MASSIVE (software)

Massive is a computer program for simulation group, which was developed by Stephen Regelous commissioned by Weta Digital for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The program is primarily used to calculate and display of computer-generated armies and battles. The English name of the program would literally translated as mighty or mean colossal, but the acronym stands for Multiple Agent Simulation System in Virtual Environment.

Operation

Individual parts of the displayed figures are created with a 3D graphics software and entered into an extensive character library. From this library dials Solid for each unit containing a random assortment in terms of appearance (ie, different heads, bodies, clothes and weapons) as well as the character values ​​. Similar to a role-playing game receives each figure points on property values ​​such as courage, fighting spirit, strength, health, etc. These values ​​then affect the system controlled by artificial intelligence behavior of each character. This can for example directly intervene in the fighting, fleeing from an enemy over power or organize with others.

Problems

The AI ​​was initially still immature, so that when you created the first Lord of the Rings battle scenes too many virtual extras ran away before the battle, as they were traveling in the wrong direction and had orders to keep running straight until they met with an opponent.

In later versions of " learned " the extras to look after some time and also attack distant enemies.

Effect

The particular scalability of the program allows the display of large troop concentrations and mass battles that were previously only possible with a lot of extras and associated high financial cost. Unlike previous computer-based methods in which a group of extras or computer-generated figures cloned and several times put in the picture was (for example, the scene in Forrest Gump at the Washington Memorial ), are individually all the characters in Massive animated and move by means of AI methods through the scene.

Movies

Here is an excerpt of the films in which the Massive software was used:

  • 2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship (450 CGI shots )
  • 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (760 CGI shots )
  • 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ( 1,496 CGI shots )
  • 2004: I, Robot
  • 2005: Elektra
  • 2005: Kingdom of Heaven
  • 2005: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe
  • 2005: King Kong
  • 2006: Flags of our Fathers
  • 2007: 300
  • 2007: Die Hard 4.0
  • 2008: The Dark Knight
  • 2008: WALL · E - Legend of the Dee on earth
  • 2009: 2012
  • 2009: Avatar
  • 2010: Alice in Wonderland
  • 2012: Life of Pi: Life of Pi ( sequences: flying fish; Meerkat )
  • 2012: The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey
  • 2013: The Hobbit - Smaug wasteland
The Lord of the Rings (film series) Extra (acting) Computer Generated Imagery Elektra (2005 film) King Kong (2005 film) 300 (Film) The Dark Knight (film) Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
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