Game of Thrones CGI

http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/07/29/game-of-thrones-cgi/

by agavin • 15 years ago

210 67 15 years ago

natesm• 15 years ago

This might be obvious, but this show is excellent, and if you haven't watched it yet, don't watch this video until you have, as there are some major spoilers.

MikeCapone8• 15 years ago

I expected to like it - I really liked Rome, also from HBO - but Game of Thrones fell completely flat for me. Somehow the directing/acting/script just didn't produce much emotion or attachment to the characters from me. There were some interesting scenes here and there, but overall, it was a bit like The Pacific (I loved Band of Brothers and expected to love Pacific too (I read the biographies on which it is based), but it fell completely flat for me.

But I can't hold it against HBO. I love Treme (by David Simon, who also did my favorite show, The Wire) and Boardwalk Empire is pretty good.

I'm actually curious to know if it's just me. Anyone else expected to like GoT but ended up not liking it? The dwarf character was great, but even he couldn't save that show for me.

xyzzyz• 15 years ago

I absolutely loved the books, haven't watched the show yet, though.

boyter2• 15 years ago

I personally like it, but a few of my friend didn't. I asked them why and mostly they didn't like the pace of the show and found it boring.

One thing in common though was that each one who didn't enjoy it preferred non-fiction (or semi realistic) to fiction in their reading. Note this is a sample size of 5 so its nothing scientific, just a general observation.

bokchoi• 15 years ago

It's not just you. I heard it was great from coworkers and friends, but I also find the characters pretty flat and the plot predictable. I always get this vaguely racist feeling from these medieval fantasy worlds -- in this case form the way the grassland people are depicted as backward with gifts of snakes at weddings.

I will say one thing it has going for it -- that theme music really stuck in my head.

keyle• 15 years ago

I on the other hand, was blown away by the shows and it gives me shivers to re-listen to that theme song.

It's about taste and connecting with the characters. If you don't connect, emotional reaction falls flat.

gchucky2• 15 years ago

Strange; everyone else I've spoken to is in love with the show. Some of my coworkers - who I would never expect to be interested in something like GoT - have been asking questions about the show and are starting to read the books. Ride the NYC subway and invariably you'll see someone reading the books.

thret• 15 years ago

My major peeve with the show is how the exciting villains introduced in the first five minutes never return.

I was also annoyed that Inigo Montoya died so soon.

nahname2• 15 years ago

The show is really for people who have read the books. It is accurate to the first novel and even contains a significant amount of dialog from it, but it doesn't frame things as well as George Martin's writing can. I especially noticed this watching the show with my wife (who has not read the books) and having to continually explain things to her that were obviously lacking in the show. Many of the characters actions and some events only seem aligned with the characters if you understand them from the novels.

In short, it lacks the depth that the books provide. This is probably true of most adaptations, but because they appear to be keeping as closely to the book as possible; it is much more noticeable.

As an aside, the Wire is my all time favorite television show.

jerf• 15 years ago

I know nothing about the books or the series, but it was just some people riding around and not falling off cliffs or out of castles to me. I don't think there's much in the way of spoilers in there unless you're only halfway through or something.

adorton• 15 years ago

True. You'd already need to be familiar with the characters and settings to consider them spoilers, but at that point, they wouldn't be spoilers, because you'd be at least that far in the books/series.

jarin3• 15 years ago

The last scene in the video is a pretty big spoiler I think.

alexkay2• 15 years ago

On a similar note, don't watch the show until you read the first book (if you intend to, eventually). Some characters in the show are spot on, some are way off.

james_fairhurst• 15 years ago

I'm currently reading the 1st book after watching the show and wished I'd read it first. Brilliant story and I think the show does an amazing job of converting the books to screen however it would of been great to compare what I interpreted in the books to what they've created on screen.

brown9-2• 15 years ago

Curious - who did you think was way off?

jamesteow• 15 years ago

On a related note, here is the process for making the titles. It's nominated for(and most likely to win) an Emmy.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/2011/05/12/game-of-thrones/

agavin2• 15 years ago

The titles were pretty amazing, simultaneously being cool and helping to give new viewers some sense of the layout of the world. Like a 3D jacket map.

pcj• 15 years ago

That looks good - reminds me about AOE. But at times, i kinda felt that it was a bit cluttered. I can't say for sure, but may be the contrast?

dmazin• 15 years ago

That was awesome. It really is a great sequence. Coincidentally, I was recently thinking about the Carnivale title sequence - it's by the same people.

reso• 15 years ago

Wow. As an avid watcher of the show and graphics connoisseur, I didn't know that half those castles were CG. Very fine work.

nhebb• 15 years ago

The CGI is impressive, but I didn't like a lot of the interior set design, especially those in King's Landing. It reminded me of Las Vegas or some mall shop that sells furnishings with faux patina.

huhtenberg3• 15 years ago

I really want someone to make a CG movie that centers on exploring a made-up world and does not have a storyline or narration. Just some guy traveling from point A to point B and the viewers tagging along. Think Time Machine or Avatar in a format of that Norwegian train movie [1].

- or -

I would settle for a game of the same kind with stunning visuals and mind-blowing landscapes and detailing, the game that is centered around exploring the world rather than advancing a character or completing missions.

Who's with me? :)

[1] http://boingboing.net/2009/12/19/norwegian-public-bro.html

MasterScrat• 15 years ago

Yes, completely. A universe with the beauty and depth of the Myst saga, but with no specific purpose would be awesome.

That's why I loved games such as Baldur's Gate so much: you can travel the world for dozen of hours without having to really participate to any quest.

huhtenberg3• 15 years ago

Right, Myst. Totally slipped my mind. Myst 3D was a nice try on their part, but ultimately such a disappointment - too simple and stripped down.

parfe2• 15 years ago

Sounds like you want to play World of Warcraft. Who would want to sit through a 2 hour tech demo of rendered waterfalls and oversaturated sunsets?

huhtenberg3• 15 years ago

WoW is exactly what I do not want. Not jaw-dropping enough, and it has missions and characters - so, no, thank you :) I want a stunningly executed guided tour through someone else's imagination.

thomasfl• 15 years ago

I noticed lots of the background CGI is architectural elements. We'll probably see this techniques used by architects to visualize their projects with moving images that includes real people.

bh422223• 15 years ago

As a subscriber to the Game of Thrones reddit, am I absolutely flaging this.

I know I am not supposed to complain about stories on HN, but I feel I have to say this. Let us not have "Oooh, look at these special effects!" type of stories on the HN front page.

anorwell• 15 years ago

I don't believe that's why this was posted, and that's not what I took from this submission. The montage shows the division points between what is real and what is CG in various shots. This is not obvious and gives a lot of insight into how shows like this are created.

sp4rki2• 15 years ago

You completely missed the point of the post if all you got from it was "Oooh, look at these special effects!"

Nevertheless if it got to the homepage since yesterday AND got close to 200 upvotes, it might mean that at least a subset of the community is interested in the effects used in the TV series. Special effects are "technology" and as such people like you and me might find ourselves interested in such things. As a fan of the A Song of Fire and Ice books, an entrepreneur, and a programmer and technologist, my interest in the application of special effects in the Game of Thrones TV series is significantly higher than the excess of complaint posts about the patent system (I care about the patent system, just not for all the ranting you see these days...) that you see every day on the homepage. I don't complain though, because I know that since those are getting upvoted, it means people ARE interested in that type of posts.

bh422223• 15 years ago

I don't complain though, because I know that since those are getting upvoted, it means people ARE interested in that type of posts.

Complex topics also have people who are interested in them. But for complex topics, in general, the audience is small. However, the more generic and easily understood the topic, to wider its audience.

Thus if we simply say, if it's popular it must be good, then we quickly end up with popular culture, which tends to be shallow. Greatest common denominator and all that.

This is why I don't complain about a flood of patent law articles, I know those won't lead us down the path of the reddit front page. But articles like this, especially because so many are clearly interested, do bother me. Because a lot of people, including me, are also interested in rage comics. They are funny and easy to grasp, and quick to read - super popular. But I dread the day a rage comic is on the HN front page.

agavin2• 15 years ago

For those of you who can't get enough GOT CGI, the SFX company released yet another 3 minute before and after video:

http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/08/05/more-game-of-thr...

Cool stuff.

Game of Thrones CGI

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