol

[Elfdaughter]

lol....Helm's deep was just fantastic....that sweep-over showing all the Uruck-hai.....WOW!

[Hobbit]

I go for the Gandalf Balrog fight: The thing just looked so real.
It's just scary how real he looks lol

[Kenzie]

yhea i think i've said this before but i really like how you could see the heat comming out of it's mouth when it roared!! i though that was very cool!

[Celebrían]

Oh gosh I've missed the discussion of my fav moment! :(

I'll put in my two cents anyways....the Legolas flipping scene....loved it, loved it, loved it! It is so exciting it makes my heart race every time! I also thought OB did that himself....:grin: So from what you guys are saying, he would have done that if he hadn't broken a rib? That would have been even more awesome! :o

[Kenzie]

and really hard to do too!!! lol flipping onto a moving horse like that ... and the horse would have to have someone swing on his bridle!!! ouch ... it sounds kinda painfull but then again horses are pretty strong too

[Celebrían]

Well, yeah, but the momentum of the horse going forward would casue him to flip, would it not (if he was holding onto the bridle). When you think about it, it does make some sense.

Kenz: did you check you PM's yet? :grin:

[Kenzie]

yhea or at least it looks like it's his bridal ... but hey the concept of it is realy cool

[Little Devil]

It was a pretty cool stunt. I keep thinking what would have happened if just kinda fell off. lol

[Beleriel]

oh... that bit is just so cool!

I remember the first time I saw Legolas flip up onto the horse... I was like whaaaa?? :o and I just wanted to watch it 50 million times at least! (Luckily I had taped it so I could! :rolleyes: )

But it is an amazing CG sequence isnt it? I just dont understand though... how he managed to get on without knocking Gimli's head off!! :rolleyes: roflmao

[Amoraq]

Well, it was CG so they can do what they want. lol

[Gil Galad]

it is prety, cool alrite, but they cud do it without cg if they had an agile enough person, cos that sort of thing can be done(just not quite as gracefully)

[Kenzie]

yhea the grace woulding be there and the person would have to be light enough not to make the horse topple over

[Hobbit]

Great use of CG there! :thumbs:

What I think is really cool about the CG in the movie is the detail: just take a look at Gollum, the king of modern day CG: He has scars over his back from the tortures at Barad Dur, his skin looks kinda rinkeld and he has cuts at some places. It shows he has a history and tells us it's not a very pleasant one.... a stunning great job from the CG department.
Things like these make the difference between good Computer Generated Images and the best Computer Generated Images :thumbs: !

[Kenzie]

i guess i never really thought about the job of doing gollum... now that i think of it your right hob... they did a very good job.. with lots of detail!!

[Beleriel]

Actually, funnily enough you tend to forget Gollum is CG dont you? At least I do. It just goes to show what a marvellous achievement he is that one tends to think of him as another character and NOT as CG!

Bloomin marvellous! lol

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

yes, my father simply refuses to believe Gollum is partially CG :rolleyes:

[Kenzie]

lol he does seem very real!! didn't a guy ahve to like walk around in a white suit or somthing and pretend to be gollum or somthing like that?

[Hobbit]

Yes Andy Serkis did. He also spoke for Gollum... yessss preciousssss. They wanted someone to play the character so it would seem more real and it did
But they disigned him with the computer for most part.

[Kenzie]

yhea i knew it was somthing like that ... that kinda scary being able to talk like that lol ... i would sneak up behinde my friends "precioussss" hehehe :evil:

[Hobbit]

If I could talk like that I would sneak up to my friend and then I would say: "Nassssty, Trickssssy Hobbit!" lol

Gollum is great. It's the combination of a human walking and talking in a very highly detailed computer generated coat..... perfection lol

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

Yep Gollum is a miracle :thumbs:
My poor daddy'o still thinks Gollum is just acted by a skinny fellow in some skin-tight suit. :rolleyes:

[Hobbit]

lol That's a great compliment to the CG crew...
It was the effect they were trying to reach...

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

yup, Gollum looks incredibly real! :thumbs: Initially, I wouldn't have thought he was CG too.

[Kenzie]

yhea they did great adding all the details and making it move like it was reall and ... i exspecialy like what you said hobb how he had scars on his back and stuff from where he was tortured... i never really looked that close... a great observation!!

[Hobbit]

Thanks..
The cavetroll at Moria also has battlewounds, burns and scars over his body, but you can't see them as good as with Gollum...
It's so cool that every minor character is very detailed...

[Kenzie]

yhea i remember watching the EE DVD and they talked about it a little so i remember that part... the troll was really cool too!!

[Hobbit]

Yeah, the troll rocked... great use of Computer generation imaging :thumbs:

The Balrog was also great: very detailed and very impressive.... not to mention he looked very, very real... for an enormous fire demon anyway lol (So I go for the Gandalf vs Balrog part)

[Beleriel]

I so loved the Balrog!

I thought the sound was amazing on the huge speakers! The base!!!!! oh WOW it made all the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! Especially when he opened his mouth and roared......oooooohhhhhh...... wonderful! I was very impressed.

I also loved the way the fire broke out of his skin every time he moved. It was sooo impressive. I dont know about yous guys... but I ALWAYS had trouble imagining the Balrog... shadow and flame... it was always so vague somehow. But I think PJ and his CG artists captured it perfectly. They couldnt have done any better in my opinion.

[Kenzie]

yhea i loved how you could see the flame cracking through it's skin ... very neato!!

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

yep. the CG crew had to specially do up a program for flames for the balrog lol

[Hobbit]

It's so cool that they spend so much time and money into the CG crew just to get the tiniest details right, like PJ wants them...

The Balrog was very neat.... great piece of CG....

[Celebrían]

I also loved the Balrog....by "love" I don't mean "love, love".....oh.....you know what I mean....;) lol

[Kenzie]

yhea i think we got it cele lol lol

i also loved the balrog (in the sense that you do cele lol) i though they did a great job ... exspecialy when it opened it's moth and you could see the heat waves coming out!!

[Winyaél Greenleaf]

What's wrong with loving a balrog? Froster and I expressed our love for the balrog too :huh: lol (kenz, you do remember that lil' bit of insanity we had in the 'Who do you love most' thread?)

yes, ol' Balrog is a great piece of CG. It was everything I imagined it to be from the book! But still, my vote goes to Gollum, whom my father says, has been acted my a skinny guy in skin-tight clothes :rolleyes: Gollum is just too realistic!

[Hobbit]

Gollum is very good.... he's so realistic with those scars and scratches all over his tangled body..... very good piece of CG...

[Kenzie]

Originally posted by Winyaél Greenleaf
What's wrong with loving a balrog? Froster and I expressed our love for the balrog too :huh: lol (kenz, you do remember that lil' bit of insanity we had in the 'Who do you love most' thread?)



lol i remember ... but i wasn't one of his lovers lol ... i duno theres somthing that i don't find attractive about him.. i can't seem to put my finger on it.... lol lol

yhea i could easily see how some one would think him realy (living and breathing)

[YayBoromir!]

Were there any scenes in the movies which, although your senses were telling you otherwise, you had trouble realising that they were fake? I know I did! The whole scene in Moria felt so realistic to me, I can still remember sitting in the cinema watching it to this day. What impressive use of CG to create the great pillars!
Another time in Lothlorien, I was convinced they had built a huge set but was amazed to see the blue-screen shot on the DVD! The whole realism of Bag End was also overwhelming - I never knew how they did it until again the DVD revealed all!
Does anyone else have any memorable scenes which were totally convincing?

[Hobbit]

I agree with you YayB: the first time I saw Moria, the Shire, Lothlorien etc. it just looked to convincing to believe it is just a lot of tricks from the crew.
Lothlorien and Moria looked so huge, tall, detailed and "deep" (in the meaning that you can she very far and still notice that it's very detailed) that it is hard to believe that the sets only consisted out of the bottom of a few pillars in Moria and a small staircase in Lothlorien.
The CG crew truly did a great job! :thumbs:
But the part that impressed me most is in the prolouge with the elves warriors and the orcs. when the orcs attack the elvenlines, it's actually just four actors in elvenclothes and six orcs and the rest is computer generated with a programm called MASSIVE (Multiple Agent Simulation System in Virtual Environment). And becouse of a programm called GRUNT (Guaranteed Rendering of Unlimited Number of Things) which was specially disigned to make each of the thousend CG soldiers act and fight different, all the CG men, elves and orcs seemed to move and fight individually so that it looks like they were played by actors.

[YayBoromir!]

The CG program they used for the fights was so amazing! I loved the way each warrior took their own individual path in the battle and it looked so random and realistic! They said that the CG was a little too smart and when they tried it the first time the armies ran away from each other lol

[Igtica]

I love the scenes were Sam and Frodo interact with Gollum, you forget that he's actually a computer animated character! Its the same with Treebeard too! It must be hard to act to something which will appear different in the end!

[Lady Ashley]

I still can't think EVERYTHING is fixed in some way. But I remember being especially impressed with when Gandalf first comes to Bag End and interacts with Bilbo. I just can't imagine they're not in the same room!

[Hobbit]

YayB, I've merged your thread about the most convincing scene, with a thread concerning the most impressive use of CG for both threads are about how unbelievebly realistic the CGI are so I think the discussions on both threads would come down to the same thing: what is the most convincing and real looking place, character, event or scene by the use of CG, for every impressive and unbelieveble scene is made mostly by Computer Imaging. (impressive CG does come down to convincing and real-looking CG and only with convincing and real looking CG, they could make all those amazing scenes in the movie look as real and unbelieveble as they did)
This way we don't have two almost identical threads on this forum.
I hope I made a good move by doing this and I hope you don't mind YayB ;) Otherwise drop me a PM
I would like to ask everyone else to ignore this post and keep the discussions concerning the most realistic, impressive and most unbelievebly real looking piece of Computer Generation in the scenes, going. Thanks :)

[Celebrían]

I remember one scene in particular from FotR that had me stumped. You may think this an odd choice, but it was the Council scene when the Fellowsip is formed....I knew for a fact that some of the actors were taller than they appeared to be (i.e. Elijah and the rest of the hobbits). The whole time I was thinking, "How'd they do that?" Again, not an action sequence, like you might expect me to say, but it was one little bit that left me dumdfounded, nonetheless. ;)

[Arwen of Imladris]

I live the HD stuff :)

[Miruvor]

Many of the scenes were pretty obvious manipulation, such as the Company of 9 at the council, and the CGI creatures. Ho Hum.

But what really impressed me were the many scenery scenes that I thought were real until listening to the DVD commentaries - most were still photos matte painted together and used for backgrounds - such as the Hero shot coming over the hill top, the trees around Orthanc and the whole view around Tol Brandir. Silly me thought that those places really existed in New Zealand - not as a mosaic. :idea:
Plus - views around Rivendell and all the miniature shots throughout. Movie making has really evolved.

[Tar-Vanimelde]

Originally posted by Winyaél Greenleaf
What's wrong with loving a balrog? Froster and I expressed our love for the balrog too :huh: lol (kenz, you do remember that lil' bit of insanity we had in the 'Who do you love most' thread?)

yes, ol' Balrog is a great piece of CG. It was everything I imagined it to be from the book! But still, my vote goes to Gollum, whom my father says, has been acted my a skinny guy in skin-tight clothes :rolleyes: Gollum is just too realistic!
I was Balrog lover too! But my vote went to Gollum. I can't even begin to do justice to all the reasons why.
But having said that, every set was fantastic, and Helm's Deep was mind boggling. (thanks for the full names of MASSIVE and GRUNT, Hobbit, I never knew what they stood for!)

[TheRingBearer]

lol yeah. I just thought it was called MASSIVE cause it made a massive amount of cg actors :rolleyes: lol

[Witch King of Angmar]

I like the Helms Deep battle the best, rivals with the beach landing in Saving Private Ryan for my fav movie battle.

[Tirithel]

Actually, something I just noticed, and perhaps this is the wrong forum to talk about it, but at the end of TTT, when Aragorn and Theoden charge out of Helm's Deep (just before Gandalf reappears) and they are galloping down the causeway, the whole procession is swinging swords madly, tossing orcs out of the way like nothing. Most or all of those orcs were generated by the GRUNT program (guaranteed rendering of unlimited numbers of things). If you watch the back of the line of riders, the last few are swinging their swords into nothing. Quite amusing, actually. ;)

[Catz]

such as the Hero shot coming over the hill top
actually Miruvor, that WAS real scenery........they composited a shot of the southern alps, with a studio shot of the actors.
that was often the case.......in many situations the matte painting was just to blend the two together
or there were CGI elements dropped into a scene, like the ruins on the hill top that the fellowship pass, where the whole hill top was replaced by CGI
:catz:

[Elfdaughter]

That was CGI? wow!

[Aragorn's Hope]

I would saw it has to be when Boromir is full of arrows. Don't tell me that wasn't real!

[Kalika Baggins]

Gollum........ yeah....... :rolleyes: