2012

Went to see the movie 2012 on Sunday. Not because I believe in the Mayan prophesy that the world is coming to an end in 2012. I just love the special effects mimicking volcano explosions, earthquakes, roads cracking up, buildings falling down, tsunamis washing over cities and mountains, houses falling into the sea, boats flippinn over by monster waves, ... Boy, it was exciting.

I know a bit about computer graphics, having worked on the modeling of regularly-shaped solid objects as well as freeform surfaces. I continue to be amazed at how good it has become, and the amount of work that it takes to create such realistic-looking scenes. The long list of companies, teams and people who worked on the graphics is mind boggling.

Hence it was doubly annoying that towards the end of the movie, even before the credits started to roll, people began to get up and leave, blocking my view. I seemed to be the only one interested in knowing who were in the movie, where it was filmed, and who worked to make the fantastic scenes happen, ...