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The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

vfxblog.com

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Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#31

Post by windowliker »

bluedino wrote: post #20
windowliker wrote: post #16

Disappointed this only focuses on the contemporary technology used in making the (admittedly amazing) visual effects for the film, which has been addressed multiple times across various formats. When I first watched T2 as a kid the thing which grabbed me more was that gadget John Connor uses to hack the ATM and all the cool stuff in the Cyberdyne offices. It would be nice if someone wrote an article discussing that a…

It's not from the VFX team but someone wrote a clone of the ATM hacking program https://bert.org/2021/01/04/t2-pin-cracking/

Super cool, thank you!

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#32

Post by kridsdale1 »

eldog_ wrote: post #30

Recommend "Jurassic Punk" (2022) - the documentary about Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams who is featured in this interview. It covers T2 as well as Jurassic park and goes into the politics inside ILM,

Nextlander (former Giant Bomb NYC crew) did a fun episode on this documentary.

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#33

Post by markus_zhang »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #23

And back in theatres this year for the 35th anniversary, in time for Judgement Day (August 29). Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZgIESxakso "The 4K and 3D presentation uses STUDIOCANAL’s acclaimed 2017 restoration and 3D conversion."

Also I think we are pretty close to the year 2027 which was supposed to be the year that humans defeat Skynet.

Time flies.

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#35

Post by markus_zhang »

windowliker wrote: post #16

Disappointed this only focuses on the contemporary technology used in making the (admittedly amazing) visual effects for the film, which has been addressed multiple times across various formats. When I first watched T2 as a kid the thing which grabbed me more was that gadget John Connor uses to hack the ATM and all the cool stuff in the Cyberdyne offices. It would be nice if someone wrote an article discussing that a…

I thought that's an ZX-81 Spectrum but I watched it again and found out that it was not!

Edit: Watched again and it is an ATARI laptop because the brand showed up in a few frames. This is probably the one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio

A screenshot I just made: https://imgur.com/6I34YyN

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#36

Post by kridsdale1 »

xnx wrote: post #28
markus_zhang wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw claims for that in multiple sources. I think they initially wanted to do CG but it was too hard back then so the pilot did it anyway.

It seems so weird that there's no "behind the scenes" type footage.

The link in this thread says the camera team refused to participate so the shot in the film was just James Cameron holding a camera in the back of a truck. Nobody else around to film BTS footage.

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#37

Post by kridsdale1 »

k12sosse wrote: post #21
raychis wrote: post #6

This was a fantastic read. I had no idea how much of Terminator 2 had to be invented from scratch. It's amazing to think that a lot of the tools and ideas that shaped modern VFX started with engineers just trying to solve one impossible problem after another. Some films really do stand the test of time, I'm not really sure that contemporary CGI will really age as well.

Not the disaster of a print they have for the 4k masters. It's upscaled using 2010 tech and amazing deficient, but to Cameron, I'm the problem, so it actually looks better on DVD

True Lies as well! I noticed last week the print on AppleTV in 4k had a lot of GenAI artifacts in it (things being optically impossibly sharp, skin detail).

I looked and yes, it was processed around 2022. I’m sure if they tried again with better models it would be better. Is that the future of film preservation?

The source I read also said that the fucking DVD remains the best available copy of True Lies.

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#38

Post by kridsdale1 »

bluedino wrote: post #20
windowliker wrote: post #16

Disappointed this only focuses on the contemporary technology used in making the (admittedly amazing) visual effects for the film, which has been addressed multiple times across various formats. When I first watched T2 as a kid the thing which grabbed me more was that gadget John Connor uses to hack the ATM and all the cool stuff in the Cyberdyne offices. It would be nice if someone wrote an article discussing that a…

It's not from the VFX team but someone wrote a clone of the ATM hacking program https://bert.org/2021/01/04/t2-pin-cracking/

Easy Money!

Re: The tech of 'Terminator 2' – an oral history (2017)

#40

Post by windowliker »

markus_zhang wrote: post #35
windowliker wrote: post #16

Disappointed this only focuses on the contemporary technology used in making the (admittedly amazing) visual effects for the film, which has been addressed multiple times across various formats. When I first watched T2 as a kid the thing which grabbed me more was that gadget John Connor uses to hack the ATM and all the cool stuff in the Cyberdyne offices. It would be nice if someone wrote an article discussing that a…

I thought that's an ZX-81 Spectrum but I watched it again and found out that it was not! Edit: Watched again and it is an ATARI laptop because the brand showed up in a few frames. This is probably the one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio A screenshot I just made: https://imgur.com/6I34YyN

You are correct, sir. See the link bluedino posted!
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