Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA (04/19/84)
From: Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA (who enclosed it with a local dl change A tidbit for the Movie goers: The new computer generated efx movie "The Last Starfighter" has finally finished filming and might even make it to the theaters on time. The film will contain about 27 minutes of "Digital Scene Simulations" which is a fancy word (and service mark) for animation done by Digital Productions on their CRAY XMP. From one who used to work there: the images are FANTASTIC!! So what if the plot and acting arent the STARWARS/STARTrek quality. What you will see is something that has never been done before. All the space scenes and some of the background mattes were done by computer. There are NO models in this flick at all! The battle scene at the end outdoes anything StarWars (ie ILM/LucasFilm) has yet attempted! There are about 60 ships flying around. All computer generated. All done in ONE PASS (ie no mattes to stick together like the modelers do). The trailers are in the theaters now and include a short cut of the "Star Car" as it takes off from a highway. Check it out! As for why I "used to" work there: 60-80hour weeks w/o overtime, weekends w/o overtime, no chance of raises or advancement and a "management" that doesnt know know the meaning of the word (or even care). It was exciting but not a very nice place to work.
OC.TREI%CU20B@sri-unix.UUCP (05/28/84)
From: Peter G. Trei <OC.TREI@CU20B> The June issue of High Technology magazine contains an excellent article on computer graphics, including the following tidbits on Digital Productions' work for the movie THE LAST STARFIGHTER: The work is being done on a Cray X-MP, printed on 70 mm film at a resolution of 4000 x 6000, at a pace of about one minute per day. Unlike TRON, the images include transparency and reflections, as well as fractal landscapes. Some detail is also provided on the Genesis bomb sequence from ST-TWOK, and other developments in the field. Peter Trei oc.trei%cu20b@columbia-20 ps: The back cover of the paperback of the movie has a small image of a spacecraft from the film. pt -------
rls@ihuxf.UUCP (Richard Schieve) (06/25/84)
I devoured Alan Dean Fosters version of The Last Starfighter last weekend. This is his adaption from the screen play (like he did for Alien) so I expect that the movie will probably hold pretty close to the book. I can't wait for the movie! I sounds like the video arcade addict's (myself included) dream come true. There should be lots of opportunities for the Cray computer's special effects. It sounds like there also should be interesting humor, the hero mentions something about "THE FORCE" right before battle and his copilots response is very good! I don't want this to be a spoiler so I'll stop now, but again, I can't wait for the movie!! Rick Schieve
LATZKO@RU-BLUE.ARPA (06/26/84)
From: Alexander B. Latzko <LATZKO@RU-BLUE.ARPA> Just finished the book and I must truly pray the movie is better. The book is in the usual ( or to me what seems usual mode of good sf movie tie ins) mode of draw out the backround and leave the good stuff for two minutes at the end. One thing I noticed about the physical book. On the spine where the publishers logo often goes it was marked "MOVIE TIE-IN". Waiting for the hype machine to run out of steam (July 15??) alex -------
trumpler@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA (07/07/84)
From: Mark Trumpler <trumpler@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA> Just saw the sneak preview...the graphics were good, and the plot was (as has been printed here) a video game addict's dream, but the characterizations left something to be desired. But then, this is SF, so who cares? -+- Mark <trumpler@ucla-locus.ARPA> P.S. Saw it with Conan... now that was a good movie!
Isdale.es@XEROX.ARPA (07/09/84)
re: Peter Trei"s msg the good guys main planet is called "Rylos" not "Rhyol". It is also the California license plate on the back of Centauri's Star Car. (dont bother trying to get the real CA plate. That went to the head Tech Director at DP last year (he quit shortly after I did, neither of us got screen credits for all our sleepless nights). The good guys dont have an "empire". They are the called The Star League and are fighting the Kodan Empire....The game starts out with the voice: Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan Armada.... The company that did the special effects is Digital Productions not Digital Effects. DE does commercials and logos but not feature films. There isnt really anyone else who is set up to do computer graphics feature films (Lucasfilms ILM does shorts like the Genesis Effect but that took an incredibly long time considering the speed which DP gets wiht the Cray XMP (weeks versus hours)) Personal Notes: As a previous employee of Digital Productions, I will be happy to answer any questions I can that you folks in netland may have regarding the graphics, etc. Digital Prod. is not on the net but I still maintain some underground connections with them. Jerry Isdale Isdale.es@Xerox.ARPA
WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA (07/12/84)
From: William Daul - Augmentation Systems Div. - McDnD <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-2.ARPA>
Scene on the cover article on page 62. The following is copied wthout
permission.
3-D Images for the Film Industry
Behind Digital Productions' Closely-Guarded Doors
By W. Mike Tyler
The largest producer of computer-generated 3-D images, in terms of sheer
volume, is located in an obscure section of Los Angeles. One might not even
notice Digital Productions' presence if it were not for a huge water cooling
tower, or the extra power lines coming from a nearby utility pole.
John Whitney, Jr. and Gary Demos founded Digital Productions in 1982.
Together, they developed a process known as Digital Science Simulation(tm)
for creating totally computer-generated images for the film industry. This
month, the firm will add motion pictures to its list of TV commercial
accomplishments when Lorimar Productions releases THE LAST STARFIGHTER, a
full-length feature film containing 21 minutes of computer-generated images.
Behind Digital Production's closely-guarded doors is the most sophisticated
hardware and software ever assembled for the sole purpose of creating
computer-generated imagery and simulation. The facility is capable of
producing 12 minutes of film per month, where the average frame complexity is
250,000 polygons. At 24 frames/second, that is 17,280 individual images (4.3
trillion polygons).
To accommodate this intensive computational load, Digital Productions has
acquired a Cray X-MP computer (hence the need for the cooling tower which
extracts heat from liquid freon circulating through the Cray's PC cards).
In addition to the Cray X-MP, Digital Productions has a full array of data
entry, encoding, and movie previewing workstations. Ramtek RM9460
imaging/graphics display systems give technical directors the ability to view
fully rendered images before they are committed to film. The amount of data
that can be displayed is 1280 x 1024 pixels x 24 bits per pixel, or
approximately 4 mega-bytes per frame. Interfacing to the Cray X-MP via a DEC
VAX 11/782, these previewing stations provide immediate feedback and allow
the technical directors to experiment with a variety of different display
attributes. The hardware also includes a 2560 x 2048-pixel by 10-bit/color
film recorder and a high-speed custom interface to the Cray IOP. Both were
designed and built be Ramtek.
From a systems perspective, Digital Productions' designers are interacting
with a graphic database--representing 3-D shaded solid objects, something
common to many CAD system designers. However, the scope and scale of their
system sharply departs from your everyday CAD operation. This has to do with
the special requirements involved in the production on images for film. Most
significant is the need for raw computational speed.
Quality film production work for a single 35mm frame requires a film recorder
resolution of 3000 x 4000 pixels and 10 bits for each color. At 10
floating-point calculations per color, per pixel, it would take 8.64 billion
calculations to produce one second of film (3000 x 4000 pixels x 3 colors 24
frames/sec. x 10 calculations/color pixel).
In creating realistic computer-simulation scenes, lighting and rendering
algorithms require one to 10,000 calculations per color. Thus, anywhere from
864 million to 8.64 trillion calculations are needed to produce one second of
animation. The Cray, at 200 million floating-point instructions per second,
takes anywhere from three seconds to 10 hours to generate one second of film.
Since adjacent frames contain common image features, programming shortcuts
exist for reducing the overall number of calculations. Large-format 70mm
movie film resolution (4600 x 6000 pixels/frame x 30 bits/pixel, or
approximately 100 Mbytes of data) ups the computational requirements even
further.
How economical is all this? In the case of THE LAST STARFIGHTER production
costs were significantly lower than filming scale models of the Armada ships
and performing post-processing to make them look real. When comparing
industry firsts, THE LAST STARFIGHTER includes over twice the amount of
simulation that appeared in STAR WARS, and was produced in approximately one
third the time, at about one quarter the cost.
CONCLUSION
There are fundamental parallels between Digital Productions' supercomputer
environment for film-making and high-performance systems for mechanical CAD
design or engineering simulation. All have a common purpose: design
productivity. Each has its own intensive computation burden.
But not everyone can afford access to a Cray-class computer. However, these
application needs have spawned a new generation of graphics peripherals with
special-purpose computation accelerators to tackle the dynamic display of
complex 3-D solid objects. Ramtek's new 2020 products fall into this
category. The major improvement brought by this class of device is the 3-D
design takes that formerly took anywhere from tens of minutes to hours can
now be done in seconds.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mike Tyler is manager of the product management group at Ramtek Corp. Prior
to this, he was employed by Computer Science Corp. Mr. Tyler graduated with
a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.zellich%almsa-1@sri-unix.UUCP (07/13/84)
From: Rich Zellich <zellich@almsa-1> Just saw a sneak of The Last Starfighter tonight. Tron I liked because of the computer-generated effects; "Starfighter" would have been worth seeing whether it had any computer-generated footage or not. Don't nit-pick it, just go see and enjoy; it's a fun film! -Rich
OC.TREI%CU20B@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA (07/13/84)
From: Peter G. Trei <OC.TREI%CU20B@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA> I just went to see a 'sneak' preview of THE LAST STARFIGHTER, so this is a *************************************************************************** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *************************************************************************** First of all, I would like to say that sneak preveiws arent as sneaky as they used to be. TLS's preveiw was given a full-page ad in the NYT, and it is being done over two days in four theatres in Manhatten, and about 20 around the metropolitan area. Time was, a 'sneak preview' meant something; directors would sit in and gauge the audiences reaction to different parts, and do a final cut according to the results. Now its just part of the marketing hype, an attempt to build up word-of-mouth even before the official release. I went in expecting to see a special effects movie, with maybe higher technical standards than TRON, but the same abysmal standard of script and acting. I was pleasently surprised. While the plot is very meager it is a perfectly adequate vehicle, and the acting is mostly perfectly decent. I wont go into the plot in detail; basicly video games whiz Alex (Lance Guest), gets recruited into a space navy by the mysterious stranger Centauri (Robert Preston, who gives an amazing performance as a somewhat suspect but extremely enthusiastic presuader). He finds himself instantly inducted into the ranks of the STARFIGHTERs, who were recruited into the force for their special talents. They are to fight for the good Rhyol empire (you can tell, they dress in white), against the emperors evil son Xur (played extremely well by some (Shakespearean?) actor name of Snow). (You can tell they're bad, they like black interior decoration) Alex chickens out, and while he is back on Earth breifly Xur attacks the base, believing he is killing all the Starfighters. Alex soon finds himself back in battle, manning the armenants of the only Gunstar to escape the destruction, with a trusty navigator in the form of Grig (Dan Oherlihy, who is forced to act while wrapped in rich Corinthian leather). After overcoming some initial doubts, he succeeds in single-handedly wiping out the invading armada (though Xur escapes for the sequel). He accepts a commission to rebuild the Rhyol fleet, but only after he returns again breifly to Earth (in a scene reminiscent of CE3K) to pick up his girl friend. There is an amusing subplot concerning events back on Earth while he is away; Centauri left an exact duplicate android in his place, and this 'beta-unit' has considerable trouble dealing with Earth folk, particularly the girlfriend and Lewis, Alex's kid brother. The effects are excellent: computer generated images are used for all the space scenes, and the field has advanced vastly since TRON (Digital Effects used a Cray X-MP). They are not stuffed down your throat the way they were in TRON; there is always a good reason for showing them; they advance the plot, rather than the other way around. The actors are generally competent or better; though they are asked to play paper-thin characters, they do so with sincerity and enthusiasm (I dont think Preston has had so much fun since The Music Man). Of course, there are holes in the plot you could drive a planetoid through, but you are left not really minding. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, and it turned out to be *much* better than I anticipated. On a scale of 10, I would give it about an 8. Contrast this with GREMLINS, which was far below what I hoped; it got a 3. See it. It opens July 13th. Peter Trei oc.trei@cu20b%columbia-20 212-5692371H/8153711W Dont let THEM immannentize the Eschaton! -------
msc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (07/15/84)
As I said in a recent article in net.movies, as a filmgoer my reaction
to all this digital *scene* simulation (not "digital science simulation"
-- that's what they do in NASA's Computational Chemistry Group :-) )
is big deal. That will continue to be my reaction until they start
doing something that couldn't be done by the traditional techniques.
The generated scenes I have seen are considerably lacking in a sense of
depth just like all other 2D animation techniques.
As a computer professional I have a certain interest in the systems,
techniques etc used to produce these images and indeed in and of themselves
some of the images are very beautiful but so far they bring nothing new to
the filmmakers art.
Comments? Flames??
--
From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@qubix.UUCP, decwrl!qubix!msc@Berkeley.ARPA
...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{ittvax,amd70}!qubix!msc
"Nothing shocks me. I'm an Engineer."jdb@qubix.UUCP (Jeff Bulf) (07/17/84)
In the cas of TRON, the advantage to computer graphics over hand animation
was that you got to see the good parts at (Boston) SIGGRAPH. Had I realized
what a dumb movie the rest of it was, I'd have skipped seeing it in a theater
later on.
Any chance for LSF trailers in Minneapolis next week?
--
Dr Memory
...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!jdbgutfreund%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa@sri-unix.UUCP (07/17/84)
From: Steven Gutfreund <gutfreund%umass-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> Gee, this was a nice film. It was such a simple film, and so superficially naive and plain, I sorta wonder why it worked. So I thought of a corrallary contest to the one I thought of earlier, that is: Name important plot or character items that if missing from a story/movie would cause it to sink (stink). ** spoiler ** If tLSF did not: 1. have the centurian character to offset the plainess of the rest of the cast, we would have had a boring simple film. The sort of river-city medicine man huckster was a necessary spice. I have not seen his type in SF for quite a while (unlike the Yoda-type who has become so prevelent that when he was in the SW movie, he was a big yawn). 2. Humor. If this film did not occationally let us laugh at its naivette we would have gotton sick (those of us over 7 years that is). But things like "you are having a bad dream", or "Gee, it is just like ET", lets the filmakers share an inside joke with them. (indeed I think the hand-shaking scene at the end was a deliberate spoof on Close Encounters, glad to see the director apreciates people who think!) So, to expand my challange, think up plot and character changes that you think could either rescue novels/movies that almost worked, or if you feel the perverse pleasure, think of interesting ways to destroy classic books or movies. - Steve Gutfreund
OSTROFF@RUTGERS.ARPA (07/20/84)
I know it's ridiculous, but Grig reminded me a lot of Grandpa Munster. The picture(s) of his family was a nice touch. What did he call his kids? Jack (OSTROFF@RUTGERS) "Now you look human!" -------
cjh%cca-unix@csin.UUCP (08/09/84)
e movies that are disgustingly obvious about trying to pluck the viewers' heartstrings), and tLSf is tolerable eyewooze for a Saturday night.