5 ms·
The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)
- gexla 3mo agoAnd speaking of technology, it would have been great to see the Phase Plasma Rifle at a 40 watt range make an appearance, if only by mention of name again.
- hmstx 3mo agoHey, just what you see, pal.
- testing22321 3mo agoIs that not what both humans and terminators are firing “lasers” in the future war scenes in both T1 and T2?
- ortusdux 3mo agoAmazing writeup! I'll add that the custom squibs they made for the liquid metal bullet impacts are still one of the best practical effects ever. https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/v6qjaj/bullet_impact_practical_effects_created_by_stan/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/v6qjaj/bu...
- skullone 3mo agoHoly shit. I thought the bullet splashes were CGI. I'm even more impressed that they were real practical effects, that is indeed nextfuckinglevel
- jonhohle 3mo agoBelieve it or not, there is 6 minutes of onscreen CGI in T2 and only 6 minutes of onscreen CGI in Jurassic Park. The 80s and 90s were magical with practical effects. So many things were difficult to imagine how they were pulled off. In the last 20 years, everything’s just CGI. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Fall Guy are few and far between.
- bensyverson 3mo agoMy friend, there are over 2000 VFX shots in Fury Road, and at least 600 in The Fall Guy. I get that people are tired of CGI, but it’s a tool that is used in virtually every film that reaches theaters, for reasons as prosaic as matching skies between shots.
- Joel_Mckay 3mo agoThese days it is mostly just Directors, Producers, and Investors that don't respect the medium. They just see a film as more Brand management issues. It has little to do with "how the hotdogs are made". Most good CGI isn't noticeable. Yet everyone is there to make a story look great, even when faced with a re-heated dog-turd of a script. =3
- croes 3mo agoThe question is for what is the tool used. To mach colors and hide cables or the complete content of a scene
- CyberDildonics 3mo agoI don't know where you are getting that idea. The entire movie is soaked with cg from every angle. https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/a-graphic-tale-the-visual-effects-of-mad-max-fury-road/ https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/a-graphic-tale-the-visual...
- croes 3mo agoAnd now compare to an Marvel or Transformers movie where many shots don't have a single real thing in it
- CyberDildonics 3mo agoWhat the person up to said: In the last 20 years, everything’s just CGI. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Fall Guy are few and far between. There is no world where naming a random longer movie with more effects makes mad max an example of a movie that doesn't use cgi. Something completely unrelated doesn't make a false statement true. There was some marketing that got people to believe this and it's an outright lie.
- dmurray 3mo agoThey also used a practical effect for the scenes where the T-1000 needed to appear on screen at the same time as a character it had shapeshifted into. They cast identical twins for the roles. https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/h9rzry/in_terminator_2_judgement_day_the_security_guard/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/h9rzry/in_ter...
- DiabloD3 3mo agoI was expecting Linda Hamilton, but apparently more than one set of twins were in there.
- y1n0 3mo agoIt’s interesting to me that people thought/think this was a good effect. I saw t2 in the theaters when it was released and I thought this was the phoniest effect of the movie. It was extremely cheesy, so clearly sitting on top of the actor. They literally looked like aluminum flowers taped on to his shirt.
- jmyeet 3mo agoI'm not sure that anyone under the age of 45-50 can truly appreciate just how big of a deal Terminator 2 was and how big movie releases can be. Like, nothing in the MCU era or the Star Wars prequels and sequels comes remotely close. Yes, they gross a lot of money but in terms of cultural significance, I've seen nothing close. At the time I lived in a city when the local movie theaters would typically run major releases on 1, maybe 2 screens. Session times were like 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm 6 days a week and I think 1 less on Sundays. This was before the age of smaller theaters in the large multiplexes so a big movie theater might only have 4-8 screens. 3 weeks after T2 was released, it was still showing on screens in my local movie theater for 12-15 sessions a day, even on Sunday, from 8am til midnight. I actually waited a couple of weeks for the hype to die down and went on an 8am Sunday session knowing basically nothing (because that's how things worked then) and the movie theater was still full. The CGI was a big part of it. It has some fan service to it. My movie theater cheered when Arnie came out of the bar wearing the leathers and hopped on the bike. But it's not overboard. It's actually a really great story, which is kinda unusual for a sequel. Like, James Cameron really has to be commended for that. But there was another aspect too and that was Linda Hamilton. This was one of the first mainstream big-budget movies that changed the way women were portrayed in film. Lots of people had posters of her wearing the sunglasses, carrying weapons, etc. It was actually a really big deal. The 90s really was a golden era for movies. Like I used to go 1-2 times a week and just watch whatever was on, basically. I don't think I've been to a movie theater since Avengers End Game and even in the 2010s it was a 2-3 times a year thing max. But it is amazing how much they did with CGI in the early 1990s for T2.
- wiredfool 3mo agoI think Jurassic Park was pretty similar craziness. Definitely pushing the CGI aspect, and super super popular.
- Forgeties79 3mo agoJurassic Park really is a great example of “movie magic.”
- chasd00 3mo ago
- raychis 3mo agoThis was a fantastic read. I had no idea how much of Terminator 2 had to be invented from scratch. It's amazing to think that a lot of the tools and ideas that shaped modern VFX started with engineers just trying to solve one impossible problem after another. Some films really do stand the test of time, I'm not really sure that contemporary CGI will really age as well.
- k12sosse 3mo agoNot the disaster of a print they have for the 4k masters. It's upscaled using 2010 tech and amazing deficient, but to Cameron, I'm the problem, so it actually looks better on DVD
- kridsdale1 3mo agoTrue Lies as well! I noticed last week the print on AppleTV in 4k had a lot of GenAI artifacts in it (things being optically impossibly sharp, skin detail). I looked and yes, it was processed around 2022. I’m sure if they tried again with better models it would be better. Is that the future of film preservation? The source I read also said that the fucking DVD remains the best available copy of True Lies.
- itisit 3mo ago> I'm not really sure that contemporary CGI will really age as well. Because today the film is subordinate to the CGI. In the early days, as is apparent in this oral history, CGI usage was deliberate and each shot received unusual scrutiny, time, and senior talent. And the technology simply wasn't used when the illusion didn't work; the imagery really had to blend with the physical footage. Today, obviously, the same considerations don't apply.
- xnx 3mo agoCan anyone confirm that the helicopter flying over the underpass was actual flying and not VFX or a chopper on a trailer? There are claims that the stunt pilot flew under (twice!), but it seems like no amount of skill could avoid weird uncontrollable effects from rotor wash.
- markus_zhang 3mo agoI saw claims for that in multiple sources. I think they initially wanted to do CG but it was too hard back then so the pilot did it anyway.
- xnx 3mo agoIt seems so weird that there's no "behind the scenes" type footage.
- kridsdale1 3mo agoThe link in this thread says the camera team refused to participate so the shot in the film was just James Cameron holding a camera in the back of a truck. Nobody else around to film BTS footage.
- ButlerianJihad 3mo agoAfter the Twilight Zone tragedy, I wouldn’t get involved in such shenanigans either!
- rwmj 3mo agohttps://nedhardy.com/2023/02/12/terminator-2-helicopter/ https://nedhardy.com/2023/02/12/terminator-2-helicopter/
- ge96 3mo agoIt's interesting the bridge blocking the rotors didn't make it fall... maybe it's like a pressurized zone of air/ground effect... it's not a perfect vacuum
- windowliker 3mo agoDisappointed this only focuses on the contemporary technology used in making the (admittedly amazing) visual effects for the film, which has been addressed multiple times across various formats. When I first watched T2 as a kid the thing which grabbed me more was that gadget John Connor uses to hack the ATM and all the cool stuff in the Cyberdyne offices. It would be nice if someone wrote an article discussing that aspect of the film, for the record and posterity's sake.
- bluedino 3mo agoIt's not from the VFX team but someone wrote a clone of the ATM hacking program https://bert.org/2021/01/04/t2-pin-cracking/ https://bert.org/2021/01/04/t2-pin-cracking/
- windowliker 3mo agoSuper cool, thank you!
- kridsdale1 3mo agoEasy Money!
- markus_zhang 3mo agoI thought that's an ZX-81 Spectrum but I watched it again and found out that it was not! Edit: Watched again and it is an ATARI laptop because the brand showed up in a few frames. This is probably the one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio A screenshot I just made: https://imgur.com/6I34YyN https://imgur.com/6I34YyN
- windowliker 3mo agoYou are correct, sir. See the link bluedino posted!
- markus_zhang 3mo ago
- ChrisArchitect 3mo agoAnd back in theatres this year for the 35th anniversary, in time for Judgement Day (August 29). Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZgIESxakso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZgIESxakso "The 4K and 3D presentation uses STUDIOCANAL’s acclaimed 2017 restoration and 3D conversion."
- markus_zhang 3mo agoAlso I think we are pretty close to the year 2027 which was supposed to be the year that humans defeat Skynet. Time flies.
- _trampeltier 3mo agoWho knows, maybe Trump can help.
- dhosek 3mo agoBut who exactly will he be helping?
- _trampeltier 3mo agoTweeting, yelling and with bribes
- whycome 3mo agoThe 4K remaster of this is back in theatres next month for “Judgment Day” and the 35th anniversary. https://www.fathomentertainment.com/news/fathom-entertainment-announces-terminator-2/ https://www.fathomentertainment.com/news/fathom-entertainmen...
- ymolodtsov 3mo agoThe preview they released is so smudged though, like they tried to denoize it.
- neckro23 3mo agoThe 4k remasters of the classic Cameron films look awful. It's like someone cranked the denoise filter up to 200 and left it there.
- tadfisher 3mo agoCameron himself doesn't like film grain, and he did indeed sign off on the excessive denoising.
- account42 3mo agoThere's disliking film grain and then there's preferring awful inhuman wax figure faces. Cameron is definitely in the latter camp for some reason. GP isn't exaggerating - they 4K remasters are significantly worse looking than previous 1080p home media releases and T2 is a particularly badly affected example.
- ButlerianJihad 3mo agoThat would be the 29th anniversary, because the in-universe Judgement Day was in 1997.
- 13hours 3mo agoI wonder if they'll show the director's cut? I was in high school when the movie came out, and we were on a 6 week road trip all over the USA that summer, so I couldn't see the movie. Those days they also published books for a lot of the popular movies (sold at gas stations), so I bought and read the book. I only got to see the movie a month or 2 after release when we were back home in Baton Rouge. The book was the director's cut, and to this day I seem to remember that the version of the movie I saw also had that ending (my brain playing tricks on me). There's also the scene where they cut open his skull to put his cpu in learning mode in the gas station. I don't know why they cut that, it works so well with John asking "are we learning yet" in a next scene.
- macote 3mo agoIt's worth mentionning that Softimage was used for Terminator 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softimage_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softimage_(company) https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/remembering-softimage/ https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/remembering-softimage/
- whartung 3mo agoThe T2 nuclear destruction of LA was done by Electric Image. Small software house doing 3D rendering on the Mac.
- mrandish 3mo agoThe nuking of Los Angeles was a combination of physical models and 3D rendered shots. This close integration between physical models and 3D as well as using procedural techniques for the detonation was quite novel at the time. It was enabled by a new feature called "Mr. Nitro" written by Mark Granger, co-founder of Electric Image. The requirements of that groundbreaking sequence very much drove the features of Mr. Nitro, which was later released as part of Electric Image. EI 3D went on to render many shots for Star Wars: Phantom Menace, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Titanic, Men In Black, etc. More info and images of both the physical and Mac rendered 3D models of Los Angeles being nuked: https://nccasymposium.bournemouth.ac.uk/2005/mscca/DIGGINS_html/html/t2_behindscenes.html#:~:text=After%20coming%20up%20with%20several,The%20Mr. https://nccasymposium.bournemouth.ac.uk/2005/mscca/DIGGINS_h... While SGI's PR teams and ability to loan pricey workstations dominated the "3D in Hollywood" narrative for much of the 90s, in reality a lot of amazing work was being done on Macs and Video Toaster-equipped Amigas throughout the 90s. ILM's "Rebel Unit" initially started using Macs for 3D pre-visualization on Star Wars, but the renderings were so good literally hundreds of Mac rendered shots were used in Phantom Menace (although a contract ensured only SGI was credited at the end of the film).
- eldog_ 3mo agoRecommend "Jurassic Punk" (2022) - the documentary about Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams who is featured in this interview. It covers T2 as well as Jurassic park and goes into the politics inside ILM,
- kridsdale1 3mo agoNextlander (former Giant Bomb NYC crew) did a fun episode on this documentary.
- whycome 3mo agoApparently it's available to stream for free: > Steve 'Spaz' Williams is a pioneer in computer animation. His digital dinosaurs of JURASSIC PARK transformed Hollywood in 1993, but an appetite for anarchy and reckless disregard for authority may have cost him the recognition he deserved. Directed by Scott Leberecht Jurassic Punk (2022) 80mins https://watch.plex.tv/movie/jurassic-punk-2022 https://watch.plex.tv/movie/jurassic-punk-2022
- KellyCriterion 3mo agoThere was a behind-the-scenes some years ago, in which they showed: A lot of effects werent GFX, but actual scene/scenerie building
- xnx 3mo agoAmazing. Photoshop wasn't even a year old when they were doing this.
- deadcatfound 3mo ago[flagged]
- anigbrowl 3mo agoYour recent submission got auto-killed, probably because you're a new user. I can't really answer your specific question, other than to suggest buying some low $ advertising, or modestly and transparently shill it by asking for people to try it i out in relevant social forums. IF that goes poorly, try anonymous forums like /biz/.
- opengrass 3mo agoT2 is the best movie ever made and got praise from nuclear physicists.
- areznichenko 3mo agoMy favorite movie of all time. It's incredible how much of the technology had to be invented just to make Terminator 2 possible. More than 30 years later, the VFX still hold up-and with today's AI revolution, the film feels even more relevant than ever.
- areznichenko 3mo ago[flagged]