The wtn nomination comes on the heels of the scientific and engineering award from the academy of motion picture arts and sciences regelous accepted in february 2004 for the development of massive software. Clearly what was once crowd simulation software has become far more than that and massive software is not sleeping as we speak. Jan 01, 2004 the massive software program developed by stephen regelous and used for the previous films handled the orcs and other warriors, the horses and horsemen, the people riding the mumakils, civilians around minas tirith, and an army of the dead. Massive was used in the fellowship of the ring for thousands of warriors that, once set loose on a battlefield, would find an enemy, pick a fight, and fight to the death. The class covers a wide variety of topics which apply across all applications and is a favorite of our members. Regelous then spent the next few years writing a computer program he called massive for use in the huge battle scenes within the lord of the rings films. Jan 01, 2003 so it was really peter that sprung the original vision for what ultimately became a program called massive a piece of proprietary software created by a young new zealander called stephen regelous. Stephen regelous is a pioneering computer graphics software engineer from new zealand. I was delighted to meet and chat with the creator of this program, stephen regelous. Massive agents a key strength of massive is that it provides emergent behaviour for each cg character in scenes involving many cg participants.
Siggraph 2017 stephen regelous massive software youtube. It helped digital doubles of the fellowship navigate a steep staircase in loth lorien and the orcs aka goblins taunt the fellowship and climb pillars in the mines of moria. Thursday 19 october 2006 the producers guild of america pga and the hollywood reporter acknowledge massive software founder stephen regelous as one of the top 50 new media producers and innovators in the realm of digital storytelling. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion aslan, the children lead narnia into a spectacular, climactic battle to be free of the witchs glacial powers forever. Massives stephen regelous on future ai, competition and a massive app. Consider that regelous has incorporated sophisticated blendshape face animation technology into massive 2.
This was the biggest wakeup call since i made massive, you know, the fact that now you can just build an agents brain in seconds instead of laboriously putting nodes together for days whatever. The answer came via a developer named stephen regelous, who created massive. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2. Jul 26, 2016 if you know how to use 3ds max, massive will feel like second nature, said massive creator and ceo stephen regelous.
Aug 10, 2012 we spoke to stephen regelous, founder of massive software, who had a private suite off the show floor showing the newest work in massive crowd simulation. Mr regelous is the founder of massive software, based in auckland, new zealand. He is best known as the creator of the massive simulation system that. Among those honored with plaques were kinoton gmbh for its highspeed studio projector.
In massive, each character is a distinct agent with its own quirks and personality traits. Each soldier had to fight the right enemy and behave as a character would in battle. Massive for max unveiled at siggraph 2016 animation. The convergence of digital acting and vfx animation world. Its flagship feature is the ability to quickly and easily create thousands or up to millions with current advances in computer processing power of agents that all act as individuals as opposed to content creators individually animating or programming the agents by hand. The software has moved so far since film one, says eric saindon, sequence supervisor for pelennor fields. Massive for max unveiled at siggraph 2016 animation world. Jul 31, 2005 crowd and group animation course organizer daniel thalmann, epfl vrlab, switzerland, daniel.
Stephen regelous founder and ceo in 2004, stephen received an academy award for scientific and engineering achievement for the. The computer program massive was employed to create the battle, a program created by stephen regelous. Stephen regelous founder and ceo in 2004, stephen received an academy award for scientific and engineering achievement for the design and development of massive, an industryfirst system utilizing aidriven. What he did was create the ability for the computer to think for itself but not just for itself, for 10,000. Tools, techniques, and production examples craig xray halpern imagemovers digital, ken anjyo olm digital, mihai cioroba digital frontier inc. Massive is a software package developed by stephen regelous for the visual effects industry. Massive is the only crowd simulation software to feature characters controlled by artificial intelligence. To create a 50,000strong mob of intelligent digital warriors, massive creator stephen regelous builds each agent piece by piece, implanting a digital brain into a rendered body. Massives stephen regelous on future ai, competition and a.
Background fundamentals is our bonus general curriculum course at fxphd. With the help of a recent hollywood movie explain the. Massives ceo, stephen regelous weighs in on how artificial intelligence will make. Massive was founded when stephen regelous programmed a unique piece of software for director peter jackson to enable creation of complicated visual effects scenes involving hundreds of thousands of digital characters, and has since become the ubiquitous crowd animation solution for film and television. The best new cg software from siggraph 2016 cg channel. To accomplish this feat, regelous adopted an agentbased approach to the massive development effort. Developed by stephen regelous for the oscarwinning lord of the rings trilogy, massive allows artists to populate complex scenes with editable agents. This program allowed developers to quickly create thousands of individual characters, each of which responded. Massive has for the last few years delivered great new features each year at siggraph and shipped fairly soon afterwards. Linkedin is the worlds largest business network, helping professionals like stephen measelle discover inside connections to recommended. May 09, 2014 the program worked so well that regelous received an oscar from the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences for his work.
Massives ceo, stephen regelous weighs in on how artificial intelligence will make digital humans hollywoods new stars. Jackson wanted software that would allow hundreds of humans and orcs to interact naturally without the need to animate each character individually. The purpose of this innovative new software was to create a dynamic and fluid movement within a crowd that could interact with itself and the environment in a way that was as realistic as. In 1996, regelous had worked with peter jackson for his film. Massive uses fuzzy logic and prerecorded animation clips to control. Autodesk 3ds max, previously known as 3d studio or 3d studio max, is a professional 3d graphics software by autodesk for microsoft windows computers when the software first came out in 1990, it was created to be run on the msdos. Crowd and group animation course organizer daniel thalmann, epfl vrlab, switzerland, daniel. This course is the background fundamentals series which originally ran during our july 2014 term. Developed at weta digital by stephen regelous, massive then became a product on its own.
The convergence of digital acting and vfx animation. Consider stephen regelouss justly famous massive software program, which generated the extraordinary fighting hordes at the battle of. Massive makes 3d crowd simulation software for professional film, broadcast and architectural design artists. Sir peter jackson wanted software that enabled armies of thousands of humans and orcs to fight realistically, without the need to animate each character individually. For this the trilogys director, peter jackson, largely has stephen regelous to thank. He is best known as the creator of the massive simulation system that generated the battle scenes of the peter jackson movie trilogy the lord of the rings. Those were created with a software program called massive. Crowd modelling model behaviour technology quarterly. Aug 30, 2015 massive has for the last few years delivered great new features each year at siggraph and shipped fairly soon afterwards. It is purposefully intuitive, so artists can seamlessly start putting our aidriven agents to work right away. In 2004, regelous received an academy award for scientific and engineering achievement.
Millimetertechnical editor dan ochiva joined a small group of national journalists on the new zealand trade and enterprise commissions weeklong tour of the film industry infrastructure that peter jackson is building both directly and indirectly with hislord of the ringsmillions. The fellowship of the ring computer graphics world. Oct 25, 2010 stephen regelous massive crowd software developer, jim rygiel visual effects supervisor, wayne stables 3d sequence lead,joe letteri visual effects supervisorweta digital, geoff tobin. He also during this time founded the computer graphics company massive software. Dec 12, 2001 massive was used in the fellowship of the ring for thousands of warriors that, once set loose on a battlefield, would find an enemy, pick a fight, and fight to the death. It was developed and produced by autodesk media and entertainment. When massive multiple agent simulation system in virtual environment was first revealed to the world in 2001 as part of the release of peter jacksons lord of the rings films, it stunned audiences and the visual effects community with its use of fuzzy logic to aid in crowd animations. View stephen measelles professional profile on linkedin. The netflix show godless is an american western drama that doesnt shy away from violence and gore. They use vfx, they use the greenscreen, then they just act like blank kids, and they add sound effects, a sound defines what and how a scene or its atmosphere is. What does the code base or the software of massive look like. Stephen regelous business profile massive software. Stephen regelous for developing massive, the software used to create tens of thousands of warriors for the lord of the rings battle sequences. One of the things im enjoying now is seeing what artists are able to do with the software.
Massive software massive multiple agent simulation system in virtual environment is the most commonly used crowdsimulation software in the visual effects industry. Stephen regelous is a visual effects engineer in new zealand who created the. So it was really peter that sprung the original vision for what ultimately became a program called massive a piece of proprietary software created by a young new zealander called stephen regelous. Developed at weta digital by stephen regelous, massive then became a product. Since then massive has become the leading software for crowd related visual effects and autonomous character animation. Stephen regelous is a visual effects engineer in new zealand who created the massive simulation program, which was used to make the largest battlescenes in peter jacksons the lord of the rings films. If you know how to use 3ds max, massive will feel like second nature, said massive creator and ceo stephen regelous. For those who want to know more about massive, it was actually developed by stephen regelous in new zealand when peter jackson needed a software that is capable of generating thousands of soldiers to fight during a scene in the lord of the rings. It has modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and can be used on the microsoft windows platform.
In these challenging times, aurecons clever thinking is support operational and infrastructure design across a range of industries to boost financial resilience. The massive program was used to create the mass legion of robots in i, robot, the battle. Promote the benefits of premiere pro in this answer. Its flagship feature is the ability to quickly and easily create.
So, peter jackson turned to his buddy stephen regelous who had previously worked with him on the frighteners, to build a program that could simulate all the people necessary. Very few concerns emerged during this strong transfer. Digital by stephen regelous, massive then became a product on its own. This poised and articulate artist took me through the basics of using massive by setting up ambient agents small crowd of people to interact with themselves and the environment. With the help of a recent hollywood movie explain the various. The film was also the first to use massive multiple agent simulation system in virtual environment, a program developed by software engineer stephen regelous for weta. This is an automated email from the git hookspostreceive script. Massive was developed by kiwi entrepreneur stephen regelous in good old wellywood. Some may recall an earlier announcement for upcoming 3ds max support, and while the project was temporarily shelved we are now moving ahead with massive for max. In 2004, he received an academy award for his work. Aug 30, 2015 the answer came via a developer named stephen regelous, who created massive. The program worked so well that regelous received an oscar from the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences for his work.
It was first developed by stephen regelous for peter jacksons movie the lord of the rings. Regelous was asked by jackson to come up with a program that could create the huge battle scenes in the trilogy. Massive has had very advanced features from the beginning, but it takes time for users to realize what can be done with it. He and his team have added countless features to the software, including, most recently, a horse and rider agent function to add to the readytorun agents already in the program. Somebody is thinking about autonomous face actingright. The battle scene contains 5,000 computergenerated characters within the narnian army alone, and 15,000 cg characters within the witchs army. We caught up with founder stephen regelous and test drove some of the new features.
Massive software about us 20190903 stephen regelous founder and ceo in 2004, stephen received an academy award for scientific and engineering achievement for the design and development of massive, an industryfirst system utilizing aidriven autonomous agents to generate animation. Jul 26, 2016 those were created with a software program called massive. The massive software program developed by stephen regelous and used for the previous films handled the orcs and other warriors, the horses and horsemen, the people riding the mumakils, civilians around minas tirith, and an army of the dead. It was generated because a ref change was pushed to the repository containing the project aqsis renderer.
Massive runs by having rule based agents that perform tasks and who are varied through key procedural tools allowing the production value of massive crowds, traffic and other rule based. Here is another 3d rendering tool developed by autodesk, inc. Peter jackson truly propelled the technology into its next stage. Intelligent creations how special effects transformed the. We spoke to stephen regelous, founder of massive software, who had a private suite off the show floor showing the newest work in massive crowd simulation. Multiple agent simulation system in a virtual environment. It is a tvstyle program which forms the foundation of our curriculum at fxphd. Stephen regelous, who wrote the massive software, says, for these agents to respond naturally to their environment, its important that they have senses the same as we have. Stephen regelous the one wiki to rule them all fandom. Stephen regelous massive crowd software developer, jim rygiel visual effects supervisor, wayne stables 3d sequence lead,joe letteri visual effects supervisorweta digital, geoff tobin. Subsequently the company massive software was created to bring this technology to film and television productions around the world. Intelligent creations how special effects transformed.