It's probably not *that* big a deal, considering that it's been 24 years since this film came out. But to achieve the CGI in this film in '84, you needed a Cray supercomputer that cost $15 million dollars.
Those same, rudimentary effects can now be done for $2000, which includes a new computer and simplistic 3D software.
Can be done for less than $200 today, with a good used Pentium Duo-Core, or Core2Duo machine and free downloadable 3D software.
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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
Yup, it's amazing! Anybody can do it in their own home and free time nowadays. I'm assuming you're talking about Blender, and hopefully not encouraging pirating 3D software. :P
http://www.blender.org
Yeah, Blender. I had forgot the name, but remembered that it was free-ware.
I tried using Blender last summer when I got Windows 7 RTM x64, but Blender only supported 32 Bit Windows.
Edit -
Just checked the site. Looks like they're finally supporting Windows 7 X64.
Edit -
Still doesn't work. :( Get a pop up error message.
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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
Did you download and install the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistribution Package (x64)? It's required for the 64bit version.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BA9257CA-337F -4B40-8C14-157CFDFFEE4E
Edit-
Also, the 2.5 Alpha 0 is not really production ready, you can use it but a lot of features are missing. I'd recommend sticking with 2.49b for now.
I did and it still didn't work. There is a recommendation that I have to download the latest service packs and security updates. Right now I want to surf the web instead of trying to figure out why this software doesn't work, but yeah, I notice it's not even in Beta testing, so I'll give it a pass once again until they get a better version up and running.
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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
You would need more than a Dual Core Processor and free 3D software to make a movie on par with even the 1984 release of The Last Starfighter. In fact if the film were to be done today with modern CGI and 3D techniques you would need the processing power of the best Quad Cores in the business and some $2000+ video cards. Not to mention professional grade software ( We're not talking Photoshop here ).
I'd estimate it would cost double or triple what it cost in the 1980's to make this movie.
I disagree. Have you seen any Blender examples? Even with the fastest Cray super computer, rendering took weeks back then. On a relatively cheap duo-core, rendering a scene (as "good" as the CGI in The Last Starfighter) would not take nearly as long. I was just making a point. A $2000+ video card would not be needed to render, either. And unless the software can take advantage of multi-core CPU's, you'd be wasting your money on quad-core. (However, I have since upgraded to the latest i7 2600k CPU - because the video software I use does take advantage of quad-core and Intel Quick Sync)
If I had the skill, I'd prove you wrong, but it's not my place to say who is wrong or who is right. I'm just saying that it can be done for relatively cheap these days. Go to youtube and Google Blender Examples and see for yourself and please keep an open mind about the work. These people are amateurs for all I know and the software is FREE.
Here's a great example of Blender animation. IMHO, it looks just as good as any Dreamworks cartoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSGBVzeBUbk&feature=related
Just for the fun of it, I Googled "cray vs today's PC" and this is what I found:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=42332
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/286030-cray-xmp-vs-pentium-iii/
It sounds like a Cray XMP wasn't nothing more than a number cruncher. Today's PC got that old "super computer" beat. I stick by my original posting.
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Every person that served can be called a veteran, but not every veteran can be called a Marine.
Photoshop is top professional quality software. It's just not designed for rendering 3d animated movies. You can buy RenderMan for around the same price range as the various Adobe Creative Suites. It depends on how much CPU power you want to put behind it, and the 1984 Last Starfighter wouldn't require much 2011 CPU.
shareI bet by now (3/2014) you could find a used laptop on eBay for $40 that could do it. It's astounding - the leaps and bounds that are being made in computing.
shareThat may be true, but I still don't think it would look the same because of the way in which CGI is used so liberally now. What you're seeing in TLS is on the bleeding edge of what was possible back then. Now there would be a lot more visual "candy" or, one might say, "clutter" on the screen. I wish filmakers with big budgets would opt to use real models instead of CGI. The best example to me is in Star Wars : TESB where the Millenium Falcon is in the asteroid belt swerving to miss the big ones...
shareThat may be true, but I still don't think it would look the same because of the way in which CGI is used so liberally now. What you're seeing in TLS is on the bleeding edge of what was possible back then. Now there would be a lot more visual "candy" or, one might say, "clutter" on the screen.
This film simply had a well-written/well-directed script.
The Rock was 20 years ago now...
The huge explosions in The Rock 20 years ago cost... oh, say $10mill.
And today? Oh, say... $10 mill???
That's why Michael Bay is the man!!! His movies never get cheaper to remake!!!
Want your directing style to always stay expensive??? BLOW EVERYTHING UP!!!