![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotnik2004You may have seen this in Boing Boing already—in fact, I think this story was floating around last year in the lead up to The Two Towers. But what the hell, I like orcs.
Flocking CGI Orcs Are Too Smart to Stand and Fight
Computer animators have been using cellular automata in their crowd scenes for some time, granting the orcs in LotR the liberty to autonomously determine the fine details of their movement, creating realistic mob scenes that appear to contain a cast of thousands. The problem is, as the programming for the automata gets more sophisticated, they start to express non-linear behavior.
In the climax for The Return of the King, the animated forces of evil kept running away from their enemies.
"So each of these computerized soldiers is assessing the environment around them, drawing on a repertoire of military moves that have been taught them through motion capture - determining how they will combat the enemy, step over the terrain, deal with obstacles in front of them through their own intelligence - and there's 200,000 of them doing that..."
"For the first two years, the biggest problem we had was soldiers fleeing the field of battle," Taylor said. "We could not make their computers stupid enough to not run away." [more]
I find the image of reluctant CGI warriors charming and even a little poignant. Those poor little orcs! Who can blame them for fleeing the battle? It is rigged, after all. Maybe they're conscientious orc objectors. Maybe they didn't vote for Sauron. Maybe they'd just rather be on the couch watching curling instead of marching into certain death at the hands of Orlando Bloom. When I see the big battle scenes in Return of the King I'm going to be keeping an eye on the corners of the screen, hoping for at least a few grunts or peons to turn tail and get away. Run, little AWOL AI orcs! Run like the wind!
Flocking CGI Orcs Are Too Smart to Stand and Fight
Computer animators have been using cellular automata in their crowd scenes for some time, granting the orcs in LotR the liberty to autonomously determine the fine details of their movement, creating realistic mob scenes that appear to contain a cast of thousands. The problem is, as the programming for the automata gets more sophisticated, they start to express non-linear behavior.
In the climax for The Return of the King, the animated forces of evil kept running away from their enemies.
"So each of these computerized soldiers is assessing the environment around them, drawing on a repertoire of military moves that have been taught them through motion capture - determining how they will combat the enemy, step over the terrain, deal with obstacles in front of them through their own intelligence - and there's 200,000 of them doing that..."
"For the first two years, the biggest problem we had was soldiers fleeing the field of battle," Taylor said. "We could not make their computers stupid enough to not run away." [more]
I find the image of reluctant CGI warriors charming and even a little poignant. Those poor little orcs! Who can blame them for fleeing the battle? It is rigged, after all. Maybe they're conscientious orc objectors. Maybe they didn't vote for Sauron. Maybe they'd just rather be on the couch watching curling instead of marching into certain death at the hands of Orlando Bloom. When I see the big battle scenes in Return of the King I'm going to be keeping an eye on the corners of the screen, hoping for at least a few grunts or peons to turn tail and get away. Run, little AWOL AI orcs! Run like the wind!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 10:40 am (UTC)I say delete 'em all now before it gets out of hand. If Jar Jar Binks wasn't justification enough for the Butlerian Jihad, this certainly is.
Huh...I wonder...
Date: 2003-12-17 08:31 am (UTC)So there's a battle scene where the Orks are standing around and the forces of good start to chuck big honkin' rocks at 'em.
The first one comes down, the orcs are going to scatter and the grizzled leader says "Stand your ground!" Several scenes follow of the orcs dutifully standing in place while large bits of masonry come crashing down, squishing them flat.
Wonder if that was a bit of an in-joke?
Tom