Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/457057
j a n u a r y . f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 5 c g w 1 5 Gilman says. "The great thing about the elves is that they are delicate, with a finesse in their movements – agile and delicate, but at the same time, their way of attacking needed to be vicious. They were whirl- ing dervishes of death, with arcing motion and quick stabs. Always spinning." Orcs, by contrast, moved like sewer rats. "They'd move in formation, but we tried to find a point in space where there was a weakness," Gilman says. "They'd swarm to that weakness and then pour out the other side. They had little regard for the fallen; they'd step on the dead." The stout dwarves, on the other hand, moved more like tanks and formed shield walls. In addition to the stylistic differences in the way the races moved, each carried different types of flags and banners and wore different types of armor. "There was always a worry that the viewer would see an ocean of people, with no idea what was going on," Gilman says. These battles did not center on hand-to-hand fighting among heroes. "You see formations," Sain- don says. "Peter wanted to see a sea of spears and ranks of people. He didn't want a whole battle with one dwarf fighting an Orc. He wanted groups of dwarves taking down an Orc. He wanted battles more designed than the typical melee we've done before." B A T T L E M A N A G E M E N T Notary and Boswell diagrammed the formations for the perform- ers on the motion- capture stage. "We had a huge number JACKSON COULD SEE THOUSANDS OF CG CHARACTERS FIGHTING THROUGH HIS VIRTUAL CAMERA WHILE HE WAS ON THE MOCAP STAGE, AND COULD FILM THE BATTLE AS IT HAPPENED.