Okay, I don’t know a lot about the technical end of special effects. So I’d like the FX nerd Dopers to tell how the effects houses (WETA and ILM obviously) compare. As of today, does WETA do better work?
The only “WETA” I know is a public TV station based in Arlington, VA.
Sorry - I was in too big a hurry.
WETA is the special effects company that did the effects for the Lord of the Rings Films and for King Kong. (ILM would be Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic.)
ILM really is the pioneer, but do folks think other special effects folks have surpassed them?
Weta currently do better character work. Gollum and Kong outstrip Yoda and Jar Jar Binks by a thousand miles.
Weta also created Massive, the crowd simulator, which is a godsend for the effects business, and is a marvel.
But ILM are still top of the line in most other ways, particularly digital matte paintings, vehicle and hard surface animation (especially destruction), and fully realised 3D environments.
So there’s no clear leader.
However, Weta are fresh on the scene and stealing groundbreaking thunder, whereas ILM are the old boys and are sometimes a bit more stale in certain areas than they ought to be.
It’s hard to say that one is better for digital characters, because the credit should go to the individual animator(s). In Gollum’s case it was Bay Raitt and Jason Schliefer. ILM has a large team. Jar Jar was annoying, but never unrealistic. ILM shouldn’t be penalized for bad starting material.
I’d give the edge to ILM for general special effects. Weta is very good, and is a worthy competitor any director would be happy with. They should push each other to do things better (and cheaper).
I wasn’t blaming Jar Jar’s annoyingness on ILM. His animation is shockingly bad! His head and neck seem to be independent of his body, and the leap he does into the water is like something out of Bugs Bunny.
Gollum’s first appearance, on the other hand, is stunning in its believability.
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Yeah, I dare ya!