Visiting Weta: An Exciting Look at the Making of ‘The Adventures of Tintin’

I read this post, featured on the film blog /film, a while ago and thought it would be a great thing to share with this class. It discusses a visit to Weta Workshop, the special effects house that's worked on such films as the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Avatar". Blogger David Chen gets an early look at the development of Steven Spielberg's new film "The Adventures of Tintin".

It's really amazing how motion capture technology has created an entirely new way of making films. It's nearly been perfected in movies such as "Avatar" and the recent "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" to the point that directors can make entire movies with this method, fusing the physical and vocal performances of great actors with stylized animation. Technologies like the "virtual camera" mentioned in this article allow traditional film directors like Steven Spielberg to make films as they've always done: on a set with physical cameras, while also tapping into the essentially unlimited possibilities of full computer animation.