What does ILM use??

I as just wondering if anyone knew what software/hardware solutions ILM used and if it would be easy for a fanfilm maker to aqquire the same kind of setup. Any ideas?

 

Paint Studio Pro and iMovie.



Naaaah, there's a question on SW.com's Ask the Jedi Council about this... as for 'is it something a fan film dude could get', that depends on how much money you're willing to spend.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

nothing, they are using claymation, all this digital talk is a diversion!

 

Adam, you can't use Paint Studio Pro and iMovie on the same computer!

-KNick

 

One relevant Ask the Jedi Council question

Aaaaaand two!

You should always try to do your own research before hitting up the forums, and StarWars.com is never a bad place to look.


KNick - Oh, I know. They have TWO computers now. (As well as the old Commodore 64.)


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

LOL

-KNick

 

I amn pretty sure its a program that they built their self.

 

Thanks guys. I guess looking at the official site would have helped. Duh! Actually I was hoping that someone could possible shed some light on what kind of os they use. I was reading a job requirement info pack from ILM the other day and it said that experience with UNIX was a must. I was just wondering if it was the same form of unix as is in Mac OS X? Anyone had any experience using it? If not does anyone know of any good resources that are hidden gems? (ie hard to find, even using google?)

 

"You should always try to do your own research before hitting up the forums"
It would be a pretty boring forum if everyone who had a question found out the answer before posting.
I agree with the ones like "How do i make Lightsabers?" though

 

From what I understand they use Linux. Which is a form of Unix. But it is nothing at all like the MacOSX. OSX is actually a Unix distribution, but it's so heavily customized to make it look like a Mac it barely resembles Unix at all.

Linux is a whole different animal. When they say they require experience with it, it is because you can't be functional in Linux unless you understand the Terminal Command line stuff (kind of like DOS) that goes along with it. Unlike Mac and Windows, it is not entirely a graphical interface OS.

Well, that's the simplistic answer.

You can download Linux for free from a variety of places. I personally recommend Mandrake 9.0. That's what I use. If you have a spare, reasonably powerfull PC box laying around, you can download it, install it, and play around with it. All for FREE. The beauty of open source!

 

Do they not also use Corel Painter?

I think I saw it on the DVD when they were making the Matte paintings....

 

Magic, its all magic.






Don't they use Sabre for all (or most) of their compositing. And Maya for the 3D?

 

I thought those sabers were real!

Man, I guess I don't need to save up my money.

-KNick

 

Pixar's Renderman was used on The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

Renderman will run on the Dual 2 Ghz G5.

 

They use Maya, SoftImage, and their own software called CompTime. As far as I know they're switching over to Linux and OSX.

There, I said it.

Help?

 

they use maya, softimage, electric image, photoshop, i think still some after effects, ALOT of their own in house products. They are using Linux they switched over to that from SGI....but none of that matters! "PROGRAM MATTERS NOT, ON THE ARTIST THE RESULTS DEPEND, HMMMM!!!"

 

The Ranch, at the very least, uses AfterEffects when doing previs. I think sometimes, it matters what you're doing. I'm sure all the creature guys use Maya and Softimage, with their own variations of such programs. I know the Queen's Ship from TPM was made using Electric Image and Photoshop, so it's possible a lot of the ships and buildings were done using EI and others. I doubt 3dsmax is used, but it's possible. Sometimes it may be up to the artist and his/her tool of choice.

Unless you're a millionaire, I wouldn't care what ILM uses. They also have a huge renderfarm of dual processors, if you feel like spending another million or two.

"Paint Studio Pro and iMovie."

What, they're too good for MSPaint and MovieMaker? Rich bastards.

Cometgreen

 

yea EI was used along with Photoshop, and after effects on a mac to do the queen shots in ep. I. Alex told me EI was still being used for a lot of aotc but mostly as matte paintings. Probably more than that since the rebel mac unit was still around so they probably used the same off the shelf products....but if you want EI a program ilm uses checkout the 3dtoolkit from dvgarage.com which comes with TOONS of free training by a person who worked on starwars Ep. I at ILM!!

 

"PROGRAM MATTERS NOT, ON THE ARTIST THE RESULTS DEPEND, HMMMM!!!"

It matters a lot if you're trying to get a job there and you lack the necessary experience.

 

a good artist can use any program and make beautiful pictures. Its like using a different brand of hammer wont affect how good a framer can frame a house

 

durbnpoisn - thanks for the info. I was unsure as to the similarity between UNIX and LINUX. Is it possible to get a UNIX distribution on a PC or do you think Linux would be best? Any idea what the main differences are between them (if any)?

macho - I agree that a good artist can make art with whatever comes to hand, but is it not advisable to be aware of the various tools available to you?

It would be terrible to go for an job interview and be told that your portfolio was great but you dont have job because you cannot show any competance with such and such a system.

 

I know Softimage XSI was used for Attack of the Clones.

 

Deffinetly go with Linux. I don't know that you could get a decent UNIX distribution to even work on a typical WinTel PC.

Linux is made just for that. So, that's the way to go. From what I gather, UNIX and Linux are essentially the same, except that Linux is developed to work on WinTel boxes. I think it's been scaled back from the original UNIX a bit, but that's about it.

In any case, ILM uses Linux. That's what you need experience in. I warn you now, it's a whole another planet as far as OS's go. The KDE desktop (GUI) that comes with most distributions is awesome and is very much like Windows. But, that's about where the similarity ends.

One great thing I can tell you is that I've installed the same distribution on 4 different Frankenstein machines, and in every case, the installation went through 100% and detected all the hardware correctly!!

I use Mandrake 9.0. You can download the ISOs for the CDs right from the site for free. Then you can burn your own installation CDs and you're on your way.
(Just boot the machine with the CD in the drive and away you go)

Other popular distributions are Red Hat, SUSI, and Lindows (not free). Mandrake is based on Red Hat but they are very different.

Another reason I rocommend Mandrake is that there is a pretty broad support base both in terms of installers for software and help from users.

Good luck! I am still an ameture by most standards, but I still may be able to help.

 

Well, to answer you question, it IS the artist that uses the software to SOME degree. However, the program you use is important too. There are some things that you can do in Maya that you could NEVER do in say..Strata 3D. But as far as that saying goes, you DO indeed have to be a good artist.

To answer your questions about software, for 3D stuff the main pipeline at ILM runs Maya or Softimage. Maya for things like space ships, buildings, particle effects, water etc. ILM uses Softimage mostly for character animation.

As far as I know, Electric Image is only used in the Max Rebel unit. But I could be wrong.

Then there are some in-house software that ILM developed themselves. For blue/greenscreen compositing, they until recently used SABRE which is basically a really souped-up version of Discreet's Inferno. But they have now developed a compositing program called CompTime. For facial animation and modeling of certain characters, they use a program called Cari that they wrote themselves.

As for the OS, I believe they use Redhat Linux. I'm not sure which version though. And ILM does use some Macs, but again probably only in the Mac Rebel group. But mostly it's just really nice PCs running Linux.

 

its like using a different brand of hammer wont affect how good a framer can frame a house

I don't know - if the two brands are Craftsman and Fisher Price I think there's a difference.