Just saw the movie and it was absolutely fantastic. It was exhilarating, fabulous, beautiful, awesome, anyone know of any more superlatives?
To keep the spoilers to a minimum I’m not going to tell anything about the story or the jokes which were incredible (We’re gonna live! We’re gonna die!), but let’s talk about the CG.
All you really need to see is the opening scene. The fur of the squirrel is beyond anything I’ve seen so far, not to mention the fluids. I truly love Blender, but you can’t honestly say that you can create the same with it if you invest enough time. This is several generations ahead. Nothing to be ashamed of though. (please don’t shoot me)
The character animation is also superb. Just try to put so much life and expression in a character and you’ll appreciate what you see. Especially the character animation of the mammoths astounded me.
In a few days or so when I’m not this hyped anymore I’ll post a bit more. Because there were also a few things I’m not entirely enthusiastic about. But it really was a great movie. What are your thoughts?
Mods: I posted this in news & chat, since it is CG related. Please move it to off-topic if you think it fits in better over there.
i cant stop looking at the fur and the level of detail.
then you start thinking about how many faces are on it, then you start thinking about the power needed to render it, then you realize how lucky you are to have blender, adn that you can create images that somewhat rival professional movies
The fur on the tail is the pretty good. If you did invest enough time with Blender, you could make that fur. Not the fluids, though. Although they are probibly working on that.
I’m going to see it tomorrow… er, today (its 12:25 AM here). I’m pretty excited. However it seems that now it is expected for a movie to have exceptional computer graphics; it’s not that much of a treat anymore. And it’s also unfortunate that many movie producers feel they can use eye-popping VFX to replace a good story.
The fluid simulator should have moving obsticals supported in the next release, and there was experimental code to model smaller splashes, next logical step is modeling air bubbles.
I really can’t wait to see this movie, it’s always been looking quite good and got a 3 star review.
I think that as soon as bubbles and moving obstacles are possible in Blender, you can make it in Blender, if you have an insanly powerfull computer. Is it possible to have multiple computers simulate fluids, like a “Simulation Farm,” as opposed to a “Render Farm?”
I had the chance to do quite a big simulation for a commercial job, but I did not do it because the deadline was too tight. I contacted Nils to talk about farming fluids, but it turns out it’s quite difficult (although possible!) Here’s part of his answer:
So I guess if you want, you can build a farm especially made for this purpose. I heard timmeh did some hacking into blender (together with a prof of his) that made it possible to do fluid simulations and rendering on a 1024 nodes supercomputer (that is not a grid but just a giant farm that works as if it was 1 huge computer!!!), perhaps we’re gonna hear more about this sooner or later.
I reckon it is possible to get at least near that fur on the squirels tale with Blender. As for the other fur, I’m sure it’s possible. I haven’t worked in Blender a lot yet but I have experimented with particles and it is powerful. You need to tweak it loads and use lots of different particle parts. The real problem comes with the sheer computer power needed.
Slightly offtopic, but D4MMIT, WHEN ARE QUANTUM COMPUTERS HITTING THE MARKET?!
I read someplace (can’t remember where, sadly) that a “regular” q. computer would have a speed equivalent to something like 8 THz. I’m thinking that’d allow for real-time physically correct GI, with particles and fluids and…
…Okay, that was very off-topic. On-topic, I haven’t seen the movie, but other than the effects, I’m not expecting much. Too many sequels are lame (Except maybe Terminator 2.)
<to answer to the off topic>
Hum, the researchs are very difficult, you should better inform yourself on the subject and then come back. do not believe that quantum computer will be ready soon. even in ten years, I don’t think it’ll be achieved. But progress are made in the domain, which is one of the hardest, having to fight again effects of the principles of the quantum physics (decorellation when you observe a q. bit for instance)
</off topic>
I’ve not seen the film yet, but I think i’ll go, there is some time i haven’t cried
Very good movie! It IS a sequel though, so it didn’t have the same effect as the last one, but definitely one of those “take the whole family” movies.
The graphics were clearly improved since the first one. The water, the scenery was fabulous, especially the trees. The hair seems like it can be done in Blender, with enough processing power, the fur strands looked like micropolygons.
Saw it the other night. It wasn’t as good as the first, but I enjoyed it anyways.
The Fur was indeed very nice. The water splashes in the beginning though seemed somewhat off, almost like the viscosity was too high. Might have just been done for comical effect, but it sort of resembled a splash from a claymation movie (not the framerate, just the look.)
The water towards the end was really well done tough IMO. So was the scenery.
Am I the only one who sees this level of rendering and screams BLECH? I am so sick of people fawning over cartoon rug-on-clay style renders. The story might be okay, I haven’t seen it, but the renderman cartoon plastic junk has got to go.
I want to see the next generation after Appleseed (the stage settings, not the characters) and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. I see some great stills on CGTalk but no movies of that render realism grade.
It would just be a matter of creating seperate vertice groups and mapping the particles to each with different paramiters and then compositing them. I’m not saying I’ve done it, but I’m really, really. Like but you a hundred bucks… that I could…
Oh… and halley… the stuff with softbodies for flesh on the dinosaurs done for King Kong in Max, was pretty damn good.
Not to mention the gorilla.
My only quirks were: The Gorrilla was basically scaled up with no thought of how he would look if he were 9 meters tall, and the shots with the girl in his hand were done without properly calculating the physics of the situation. ie. she would have had to endure much more of a rag doll like experience than shown.
Let the force be with us 
