Grove: a production-optimised foliage generator for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

ABSTRACT

The production of New Line Cinema's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers called for numerous computer generated characters which were decorated with a wide variety of foliage. This short paper describes how we were able to employ a procedural modelling and animation system, Grove, in the production of a number of the sequences in the film. In particular we will concentrate on the practicalities of implementing such technology in large scale feature film production.

REFERENCES

• 1: LINDENMAYER, A. 1968. Mathematical Models for Cellular Interactions in Development, Parts I and II. Journal of Theoretical Biology 2, 1 (March), 280-315.
• 2: P. Prusinkiewicz , Aristid Lindenmayer, The algorithmic beauty of plants, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York, NY, 1990
• 3: Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz , Aristid Lindenmayer , James Hanan, Development models of herbaceous plants for computer imagery purposes, ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, v.22 n.4, p.141-150, Aug. 1988
• 4: P Prusinkiewicz, Graphical applications of L-systems, Proceedings on Graphics Interface '86/Vision Interface '86, p.247-253, August 1986, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Animation

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.4 Graphics Utilities
          Subjects: Graphics packages
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Color, shading, shadowing, and texture

Keywords:
procedural modelling, production, rendering