
Game of Thrones CGI - agavin
http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/07/29/game-of-thrones-cgi/
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natesm
This might be obvious, but this show is excellent, and if you haven't watched
it yet, don't watch this video until you have, as there are some major
spoilers.

~~~
MikeCapone
I expected to like it - I really liked Rome, also from HBO - but Game of
Thrones fell completely flat for me. Somehow the directing/acting/script just
didn't produce much emotion or attachment to the characters from me. There
were some interesting scenes here and there, but overall, it was a bit like
The Pacific (I loved Band of Brothers and expected to love Pacific too (I read
the biographies on which it is based), but it fell completely flat for me.

But I can't hold it against HBO. I _love_ Treme (by David Simon, who also did
my favorite show, The Wire) and Boardwalk Empire is pretty good.

I'm actually curious to know if it's just me. Anyone else expected to like GoT
but ended up not liking it? The dwarf character was great, but even he
couldn't save that show for me.

~~~
bokchoi
It's not just you. I heard it was great from coworkers and friends, but I also
find the characters pretty flat and the plot predictable. I always get this
vaguely racist feeling from these medieval fantasy worlds -- in this case form
the way the grassland people are depicted as backward with gifts of snakes at
weddings.

I will say one thing it has going for it -- that theme music really stuck in
my head.

~~~
baddox
Wait a minute: you thought the plot was predictable? How far in advance were
you able to predict things? Of all the faults in the books and TV show, that's
a new one to me.

As for the racial stereotypes, I can see what people mean, but how exactly do
you portray different (fictional) ethnicities without evoking those responses?

~~~
fragsworth
Yeah that is a strange thing to complain about. Of all its faults, I can't
really say GoT was predictable.

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jamesteow
On a related note, here is the process for making the titles. It's nominated
for(and most likely to win) an Emmy.

<http://www.artofthetitle.com/2011/05/12/game-of-thrones/>

~~~
agavin
The titles were pretty amazing, simultaneously being cool and helping to give
new viewers some sense of the layout of the world. Like a 3D jacket map.

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huhtenberg
I really want someone to make a CG movie that centers on exploring a made-up
world and does _not_ have a storyline or narration. Just some guy traveling
from point A to point B and the viewers tagging along. Think Time Machine or
Avatar in a format of that Norwegian train movie [1].

\- or -

I would settle for a game of the same kind with stunning visuals and mind-
blowing landscapes and detailing, the game that is centered around exploring
the world rather than advancing a character or completing missions.

Who's with me? :)

[1] <http://boingboing.net/2009/12/19/norwegian-public-bro.html>

~~~
MasterScrat
Yes, completely. A universe with the beauty and depth of the Myst saga, but
with no specific purpose would be awesome.

That's why I loved games such as Baldur's Gate so much: you can travel the
world for dozen of hours without having to really participate to any quest.

~~~
huhtenberg
Right, Myst. Totally slipped my mind. Myst 3D was a nice try on their part,
but ultimately such a disappointment - too simple and stripped down.

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reso
Wow. As an avid watcher of the show and graphics connoisseur, I didn't know
that half those castles were CG. Very fine work.

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nhebb
The CGI is impressive, but I didn't like a lot of the interior set design,
especially those in King's Landing. It reminded me of Las Vegas or some mall
shop that sells furnishings with faux patina.

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bh42222
As a subscriber to the Game of Thrones reddit, am I absolutely flaging this.

I know I am not supposed to complain about stories on HN, but I feel I have to
say this. Let us not have "Oooh, look at these special effects!" type of
stories on the HN front page.

~~~
sp4rki
You completely missed the point of the post if all you got from it was "Oooh,
look at these special effects!"

Nevertheless if it got to the homepage since yesterday AND got close to 200
upvotes, it might mean that at least a subset of the community is interested
in the effects used in the TV series. Special effects are "technology" and as
such people like you and me might find ourselves interested in such things. As
a fan of the A Song of Fire and Ice books, an entrepreneur, and a programmer
and technologist, my interest in the application of special effects in the
Game of Thrones TV series is significantly higher than the excess of complaint
posts about the patent system (I care about the patent system, just not for
all the ranting you see these days...) that you see every day on the homepage.
I don't complain though, because I know that since those are getting upvoted,
it means people ARE interested in that type of posts.

~~~
bh42222
_I don't complain though, because I know that since those are getting upvoted,
it means people ARE interested in that type of posts._

Complex topics also have people who are interested in them. But for complex
topics, in general, the audience is small. However, the more generic and
easily understood the topic, to wider its audience.

Thus if we simply say, if it's popular it must be good, then we quickly end up
with popular culture, which tends to be shallow. Greatest common denominator
and all that.

This is why I don't complain about a flood of patent law articles, I know
those won't lead us down the path of the reddit front page. But articles like
this, especially because so many are clearly interested, do bother me. Because
a lot of people, including me, are also interested in rage comics. They are
funny and easy to grasp, and quick to read - super popular. But I dread the
day a rage comic is on the HN front page.

~~~
sp4rki
But then a rage comic has nothing to do with entrepreneurship, technology,
programming, et al. right? I would also dread the day a rage comic gets to the
HN front page.

If something is flagged by enough people, it probably means that it's not
something that deserves a spot on the HN homepage. As such you have every
right to flag it if you don't think that it deserves it's rightful spot, but
if you comment on why you think it doesn't deserve to be there you'll
invariably get a response by someone (in this case me!) that does believe that
it's useful enough to deserve a spot. That being said, I just want to know:
How can you equate a rage comic post to a post leading to the application of
(particularly good) special effects on TV series?

~~~
bh42222
Are these special effects that much better then what is state of the art
today?

Is their application somehow unique or significantly different or more
technological?

It seems to me like pretty standard special effects, in fact a bit less
special than what you see in big block buster movies.

This is why I perceive this as not much more then neat video.

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agavin
For those of you who can't get enough GOT CGI, the SFX company released yet
another 3 minute before and after video:

[http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/08/05/more-game-of-thr...](http://all-
things-andy-gavin.com/2011/08/05/more-game-of-thrones-cgi/)

Cool stuff.

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thomasfl
I noticed lots of the background CGI is architectural elements. We'll probably
see this techniques used by architects to visualize their projects with moving
images that includes real people.

