Wellington, Weta Digital, a small workshop-style studio with only seven people, under the name of director Pete Jackson, although not famous, is deeply appreciated by Luc Besson.

"Pete, long time no see!"

"Great director! And President Yang! Welcome! ”

Richard Taylor, CEO of Weta in charge of daily management, explained a little embarrassedly: "Sorry everyone, Weta Digital's new office is still being renovated, if you come half a month late, we can sit in the spacious and bright conference room and chat......"

Luc Besson didn't care at all, he leaned against a workbench, looked around and asked, "It seems that Weta Digital has made a lot of money with the movie "Angel of Sins"?" ”

Pete pretended to be distressed: "Of course, I took a large chunk of my box office revenue!" ”

Everyone laughed, who didn't know that Weta Digital was established because of the filming of the "Angel of Sins" movie? Moreover, Weta Digital Studios is Pete's private asset, and "Angel of Sin" is only directed by Pitt, so it doesn't matter how much money is taken away from the box office.

Yang Yun didn't care about this bad environment, and said: "We won't mind the environment here, it's impossible to wait for another half a month, we can't even wait for half an hour!" ”

Everyone laughed good-naturedly, and Yang Yun said in passing that he wanted to work with Weta Digital to study special effects techniques in film, television, and games.

Pete didn't say anything, but asked people to clean up an area for everyone to watch the current technical achievements of Weta Digital. While demonstrating, explain the difference between movie special effects and game special effects.

Overall. In most cases, movie effects are much more complex than game effects. At the same time, it is also much more real, making the audience feel that the movie CG is more exquisite than the game CG, and it is impossible to distinguish what is real and what is virtual, such as Transformers, various Autobots, and various alien creatures in Avatar, as if they are real.

The biggest difference between the two special effects lies in the algorithm of rendering techniques, the movie special effects are more realistic rendering, and the game special effects are approximate algorithms.

Rendering can be understood as subdividing a hand-made image countless times. Each time it is rendered, the light, color, and various details will be deepened and subdivided, which will be closer to reality.

Excellent film CG will use a supercomputer, after a large number of real rendering calculations, to finally get an infinitely close to the real scene of the shot, with hundreds of CPUs spend hundreds of hours just to render a second of picture, and the game is a computer with a second of time to render a second of picture. Therefore, the results of the two are completely incomparable.

Games can't do the exaggerated level of movie production, few game production companies buy professional-grade graphics processing GPUs, NVIDIA professional graphics cards are not vegetarians, they have the best graphics card technology in the world. It's this technique that eats, and the best graphics card can be sold at a sky-high price, and only movies can afford to spend this money.

For example. In "Transformers", Optimus Prime was transformed, and more than 10,000 parts were used in 3D modeling. In addition, animation production, motion capture techniques. Post-production such as background production, virtual compositing, auxiliary and lighting effects, and final rendering, the entire cost is $150 million, and "Transformers 2" is $250 million.

Which game would dare to do that?

Yang Yun also graduated from computer science, although he is not proficient, but at least he knows that there is a big difference between the two.

He can spend money to find Square Enix to do game CG, but he never asks them to do movie CG of the level of "Transformers", like the Licker Evolution in "Resident Evil 1" this time, and only asks Square Enix for less than 5 seconds.

Because this is the limit that a game production company like Square Enix can afford, if you want to be more realistic, if you want to be like a real person, you can only go to Hollywood George Lucas's industrial magic light, or James Cameron's digital field, they have a service of renting out professional rendering supercomputers, but the fee is super expensive!

As long as they plan to make a CG movie, they have to redesign the rendering algorithm, which is equivalent to sorting out the 3D special effects technology from scratch, and the full 90 minutes of CG production will burn Square Enix's hundreds of millions of dollars!

After Pete explained, he didn't know if it was a kind reminder and said: "Maybe what Longteng needs is not movie-level rendering skills, in fact, a simple set of game modeling is enough." ”

Marcos and the others have understood, feeling that the president of Weta Digital is a little bit looking down on the company that makes game CG?

Yang Yun smiled and shook his head: "I don't know if Lu Dao Luc told you?" ”

Luc Besson took over and said: "Pete, I just signed a contract with Dragon Teng a few days ago, and I am about to direct the "Resident Evil 1" movie, there are a large number of mutated biochemical monsters that need special effects, I need your help!" Because Longteng's other movie "The Expendables 2" wants to borrow Hollywood's special effects team, it ......"

Pete suddenly realized and said self-deprecatingly: "I'm sorry, I don't know much about the game company, and I don't know that Longteng is also developing into special effects movies." ”

Yang Yun nodded: "Yes Pete, there will be many games that can be adapted into movies in the future." So what I need is not low-end game special effects technology, but I hope to cooperate with Weta Digital to jointly develop 3D technology. Dragon's biggest competitor in the game industry is Sony Computer Entertainment, and Sony's graphics and image operation company ImageWorks also does special effects, don't you Weta Digital want to surpass them? ”

In fact, Pete is not too interested in what Long Teng wants, because there is no need for the two companies to intersect.

But Yang Yun's last sentence moved Pete, and now among the three most powerful special effects companies in the world, Sony is one of them, second only to the two industry leaders in Hollywood.

"Maybe to some extent, our two companies in different industries have the same competitor...... Yang Yun looked at Pete with a smile, and he slowly said, "Does this mean that we can also have a common language?" ”

No one spoke in the studio, only the demo video shows two humanoid monsters fighting with weapons, making the sound of ping-pong metal impact, fighting, chasing, and already has the prototype of an excellent CG movie.

Luc Besson was the middleman, and of course he wanted to broker the two sides, and he looked at Pete and Richard carefully, paying attention to their expressions, trying to say something.

Yang Yun is also looking forward to it, if Weta Digital is willing to cooperate, his grasp of dealing with Sony will become a little bigger, Weta Digital is no less than the famous special effects studio of Sony Images, and it is a joke to do "The Lord of the Rings".

If Weta Digital refuses, he can only find a way to pit Square Enix again, until he acquires Square Enix, and then continue to invest in independent research and development on the basis of Square Enix's CG special effects, and strive to become a super special effects company like Industrial Magic.

Of course, cooperation is the best win-win situation, and Yang Yun is not willing to go to the last step, no one is willing.

"Enemy."

A word popped out of Pete's mouth, and everyone didn't react for a moment, but then he laughed: "It's not a common competitor, it's an enemy ......"

Yang Yun smiled, everyone laughed, and gave applause to the two of them.

Yang Yun held Pete's hand, and both of them saw a strong battle intent and confidence in each other's eyes.

Longteng can guarantee a large number of practical application opportunities for Weta Digital, and Weta Digital can also guarantee that Longteng will not worry about CG animation and 3D modeling in the future, and the cooperation between the two companies will complement each other's 3D engine technology, which is a win-win situation!

Luc Besson, a strong man, hugged the two and was happy that the two companies were working together.

He must be the first beneficiary, the CG special effects of "Resident Evil 1" have not yet been settled, although Yang Yun promised that Square Enix would take it out, but Luc Besson has no confidence at all, and Weta Digital, he is very relieved!

"Great, Pete! While the two of us can also be considered director contenders, you shouldn't overcharge your allies for production, right? Luc Besson patted Pete on the back, "Congratulations! Found the cooperation of Longteng, a powerful multinational company! ”

Pete laughed: "One yard to one yard!" "Angel of Sin" is a precedent, and I won't charge you a penny less than your budget! ”

Yang Yun held Pete's hand and said, "Of course there will be a charge, there is an old saying in China, brothers settle accounts." ”

Everyone laughed loudly, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.

The specific negotiation matters can be done later, Pete also held this idea, at this time a little show-off, and said mysteriously: "Luc, Mr. Yang, let's take a look at the latest technology developed by our Weta Digital, I promise to surprise you!" ”

Oh?

There are still private goods hidden, and you didn't take them out just now?

Everyone was interested, Richard called a few employees, and moved out a complete set of mechanical devices from the corner, as well as a large number of connections, Yang Yun immediately understood, and exclaimed: "Real life motion capture system? ”

Pete was a little surprised, he nodded in admiration, it seems that this Mr. Yang is still quite knowledgeable!

Richard explains: "Yes, this is a high-speed camera that can automatically generate a 3D animation after connecting to a computer server. ”

Yang Yun saw all the accessories clearly and breathed a sigh of relief, this is just the most basic and simplest motion capture system, through the set fixed points, as real as possible to restore the movements and expressions of real people, in fact, it is far from the virtual reality motion capture system twenty years later!

"Let me show you how this system works!" Pete was a little excited, this was the treasure he pressed at the bottom of the box.

He must use this set of techniques to impress Yang Yun, so that he will take the initiative in cooperation negotiations! (To be continued......)