SFX Problems and Future Challenges

[Kristin]

Hi~

After seeing the movie the second time yesterday I waited to see who 
did all the SFX for the movie. Well turns out there are three 
different companies listed: Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Sony Digital, 
and ILM(Industrial Light & Magic). This makes a little more sense to 
me now why some of the CG looked better than others. I have a feeling 
ILM did Norbert(which was pretty detailed and realistic) and probably 
the Quidditch match. Sony probably did the troll sequence and 
possibly a lot of the backgrounds, that to me looked a little wonky 
at times.  Henson's most definately did the animatronics.

I was hoping that ILM would have done all the CG work to keep things 
a bit more consistent. However I guess time constraits and possibly 
budget for this movie necessitated the use of two CG companies. 
Although, on the other hand ILM may have only been able to commit to 
certain scenes, due to the fact that they may have their hands full 
with CG for another little movie opening May(Which has a really 
stupid title sorry slight rant).

Anyway I think that in CoS Henson's may create Dobby and other elves 
as an animatronic similar to Yoda instead of being a CG.  Aragog and  
Buckbeak will be(and should be) done by ILM, especially Buckbeak. I 
also think as the movies go on everything will get better and we'll 
find less to nitpick, IMHO.

I do like the effects on a whole but I thought they could be better 
and more consistent.

Cheers,

Kristin