General Hobbit Movie Info (AVOID IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS)

Post by **kzer_za** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 9:19 pm

Smaug's "wing-walking" is a pretty innovative design that couldn't have been done with four legs. I'm glad they used it.

Post by **Dave_LF** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 10:23 pm

Plus, the wing-walking version is plausible as a member of the actual biosphere, while there's nothing out there at all that a six-limbed vertebrate could have evolved from.

Post by **Frelga** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 11:04 pm

Plus, it's much easier to motion-capture a four-limbed actor as a four-limbed creature.

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:44 am

kzer_za wrote:Smaug's
"wing-walking" is a pretty innovative design that couldn't have been
done with four legs. I'm glad they used it.

Well, the pterodactyls from Jurassic Park 3 were "wing-walking". My first response on seeing Smaug' "wing-walk" was just them!

Anyway, I am not saying I prefer that over the version in the film. Only that I like it and also find it a good depiction of the creature.

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:48 am

Frelga wrote:Plus, it's much easier to motion-capture a four-limbed actor as a four-limbed creature.

Well, true. But they didn't use BC's mo-cap directly like Gollum and used it more as a reference.
I imagine most of the reference was needed for Smaug's face. While not that much for his limbs. So I do not think adding wings would have been a difficulty. Especially since they had a whole year (or more) for animating Smaug.

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:51 am

Apparently, the two canines we see just after entering Laketown (sniffing the waste laid on the road) are PJ's pugs, Fergus and Stan.

Post by **kzer_za** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 4:01 am

Smaug's voice wrote:
kzer_za wrote:Smaug's
"wing-walking" is a pretty innovative design that couldn't have been
done with four legs. I'm glad they used it.
Well, the pterodactyls from Jurassic Park 3 were "wing-walking". My first response on seeing Smaug' "wing-walk" was just them!

Anyway, I am not saying I prefer that over the version in the film. Only that I like it and also find it a good depiction of the creature.

Maybe WETA was inspired by that, then. I never saw Jurassic Park 3 - I think the first one still holds up, but The Lost World was just awful!

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:18 am

Honestly, I saw it for the dinos!

The plot's bad (or even worse) in 3, but I like it better than 2 because of more "fresh" dinos (including a great scene involving the "wing-walking" pterodactyls) and the return of Dr.Grant.

I don't quite remember but didn't the Avatar flying-birds have wings for fore-limbs as well?
And hey, I remember Horntail from Goblet of Fire too had wings as fore-limbs. I don't think now, that it's a new-design really.

(The only quadruped dragon I remember is the one in the 3rd Narnia film. I have issues with how the design looked, but the 6-limb animation never looked fake in the least. )

Post by **Alatar** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:37 am

From what I recall, the argument against quadraped dragons also applied to the Fell Beasts. Namely, that there are no 6 limbed mammals or reptiles to use as a model, and that as such the mechanics of the skeleton and musculature would be invented from whole cloth, which makes them less believable.

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:54 am

Alatar wrote:From what I recall, the argument against quadraped dragons also applied to the Fell Beasts. Namely, that there are no 6 limbed mammals or reptiles to use as a model, and that as such the mechanics of the skeleton and musculature would be invented from whole cloth, which makes them less believable.

I see the point. But does a lack of reference mean a lack of believability? I think with the proper use of physics (you would know better!) it could be done.
Afterall, the physics of the dragon in Narnia 3 looked realistic.
And then the WETA artists did have like, 1-2 years to work on Smaug?

Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:49 am

A quite detailed article on Smaug at Digital Trends:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/bui ... z2uaL6XmNN

Post by **narya** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:45 pm

When I saw the wing walking I immediately thought of bats, which I have actually seen, rather than other movie creations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZC-qYDNVvc

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:04 pm

narya wrote:When I saw the wing walking I immediately thought of bats, which I have actually seen, rather than other movie creations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZC-qYDNVvc

Yeah, that too. And I am only guessing, that the Jurassic Park-guys followed bat-movements to create pterodactyls.

ETA:

2 Wings, four limbs.
Gliding Lizard, better known as Flying Dragon and belonging to the genus Draco.
Yeah, not exactly wings but looks cool.

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:13 pm

This isn't really related to the film directly but since I would not like top start a new thread on this,

Article: http://www.canterburytimes.co.uk/Hobbit ... story.html

It is just one of the prime reasons why I like PJ so much, as a human being, no matter what I say about his films (though arguably, I say much less than most of the others.

) How much he understands Tolkien's themes is perhaps debatable, but he is true to the JRRT's vision concerning friendship and fellowship.

Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:26 pm

Nice.

Post by **Elentári** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:37 pm

Cool! There's no denying SPJ is a really decent bloke...

Post by **Passdagas the Brown** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:29 am

I also think PJ's a great guy.

Wed Mar 12, 2014 3:28 am

He is, as he showed again:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/peter-ja ... 4838546558

Post by **Smaug's voice** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 3:41 am

That's very decent indeed.

Post by **Elentári** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:52 pm

Another DoS VFX video...

http://youtu.be/jTdWDvIyofA