"The creation of visual effects for film is a very data intensive process," says Labrie. "A shot that passes in a mere 5 to 10 seconds may contain dozens, sometimes hundreds of separate image elements – and each of these elements may be the end result of many other operations. The majority of visual effect shots we will produce for Lord of the Rings will be very complex, and will include computer-generated images that interact with human characters. Weta needed an asset management system that is powerful, flexible, and easily extensible. Media360 is the only solution that met all of those criteria. It’s in a class by itself."

WETA was interested in Informix’s "generic object relational technology, which means that specialist partners source different DataBlades that come together as one package."

WETA has been working for the last two years developing mass animation software and crowd animation software, so far generating at least three terabytes of data. They expect that they will need to create between 1200 and 1500 special effects for the trilogy, the first film alone using a third of those. (Anyone wondering how they’re going to do Frodo when he’s got the Ring on?)

The majority of the fx shots are described as ‘very complex’ including of course the CGI Gollum. A lot of Gollum’s ‘look’ is going to generated using motion capture.

In Peter Jackson’s view, motion capture is a technique that could look terrible if done badly, but if done well, it could be "amazingly life-like." WETA’s done a great deal of work with improving motion capture. It generates a lot of data, hence the need for vast amounts of processing power.

In an early interview Peter Jackson talked about the large amount of new code that WETA was developing: "New modelling code; new skinning code, new bone and muscle code….we’re working on muscle code that actually acts the same as real organic tissue."

And then there’s MASSIVE, the thing that will create huge wars out of a mere 15,000 extras. It’s art meets chaos theory, as I understand it.

Will Gollum be better than Jar-Jar? (To look at, I mean.) Well, ask yourself how much every single special effects movie has improved on all previous ones. This is, of all the artforms in the world, the one that is going through a kind of Golden Age at present, and the sheer quantity of talent that is drawn to this field now is staggering.

Earlier in the year WETA went recruiting in England for sfx crews, and some of the applicants coming to them then had worked on Star Wars and Titanic. Since then, over 2000 applications have been received via the WETA website.

We know that there are people like special effects ace Tim Stetson (The Fifth Element) is working for them. In March there were 25 artists and 15 staff members, but they were expecting to need 80 artists once filming got underway. The special effects lab won’t enter pre-production until then.

What could you expect to be sitting at if you got a job at WETA? The artists are using SGI Octane or O2 Unix workstations. I looked up the blurb on SGI Octane (again at the Informix website) and it reminded me of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Specifically, the bit where Deep Thought, the computer designed to calculate the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything, dismisses its predecessor as ‘a mere abacus.’ That’s the attitude an SGI Octane might have.

There were reportedly 40 desktops and 25 other processors as of March. The system’s interface will be customised with the help of Informix staff so every department gets its own start-up screen. Informix has two staff in Wellington and presumably when they’re not selling Media 360 to other people – it has applications for advertsing and media markets – they will be helping extend Media 360’s usefulness in handling WETA’s object work model.

I’d love to know what management structure WETA has in place so that 80 artists in one building doesn’t degenerate into something resembling an attempt to herd cats, with everyone going in 80 different directions.

Mind you, the tantalising goal of creating the first perfect classic fantasy film would be a powerful unifying force. Rather like the sound of a tin-opener around cats.

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