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Apr 12, 2001
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The special effects crew behind the new Biblical epic Noah used a custom iPad app to control a huge overhead artificial rain and lighting rig that was capable of pouring 5,000 gallons per minute of water and turning night into day.

WIRED went behind the scenes to see how the FX team put it all together.
And on the eighth day, we got apps. Director Darren Aronofsky's new film Noah is, of course, about the Biblical flood so massive it required one man to build an ark. Bringing such an apocalyptic deluge to the big screen was no easy task, and it required the special effects team behind the movie to, well, make it rain.

Article Link: Filmmakers in 'Noah' Used an iPad to Control a Huge Overhead Lighting and Rain System
 
The iPad is so boring and just a toy. You can't do anything with it. Android tablets are so much more powerful because you can use widgets...

...or so I've heard.

iPads really have reshaped we interact with so many things. It was way ahead if it's time and still impresses.
 
The iPad is so boring and just a toy. You can't do anything with it. Android tablets are so much more powerful because you can use widgets...

...or so I've heard.

iPads really have reshaped we interact with so many things. It was way ahead if it's time and still impresses.

It's just a much more portable version of a laptop, which is what they would have used instead a few years ago.
 
I hope the iPad in question still works, 'cos Apple have ways of telling if there's been water damage...
 
Hats off to anyone who can act while under a heavy artificial downpour. The only emotion I could portray would be extreme annoyance. Ditto for big cosumes/prosthetics. Acting seems hard already... acting while ignoring your own constant discomfort seems nearly impossible. (I hear some of them get paid well, at least.)
 
"capable of pouring 5,000 gallons per minute of water"

Most environmentally destructive product Apple have helped create.
;)
 
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Backlight for rain and front light for snow. Neat. Never heard of it before, probably will never be handy that I know, but I feel like it's an interesting enough factoid that I'll probably never forget.

… but wait, wouldn't that cause huge rainbows everywhere all the time?
 
I've always enjoyed Mike Seymour and all the gang from FXGuide and FXPHD, and who doesn't have a soft spot for Angie Dale? Nice to see Mike working with WIRED.

Amazing to see iPads controlling such an incredible practical VFX system!
 
An iPad with a 4K camera and 512GB or 1TB of memory can't be so far off.

I know I've said this before, but a professional cinema camera has a sensor the size of an iPod shuffle. The sensor in an iPad camera is smaller than the 'play' icon on the play button of an iPod shuffle.

An iDevice will never be a professional photography tool.
 
The iPad is so boring and just a toy. You can't do anything with it. Android tablets are so much more powerful because you can use widgets...

...or so I've heard.

iPads really have reshaped we interact with so many things. It was way ahead if it's time and still impresses.

Because people strive to find ways to use iPads as laptops instead of just using laptops. You know, 'cause it's #cool (and pointless).
 
The iPad is so boring and just a toy. You can't do anything with it. Android tablets are so much more powerful because you can use widgets...

...or so I've heard.

iPads really have reshaped we interact with so many things. It was way ahead if it's time and still impresses.

just because they made an app just for ipad doesnt mean it wont work with an android. the work here is done by the app, not the device.

but the typically technically inapt apple user wont know that.
 
At a glance, I thought I read that Noah filmmakers use an iPad to create a huge lightning and rain effect in the film. In which case, WOW that's impressive!

Then I read more, and well ..

It's the control system software, or app. Basically digital knobs and switches. I'm sorry but something like this can also be custom-made for Windows XP on a Pentium II laptop. Click this, click that. It's even can be more accurate and faster with keyboard, trackpad and hard-wired system. So I failed to see why it's such a big deal?
 
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