Dinosaur special effects

Hadrosaur river · Post by **Hadrosaur river** » 14 Mar 2006, 15:54

Just want to know your views on this - I personally think the JP special effects look better than on WWD.

I think the WWD animatronics still look good but they don't really have that look that makes them look 'alive'. Also I think the way they are puppeteered doesn't look as natural as on JP - the JP ones move more fluidly like a real animal but the WWD animatronics don't seem to do this as well sometimes.

Also, the CGI on Walking with Dinosaurs doesn't really look as convincing, as they don't look like they are actually in the landscape, but the Jurassic Park CGI dinosaurs look as though they are actually there

What do you think?

SSJDinoTycoon42 · Post by **SSJDinoTycoon42** » 14 Mar 2006, 22:51

You're absolutely correct. Jurassic Park dinoasaurs have always looked better.

lilgamefreek · Post by **lilgamefreek** » 16 Mar 2006, 20:45

I think the fact is the WWD graphics are far too detailed for there own good, while the JP graphics haven't as much detail so you it seems far more believible. After all, we all haven't 20/20 vision.

Hadrosaur river · Post by **Hadrosaur river** » 20 Mar 2006, 16:49

Does anyone know if the CGI technicians on the films modified the graphics so they look more blended in with the background? Like putting some sort of screen over the whole frame so it looks like the dinosaur is actually there

Or as lilgamefreak said, it may be that the CGI is too detailed and therefore don't look as realistic

I'm going to see if I can get some stills from JP and WWD so I can compare them

Hadrosaur river · Post by **Hadrosaur river** » 20 Mar 2006, 17:05

Ah, I've got two stegosaurs from the two DVD's so I can compare them

Stegosaur 2

The first link has a stegosaur from The Lost World; the second link is a Walking with dinosaurs page from the BBC site - there should be a picture of a stegosaur on there

Hadrosaur river · Post by **Hadrosaur river** » 20 Mar 2006, 17:09

The link and picture don't seem to be working for me, so I'll just write down the links here so you can type them in yourself /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

http://www.jpaftermath.com/images/stills/tlw/tlw_029.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/d...y/152mya1.shtml

Again, if anyone knows if the animators use some sort of computer technique to make look more like the dinosaurs are actually in the landscape, please post it here!

SSJDinoTycoon42 · Post by **SSJDinoTycoon42** » 20 Mar 2006, 19:37

It has a lot to do with lighting. You have to match the light being cast on the 3D object, with the light in the scene. The texture also has to reflect the light back in just the right way, to look like real skin/metal/or any sort of material.

They probably just spent more work on the JP dinos, since it was a big movie production, whereas for WWD, it was an educational documentary and so they didn't have to impress people as much(although they did impress a lot of people anyway..I think..).

All you need is a big team spending hours tweaking the effects in the scene to look just right.

B.JB · Post by **B.JB** » 22 Mar 2006, 12:24

Personally I think most CGI is getting worse as they try too much nowadays. WWD is nothing compared with JP and that isn't being biased. In fact I felt the CGI in JP3 was worse that the CGI in the first 2 films by a mile. And as SSJ says, WWF wasn't out to impress - it was out to inform by using CGI technology to aid them.

Hadrosaur river · Post by **Hadrosaur river** » 09 Apr 2006, 08:51

I also think the animatronics on WWD are poor compared to Jurassic Park. I think both they way had been made looked synthetic. The JP dinosaurs actually look convincing - they look like breathing, living things - but looking at the WWD dinosaurs you see them as puppets, not as convinving animals.

Also the way they were controlled on camera didn't look as natural - you can imagine the puppeteers hand offscreen controlling the dinosaur head's movements. The movement of WWD puppets seems to be restricted to basic sock puppet-like movements, like opening/closing jaws, turning the head to one side, etc. JP dinosaurs move with fluidity which adds to their realism.

Also, I agree with what BJB says about more recent CGI. I think the CGI in JP///, whereas not as bad as in Walking with Dinosaurs, was certainly poorer compared to the earlier films.