8. Detailed AI Crowds (Massive)
"A great host, you say? How many?" "Ten thousand strong at least." Of course, no one would ever say that Lord of the Rings was entirely devoid of computer effects (unless you think Gollum was a real guy in desperate need of a sandwich). One of the biggest* contributions that was made to the world of cinema was a piece of software called
MASSIVE which renders huge* crowds of customizable CGI characters that can be programmed with specific sets of actions. And you've seen it. I won't even bother with a "probably" caveat on that. This program has been used in
everything. It's nearly impossible to avoid seeing a movie or
television show that hasn't utilized this application in some way. The software came into existence when the production team realized they needed far more bodies than they could get access to. In all three movies, thousands upon thousands of men, horses, orcs and Uruk-Hai had to do battle. The scale couldn't be done physically. So, Peter Jackson turned to his buddy Stephen Regelous (who had previously worked with him on The Frighteners), to build a program that could simulate all the people necessary. They needed the characters to be detailed enough to get reasonably close (some pass right by the camera) and have realistic body movements throughout scenes. They also needed to be intelligent, to fight, to attack other models, to essentially perform all the function an extra would. It was a gargantuan* undertaking, but he pulled it off. More recently, MASSIVE has been used in Doctor Who, Inception, Tron Legacy, Avatar, The Dark Knight, and dozens of other properties. If the new millennium has been all about creating immense*, wondrous worlds, this piece of software is all about filling them.
* Okay, I'll put away my thesaurus now.