readease Chapter 95 Special Effects Company
Chapter 95 Special Effects Company
Chapter 95 Special Effects Company
"Tell me, what brings you here?"
After the meeting, Robert Iger invited Ernst to his office, clearly having something to discuss.
Surely they couldn't have come to lobby because they were worried Ernst would offend Wall Street?
"Cameron has explicitly declined our offer of cooperation in the digital field that you previously asked me to follow up on."
After acquiring the entire Titanic project, MGM very quickly transferred $6,000 in follow-up funding to the project's dedicated bank account.
But Ernst also knew Cameron's temperament; the great director had never had any concept of spending money and was practically a money-burning machine.
He was genuinely worried that the other party would recklessly increase investment in post-production special effects, just like when they discovered a sugar daddy. Therefore, he specially dispatched a dedicated accounting team and project supervisor to oversee the funds, just to prevent the budget from getting out of control again.
In addition, Ernst also set his sights on another of Cameron's companies, namely Digital Domain.
When it comes to the digital field, Chinese people are probably more familiar with its other name: Digital Domain Group, one of the world's leading visual effects companies headquartered in Hong Kong.
In fact, the company was originally founded by James Cameron, but unfortunately it went bankrupt in 2012 due to poor management and was subsequently acquired by Hong Kong's Auliang Group.
Computer-generated special effects played a crucial role in Ernst's blueprint for MGM's future development.
He knew very well that twenty years from now, more than half of the production budget for Hollywood blockbusters would be invested in computer-generated special effects.
Now that it's the 1990s, MGM must seize this golden opportunity and plan ahead in order to gain an advantage in the future film market.
Looking at the current field of computer special effects, only three companies can truly pique Ernst's interest.
Digital Domain, Weta Digital, and Industrial Light & Magic.
Founded in 1993, Weta Digital was established by Peter Jackson to finance the Lord of the Rings film series.
The company's subsequent success is undeniable. After the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" in 2001, its stunning special effects instilled a sense of dominance in the global film industry.
The problem is that Weta Digital is not short of funds at all. With the Lord of the Rings film series as a stable source of funding, Peter Jackson would never sell the company.
As for Industrial Light & Magic, this Hollywood special effects company is now undoubtedly the leading force, and it's George Lucas's everything.
In 1986, the other party sold Pixar, which is the computer animation division of Industrial Light & Magic, entirely out of friendship and out of helplessness.
Back then, George Lucas faced financial difficulties due to his divorce proceedings, coupled with a sharp decline in Star Wars revenue, leading to a cash flow crisis. This prompted him to reluctantly sell the computer animation team behind Star Wars.
Unexpectedly, this division has given rise to two behemoths in their respective fields.
One is Industrial Light & Magic, which dominates the field of post-production special effects, and the other is Pixar, the undisputed king of 3D animation.
Now that Pixar is practically in Ernst's grasp, he must lay a solid foundation for MGM in the field of post-production special effects.
With neither Weta Digital nor Industrial Light & Magic having a chance of acquiring it, and coinciding with the release of Titanic...
When the project came into view, Ernst naturally thought of the digital field.
However, judging from the current situation, these three directors, who rose to fame thanks to special effects, all have very unique vision and have no intention of giving up easily.
"In that case, let's set up our own special effects company," Ernst said firmly.
Robert Iger nodded; he shared the same idea.
Establishing a special effects company was definitely necessary, but he was unsure how to do it and on what scale. This was the main reason he kept Ernst with him.
"The investment of a visual effects company is nothing more than three aspects: hardware investment, software investment, and talent costs."
"Hardware investment and talent recruitment go without saying, those are necessary, but should MGM get involved in software investment, and to what extent?"
This was a question Ernst hadn't considered in depth before. There weren't many special effects software programs on the market at the moment, but he knew that the sub-fields of special effects software would become extremely rich in the future.
From a dimensional perspective, software can be divided into two-dimensional software, three-dimensional special effects software, and even four-dimensional special effects software, which is software that adds the time dimension.
From an operational perspective, software can be divided into hierarchical operation software, such as the well-known Photoshop, and node-based operation software, such as Nuke and Houdini.
In terms of usage scenarios, some software is suitable for movie and game production, while others are better suited for game development, namely virtual engines, and still others are suitable for scene generation, with a wide variety of types.
If we look at the application areas, there are even more.
There are all-in-one software programs that support the entire process from modeling to rendering, but "all-in-one" refers to functionality, not necessarily that all functions are top-notch.
This led to the emergence of many specialized special effects software companies. These companies have a single research and development focus; some excel in modeling, some in texturing, some in special effects, and some in rendering.
To create a blockbuster with stunning special effects and vivid characters, it is simply impossible to achieve with just one software program.
For example, the core software used in "Ne Zha" is the all-around special effects software Maya. It handles character modeling, animation rigging, scene layout, and keyframe animation.
The high-definition details were achieved using ZBrush; the fine textures of Nezha's Hun Tian Ling and Ao Bing's armor are all thanks to it.
SubstancePainter is responsible for painting textures and creating patterns; it's this that makes the weathering marks on the buildings of Chentangguan so realistic.
To achieve a perfect presentation of light, shadow, and materials, you need global rendering software like ArnoldRenderer, which renders hair with distinct root subdivisions, making it exceptionally realistic.
Then there's the Vican motion capture system, which is responsible for those martial arts and weapon movements.
As for the large-scale scenes of thunder, fire, water, and smoke, they were created by Houdini, maximizing the film's visual effects.
In post-production compositing, ShotGrid is also needed for multi-channel compositing, lens color grading, and multi-layer depth-of-field control.
Top-tier visual effects companies do not necessarily mean top-tier visual effects software companies.
Companies like Weta Digital and Industrial Light & Magic also train teams, but they only develop one or two types of software, and most of the software is purchased and used.
Furthermore, in the United States and Japan, any commercial special effects production must use genuine software.
What's even more infuriating is that you can only install one software on a computer; you can't use one software for multiple purposes.
A blockbuster special effects movie requires thousands of computers, which means that a single software application can incur thousands of usage fees.
Weta Digital, the company that created the special effects for Avatar, charged a whopping 300 million for the software alone.
0 million US dollars.
In other words, the development cost of creating software that people are willing to pay for is astronomical.
It's clearly unrealistic for MGM to develop so many software applications right now; the financial investment would be too huge.
The purchase of hardware alone is a huge expense, and the electricity consumption during special effects production is an even bigger expense; the electricity cost for a blockbuster can be tens of millions of dollars.
There are also talent costs; if they were to invest in software development, MGM's current financial situation simply wouldn't allow it.
But Ernst didn't want to give up on the upstream field of software. After thinking it over, he felt that he might be able to fund the establishment of a dedicated company for research and development.
They could then sell it back to MGM, increasing their stake in MGM.
"Then let's do the same thing as other visual effects companies: start with the hardware and team, and leave the software aside."
Robert Iger breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. He was genuinely afraid that Ernst might act impulsively and make a rash decision to fully commit to the project.
Based on his understanding of Ernst, he knew that the man had an extremely strong desire for control and pursued absolute dominance in many things. He wouldn't be surprised if Ernst really put his full effort into software, hardware, and the team.
But he didn't know that Ernst was thinking the same thing, he just bypassed MGM.
"We need to speed up the team building process. We can start by using MGM's internal film and television projects to gain experience."
The discussion in the office continued, while the Hollywood sign outside the window gleamed in the setting sun.
A strategic move in the field of special effects has quietly begun.
In a couple of years, special effects technology will experience explosive growth. Whoever seizes the initiative in special effects will gain the power to dominate the future film market.
>