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X-Wings CGI 1978
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Author:  Antiriad [ October 26th 2004 9:04 am ]
Post subject:  X-Wings CGI 1978
Not sure if this is well known ... on the DVD of The Last Starfighter the documentary making of has test footage of X-Wings in flight done in CGI in 1978 (yes George was ALREADY thinking about it way back then).

Anyone want some pics or dare I say footage or is this well known?
Author:  Upke [ October 26th 2004 9:07 am ]
Post subject: 
I would love to see pics of this, please.
Author:  malkieD2 [ October 26th 2004 10:54 am ]
Post subject: 
pics would be fantastic :)

This almost makes me want to rush out and get the Last Starfighter on DVD. It's not a bad movie.

It certainly had me playing "starblade" in the arcade back in the day (which is now fully emulated by MAME)
Author:  Upke [ October 26th 2004 1:00 pm ]
Post subject: 
Google comes up with this : http://www.calarts.edu/~nstrum/macmame/ ... bonus.html
Author:  Dogg Thang [ October 26th 2004 1:01 pm ]
Post subject: 
Wow, even at that size they look very impressive. Was that really 1978?

Dogg.
Author:  Upke [ October 26th 2004 1:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
Apparently. I would love to see more fotage, and bigger pictures of this if possible. I'm surprised I haven't heard about this on any of the SW documentries.
Author:  dylan [ October 26th 2004 4:41 pm ]
Post subject: 
Because that CGI in SW was done in '76, not '78.

Besides, do you know how cost prohibitive CGI was in 1978? They were excited to get 20 seconds of footage in a mear couple of months then. That's with some of the most specialized equipment of the day.

For some enlightenment on the issue, check out the early histories of Lucas Digital aka Pixar and the work done by Ed Catmull & Alvy Ray Smith.
Author:  mebejedi [ October 28th 2004 9:05 pm ]
Post subject: 
While the stills look pretty sharp, the video is sketchy by today's standards (though still very impressive.) The other problem was that there was no motion blur - something motion control had in abundance. As bitchin' as Last Starfighter looked, the spaceship sequences still looked very video-game-ish compared to the same scenes in SW.

I have the DVD. I'll rip a copy of the sequence and see if Rikter will host it.
Author:  dylan [ October 29th 2004 11:38 am ]
Post subject: 
MEBEJEDl wrote:
I have the DVD. I'll rip a copy of the sequence and see if Rikter will host it.


Sweet! - that'd be awesome, MeBe. I was considering buying the DVD just for this doc as it was only $10, but...

thanks!
Author:  mebejedi [ November 1st 2004 1:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
The movie's worth it at any price. :D

Can someone host it for me?
Author:  Upke [ November 1st 2004 2:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
Yup. I can. As long as I don't get a Lucas E-mail like last time. :|
Author:  mebejedi [ November 1st 2004 5:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
This ain't Lucas' property. He didn't use the footage, remember? :D
Author:  dylan [ November 1st 2004 6:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
In the pictures of the documentary it clearly says "Test For ILM, 1978" which, if true, is pretty goddamned amazing.

Image
Author:  mebejedi [ November 2nd 2004 2:10 pm ]
Post subject: 
"Yeah, I saw that--but there's no way anything in 1978 was making anything that advanced."

As "advanced" as it was, it really wasn't all that, and took a long time to do. Once you see the whole video, you'll get a better idea about why it wasn't used. It's jerky, and there are definite glitches.

In the meantime, I am looking for my DVD. I don't remember where I put it. :(
Author:  Zion [ November 2nd 2004 4:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
I can host the vid for you if you need it.
Author:  Antiriad [ November 3rd 2004 1:10 pm ]
Post subject: 
right, had to install windvd as the last starfighter has some irritating copy protection which powerdvd did not like.

ive tried several programs but failed to convert the VOB file that contains the footage into another format. i did manage to get an anim gif via windvd. Take a look here: http://img20.exs.cx/img20/6823/clip1.gif
Author:  Antiriad [ November 3rd 2004 1:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
and done some full size dumps which you can grab from here
Image
Author:  Antiriad [ November 3rd 2004 1:21 pm ]
Post subject: 
Wont be up there forever so grab em whilst you can.
Image
Image
Image
If anyone knows another way round this copy protection issue let me know!
Author:  Upke [ November 3rd 2004 2:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
Have you tried win dvd, it allows for 30second movie taking of dvd's?

Also.

My MSN: Martijn.vanGompel@iae.nl

I'm willing to host a movie if you succeed.
Author:  Zion [ November 3rd 2004 5:31 pm ]
Post subject: 
Have you tried ripping it with DVDDecrypter? You can download it from doom9.org in their downloads section.
Author:  mebejedi [ November 3rd 2004 7:59 pm ]
Post subject: 
Okay, who wants it? PM me with details for uploading for hosting.
Author:  mebejedi [ November 4th 2004 1:10 am ]
Post subject: 
Zion? Upke? Anyone?

Okay, I'm going to bed. It'll have to be tomorrow afternoon then. Sorry. :(

(BTW, Fatboy, I voted for you. Now, where's the picture of your ass, fat as it is? ;) )
Author:  Upke [ November 4th 2004 11:51 am ]
Post subject: 
Add me to MSN, send it over MSN, I'll upload it.
Author:  mebejedi [ November 4th 2004 5:21 pm ]
Post subject: 
I have Yahoo IM. Will that work?
Author:  Zion [ November 4th 2004 6:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hey man, I'm at work right now, but I'll try to set up an FTP account on my site for you to upload it. I'll email you.

btw, what is the size of the file and what video format is it?
Author:  mebejedi [ November 4th 2004 6:56 pm ]
Post subject: 
I made two. A 32 MB vob of the entire segment (but not of the entire documentary), and a 4 MB segment of one of the fly-bys (for those of you whom the broadband Gods have shunned ;) ) Both are straight off the DVD, and compressed by 50%.
Author:  Zion [ November 4th 2004 8:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
cool, now check your email. ;)
Author:  mebejedi [ November 4th 2004 10:08 pm ]
Post subject: 
Files are on their way now. :)

[EDIT] All done. The ball's in zion's court now. Hope you guys like the footage.
Author:  Zion [ November 4th 2004 10:29 pm ]
Post subject: 
Files are now ready for download:

http://www.aptirrelevance.com/~original/Small.VOB - 4.1MB

http://www.aptirrelevance.com/~original/Big.VOB - 31.7MB

Please save to your hard drive before playing. When I get home tonight I'll convert these to AVI's for easier playability. Thanks again MBJ. :heavymetal:

:meatwad:
Author:  General Gravos [ November 5th 2004 5:17 am ]
Post subject: 
This is simply amazing!

MEBEJI and Zion, thanks to both of you! :heavymetal:
Author:  dylan [ November 5th 2004 12:08 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hey, thanks to you guys. I must say that's some impressive work for so early on in the world of viable computer animation. I just wonder how long that short cut took them to render? :D
Author:  dylan [ November 5th 2004 3:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
Like I said earlier - I'm sure it was due to expense. Not only in money, but also time. Think about how long it would take to render that? How much money a computer capable of doing these things was in those days. Finding an available computer to do those things. At that point, the deck was more than stacked in favor of shooting models with celluloid cameras and utilizing optical compositing.
Author:  mebejedi [ November 5th 2004 3:48 pm ]
Post subject: 
...as well as motion control. Either way, ILM was using cutting-edge technology. They simply chose one technique over the other. Keep in mind, also, that motion control allowed for "motion blur" - an effect that would have been prohibitively time-consuming for the computers at the time. Heck, I seem to recall it being commented on during the "Toy Story" commentary about how difficult the effect was to get right.
Author:  TheSessler [ November 5th 2004 11:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
Thanks alot Zion and MeBeJedi. :cool:
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