and all this is animated . . . best animation i've ever seen, they look stunningly real

Actually, John probably mentioned that the fluid simulation system that we used on the Pirates films is built atop Stanford's PhysBAM multiphysics library. There is a substantial codebase that makes the library useful to us in production. :)

This cgi must've taken a lot of work.

That is the most epic fluid simulation I have ever seen :o

I was wondering how the made that maelstrom scene

This is now my favorite channel on KZread. Seriously awesome.

The warping of gravity etc was very ingenious.

Yes, we have an in-house team. Thanks!

Incredifabulousness! The most meaningfull making-offs I've ever seen, keep them coming guys. If you make a DVD with that stuff, I'm camping at Amazon :)

This is utterly inspiring

@3Daver Realflow was not used - As noted previously, we used our proprietary fluid simulation system co-developed with researchers at Stanford University.

This is crazy!! I love ILM, I am a huge fan of all of the amazing work you have put into pumping out these ridiculous movies all the time. I always marvel at what looks like infinite polygon counts that you guys achieve in your photo-realistic scenes. I recently had the privilege of watching Pacific Rim, and I was very, very impressed. I wonder, with what did you render that movie out in? Oh my god, it was beautiful! I can't imagine how long the destruction simulation took. I love you guys!!!

ILM's Zeno, Autodesk Maya, The Foundry's Nuke.

absolutely amazing!

@Lilcolaperrr Our primary animation tools are Autodesk Maya and ILM's proprietary platform, Zeno.

i love the magic you guys create! Really wicked magic!

@NikieVFX We used our proprietary fluid simulation system co-developed with researchers at Stanford University.

amaizing work !!

@acml26 Yes, we use a number of off-the-shelf solutions albeit customized to operate in our pipeline.

They are using ILM Zeno for everything but the animation which was done in Maya and the compositing, which was done in a variety of packages.

Brilliant optimization of the maelstrom simulation. Did it lost any of the detail after the warp?

@PhotoShopChannel Yes, our digital environments group uses it for digimatte work.

@mrtarek171 There is no single program that will give you everything your after however I would suggest you focus on one area, say compositing, animation or modeling & lighting and see what your school has to offer. Most likely, the principles learned in one software package can be applied to others.

It's the preference of our studio. You can compare the two packages here: maxon. net & autodesk. com/maya/

@Lilcolaperrr We use NVIDIA GPU technology across all of our shows.

@EtienneLF Hard to say since we do not use RealFlow.

Needs Hd

You guys are amazing...im watching John Knoll right now...cause I wanna see what kinda of VFX magic he will do on Pacific Rim.

@petrucciphan Unfortunately, we are not open to the public for tours.

@FruitatedGermany We film out each frame and QC them on a ViewMaster... But seriously... iMovie of course.

Favorite Scene of the movie

wow nice incredible that the 3d space is so detailed in such films :O but i use blender and i think you need many extern programs to combine to get so cool results did you use adobe after effects too ?

@DeonelKumara Correct. We use our own proprietary fluid dynamics system which sits atop of, and heavily extends, Stanford's PhysBAM library- physbam.stanford.edu

Hello there, ILM. I was just thinking, if it isn't a secret, how big is your elecrtic current/power bill? I mean, having like 6'000 CPUs working at 100%, probably at all times, surely drains a lot, I have some ideas in mind about starting my own vfx business restricted only to my country(Croatia), so I'd like to hear some tips from the world :) Looking forward to your answer :) And keep up the good work ;)

@MJGVFX As noted previously, we use our own proprietary fluid dynamics system which sits atop of, and heavily extends, Stanford's PhysBAM library- physbam.stanford.edu Navier-Stokes is at it's core.

@ILMVisualFX Thank You, I have yet to achieve knowledge on the Computer Generation market, just a moment of curiosity

No, we don't offer it for sale.

It's a stand alone system called Plume but it plugs into Zeno.

i wish i could have a job like that ! lokks like the moste awesome thing ever

I wish that realfow could do that. may be it can but i'm not sure. It is the most detail fluid simulation i have ever seen !!

@ILMVisualFX awwwww man, that is unfortunate. I think it would be cool for the public to be able to visit maybe a couple days a year. They wouldn't necessarily have to be going in the artists rooms where the secret stuff goes down but just get an overall good look at what kind of history the company holds. But alas, It is just a dream that I doubt will EVER come to reality.

This is really interesting thanks.

@HillierSmithStudios No. We have no association with Weta.

We didn't then (but as of 2013 we do.)

@Track19Films Yes ; )

@ILMVisualFX AH my mistake and apologies. Thanks for the reply..

Amazing fluid simulation! So this is ILM proprietary fluid sim software, correct? and not RealFlow or PhoenixFD or Lagoa?

well the destruction done by Physbam (hope spelled correctly) and Plume and zeno as the engine, however what package is used for rendering and further compositing!

@ILMVisualFX umm this is a really random question (not related to Pirates 3 but to ILM)....so back in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, I heard that you guys made the Zero planes in an animation software. How did you guys make it so realistic? is it because of the use of the ambient occlusion? Sorry for this randomness. just curious.

To create the maelstrom (physics), ILM used proprietary software or used a commercial software, like the RealFlow? And the render? Mental Ray?

WOW! this is amazing, did u used realflow for water animations? :D pleaase answer :)

No, ILM has its own proprietary fluid simulation system. Thanks.

Thanks for the answer! Ooh. But when I work at ILM. I may use it, or? Now is the question how can I get to ILM... as german...

I'm gonna work here one day

does ILM ever have days where they are open to the public for tours?

then do you have in-house team for software development or..? very-very-very sick team, all of you at ILM. my teeth are dry now because my jaw is on the floor. bravo!

Is the music in the background available anywhere?

Is your fluid sim system part of zeno or a standalone solution ? also what compositing program was used? thanks...

what program do you use? autodesk maya?

Is ther any DVD of the making of or juste some 2-3 minutes videos on youtube? i wouldlike to get the whole video plz. Thx for answer :)

Are you also WETA or are they a competitor?

Umm also another question...how many computers/render farms do you have in your ILM headquarters? and what is the spec inside? since i believe that by looking at Pirates 3 that must have took large amount of memory and render time.

@ILMVisualFX How does your proprietary software compare to others such as RealFlow?

is there something spinning in the middle?

Did ILM worked on Stargate movie?

OMG! a question.. that computers use? characteristics.

@ILMVisualFX tours with pend drives and access to R&D

ILM should also create proprietary hardware :D

Both... And then some.

Hey..who from ILM is working on Pacific Rim?

How was the rain created?

This is your program or software to another company?

wow, you sure know how to pick catchy titles for you videos.

What is the main 3d program that is used by your artists?

Can you tell us the specs of one of these computers used to render?

why does water take memory, and would think that blender would be the best free animating studio???

@VlaDjihar Ours.

Nope, not at that time.

vfx level 800 :) (wow)

Render time on a normal desktop PC = does not compute.

Renderman?

@ILMVisualFX Rhythm and Hues used to have tours and then some jackass took a picture of Yogi bear with their cameraphone and tours were discontinued. *sigh*

If I'm gonna ask anyone this question, it's these guys: Mac or PC? lol

Can "normal" people buy it?

Nope.

Was realflow used at all or 100% proprietary? Oh and that "John Knoll" character in this video looks totally FAKE - I thought you guys were supposed to be the best :P

Hahaha... Windows Movie Maker... i won't even recommend it for 'Potato Films'