Digital actors on LOTR can think!?!...

[edesignuk]

Taken from wired.com article:
In Massive, agents' brains -- which look like intricate flow charts -- define how they see and hear, how fast they run and how slowly they die. For the films, stunt actors' movements were recorded in the studio to enable the agents to wield weapons realistically, duck to avoid a sword, charge an enemy and fall off tower walls flailing.

Like real people, agents' body types, clothing and the weather influence their capabilities. Agents aren't robots, though. Each makes subtle responses to its surroundings with fuzzy logic rather than yes-no, on-off decisions. And every agent has thousands of brain nodes, such as their combat node, which has rules for their level of aggression.

Full story.

 

[BenderBot1138]

Totally!

I totally noticed that too... That Bilbo Baggins looked so fake I couldn't believe it!

 

[Spike Spiegel]

i am so stoked about the battle at helms deep. i cant wait to see oliphaunts, and treeants, and naz'ghul riding those wyvern type things. its going to be wicked awesome!

 

[Catfish_Man]

Wrong battle...

Originally posted by Spike Spiegel
i am so stoked about the battle at helms deep. i cant wait to see oliphaunts, and treeants, and naz'ghul riding those wyvern type things. its going to be wicked awesome!

...Helm's Deep is Orcs and nasty humans vs. humans, an elf, and a dwarf. You're thinking of Pelennor fields, or some of the other minor battles around that point. The Ents are at Helm's Deep though (Entish things technically, but the ents are involved).

 

[MrMacMan]

Yeah massive is pritty nice, I read a what was it...
A scientific american article (I think) that explained that they programed like a billion types of sequences into it.
Orc Yells, orc stabs humans if (yes, continue), if (no, either get stabed by elf or not and dodge attack)
There are a trillion of these...

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Massive looks to be really cool - there was a write up in Popular Science, and the pics were intersting.

Helms Deep should be kick ass - I personally can't wait to see Treebeard - the trailer has a quick peek at him grabbing one of the Hobbits. But in Return of the King where the Ents rip up Isengard, now that will be cool, I just hope they show it.

D