Computer Graphics World

A sk anyone about milestones in com- puter graphics, and the fi lm Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2) will be at the top of the list. e fi rst Terminator fi lm in 1984 started a franchise. T2, released in 1991, helped enable an industry. "It set the stage for computer graphics in fi lm," says Pat Conran, CG supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, the visual eff ects studio that pushed computer graphics into the future by creating a liquid-metal ter- minator for T2, and again created digital eff ects for the latest sequel in the franchise, Terminator Salvation. "[Visual eff ects supervisor] Dennis Muren has said the shot where actor Robert Patrick becomes liquid as he walks through the bars in T2 was the moment when he realized we could now do anything," Con- ran says. "So, working on the fourth Termi- nator fi lm was quite exciting for me." e money shot in T2 was of the liquid-metal T-1000 striding out from a fi ery explosion, and the key to inte- grating that character into the fi lmed foot- age was ILM's newfound ability to render and composite a CG character with correct refl ections. e environment in the back- ground plate, the light from the fi re and the background, and the shadows had to distort correctly as the shiny-surfaced char- acter walked toward camera. At the time, it was painstaking work. Now, 18 years later, such visual eff ects are so often taken for granted that it might come as a surprise to learn the breakthrough technology for the fourth fi lm, Terminator Salvation, includes a new set of energy- conserving shaders designed to produce more effi cient and accurate refl ections, new technology for choreographing the light playing across a sur- face, and new tech- niques for creating liquid metal. e artists at ILM didn't use these new tools to put refl ections on shiny surfaces for standout eff ects as they did in T2, but to create re- alistic surfaces for CG terminators, cars, trucks, airplanes, and other objects that blend so seamlessly into gritty backgrounds you believe they exist in that world. Directed by McG, the Warner Bros. (do- mestic) and Sony Pictures (international) release stars Christian Bale as John Connor, Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, and Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese. Charles Gib- son was overall visual eff ects supervi- sor, and in addition to ILM, Asylum Visual Ef- May 2009 18

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