Serious Time #25 Battle of the Five Armies Crazy CGI

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was famous for it's CGI battles and armies. Now the new Hobbit movie, Battle of the Five Armies, brings some new software and effects to the table that can take CGI to the next level. One new tool that they used in this movie was the Army Manager Production Tool which allowed Peter Jackson to visualize the battles and decide how to film them. They used this tool as a faster preview to bridge gaps, instead of using the much longer and more finalized Massive Software. Another new software that they used was the Manuka, this made it possible for new and more fluid destruction and greater detail in character work. Manuka greatly enhanced the attack on Lake Town with Smaug the dragon. They used it to put even greater detail into Smaug and also gave his fire breathing a new feel, using a water simulation fuel source they gave the fire more of a napalm look. This software also added to the destruction of Lake Town giving it more fluid simulation detail. Overall Battle of the Five Armies had some of the best most recent CGI to date.

I really enjoyed this article. It was really interesting to me seeing all of the different ways the movie was made. The process was a lot more complex then I believed it was. This made me realize why the battle of Lake Town was a little short, seriously that battle alone must have taken forever and it's not even that long compared to the other battles in the movie. I'm actually really curious how much time they put into this scene alone.This article really made me appreciate the movie more with all of the CGI they used and the time they put into that part alone. This was relevant to both aspects of Digital Media. Overall awesome article.