Special Effects in "Gladiator" powered by Platform's LSF TechnologyLondon 24 Oct 2000 Distributed resource management and high tech special effects combined forces this summer as Platform Computing Corporation's LSF software suite played a major role in the production of the stunning digital effects for Mill Film's summer blockbuster, "Gladiator".
Mill Film, a UK-based, visual effects company, part owned by "Gladiator" director Ridley Scott, used LSF to automate and optimise the processing of the computer-generated digital effects that brought ancient Rome to life.
"Recreating Rome took a huge amount of compute power and time, with the workload on the animator's workstations and dedicated rendering machines all being scheduled under the control of Platform's LSF resource management solution", explained David Lomax, head of 3D CGI at Mill Film. "LSF made optimal use of all the compute power available for rendering, while maintaining quality of use and responsiveness for the animators."
"The amount of processing power needed to render computer generated graphics and animation is immense, and LSF plays a pivotal role in managing that processing power to prioritize and monitor jobs ensuring they are completed successfully and on-time", explained Phil Weaver, President and COO of Platform.
Unlike Scott's previous futuristic blockbuster movies "Alien" and "Bladerunner", "Gladiator" is set in the past, which meant the effects had to be both fantastical and realistic. Mill Film used the very latest CGI technology to bring an unprecedented level of detail and realism to the fight scenes, including a stunning sequence where the hero grapples with tigers in front of a baying Coliseum crowd. The processing power required to generate these effects was managed by LSF.
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