Technology is the answer, but what technology exactly, every animation lover and developer must be curious to know and learn about this. I am curious just because i am a die hard transformers fan, so when i saw this information on the internet, i couldn't resist sharing this with you all. But still I am thankful to Pranay Kotapi for this amazing research.
What Technology/Software is used for the Movie?
Well that’s a really silly question, because a multi-million dollar franchise wouldn’t use software’s that a couple of teenage kids use by just simply downloading it off the internet. They are professional tools and software’s that would cost a million itself. So who do you call in to create real robots that look more than just perfect on IMAX screens? The answer is pretty simple. ILM( Industrial Light and Magic). ILM uses all kinds of software’s, mostly custom versions of Autodesk Maya, 3Ds Max that are intelligently scripted by tonnes of programmers, I heard they use python for coding the physics of the moving particles. Apart from that they also use Z-brush, Photoshop for fixing minor details. 4-D cinemas and whole lots of other software’s that most of us have never heard about.
The above picture shows you how the ILM animators actually bring the robots to life. This picture where bone-crusher chases Optimus is artificially imported into a 3-D environment with a co-ordinate system where the models are added and the camera footage is combined with the 3-D animation and later detailed to make them look real. As you can see, the sparks coming off bone-crushers feet aren’t real, these things are added and fixed during match-moving phase.
The above picture shows you how the ILM animators actually bring the robots to life. This picture where bone-crusher chases Optimus is artificially imported into a 3-D environment with a co-ordinate system where the models are added and the camera footage is combined with the 3-D animation and later detailed to make them look real. As you can see, the sparks coming off bone-crushers feet aren’t real, these things are added and fixed during match-moving phase.
Robot Statistics
1) 60217 pieces ( Pieces of robots )
2) 12.5 million polygons (Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are 3-D in appearance.)
3) 144,341 rigging nodes (Skeletal structures used in animation)
4) 34,215 texture maps (3-D environments that are created to match the real environments)
5) Over 7 million kilometers if each piece was line up end to end.
6) 5500 processes and 220 Tera Bytes of storage.
And the above statistics my friends, might be too much to think of. These are the statistics of the First movie: Transformers alone. If you have any idea what I’m saying you can understand how massive the production scale is.
Transformers : Robots
1) 14 robots in the first movie, 46 robots in the second and about 85 in the 3rd movie ( managed by ILM only).
2) All robot parts laid out end to end would stretch from one side of California to the other, about 180 miles.
3) If all the texture maps on the show were printed on 1 square yard sheets, they would cover 13 football fields.
Transformers : Disk Storage and processing space
1) Transformers 1 took 20 Terabytes of disk space and Transformers 2 took 145 Terabytes. Seven times bigger!
2) 145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Which, when Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.
2) 145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Which, when Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.
Rendering Times
If you rendered the entire movie on a PC (say the PC which you are reading this post from now) , it would take 16,000 years, yes ! you heard it right. To complete the render process you’d have to start the render process for 16,000 years ago (non-stop) to complete it today.
A simple equation to support what all this mean,
(24 Frames Per Second)*(60 Seconds Per Minute)*(38 Hours to Render Each Frame)=(Several Years to Render each Scene)
A single IMAX shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.
Which Michael Bay managed to render in 2 days with few hundreds of super computers. What a man!
IMAX Render Times and Facts
1) Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
2) IMAX frames take about 6 times longer than anamorphic (ordinary frames) to render.
3) IMAX frame render times As high as 72 hours per frame!
Facts about Devastator
- Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.
- Laid out end to end, Devastator’s parts would be almost 14 miles long.
- Number of geom pieces: 52632.
- The total number of polygons: 11,716,127.
- The total length of all pieces: 73090 feet,that’s 13.84 miles.
- Devastator’s parts stacked end to end would be as tall as 58 empire state buildings.
- Devastator’s hand is traveling at 390 miles per hour when he punches the pyramid.
- The pyramid destruction simulation was 8 times bigger than the old rigid simulation all-time record holder at ILM.
Courtesy - coolpctips