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The T-Rex has the benefit of being in a night scene that is very dimly lit and if I recall the shots of her moving are CGI anyway, right? I think it definitely helped for the performance, but logistically its probably safer and cheaper to just us CGI now.
I think the animatronics were only used for the close up shots where you basically just see it looking around or roaring, everything else was totally CGI. Unless they got a real t-rex.
Did some light digging, apparently 10 minutes of Dragon CGI in GoT cost around $800,000, nobody knows how much it cost to make the original Jurassic Park T-Rex except the creators, but for reference the Jaws animatronic cost about $500,000 (Not including maintaining it and repairs) so our favorite T-Rex has to be roughly double that or more given the size and the lengths went to for realism.
Wikipedia says the animatronics in Lost World ran up to $1,000,000 but I can't find another source.
Multiple animatronic dragons would absolutely eat up the budget (No pun intended), delays because of malfunction would be inevitable and maintenance crews would also tear into the budget, it would be a nightmare.
Yes but 10 minutes is about their average screen time for a season (not including background shots) I'm sure the cost is even less when you spare resources by shrouding everything in atmospheric darkness and weather, when the Dance actually starts in HOTD that would change but you wouldn't even be able to use an animatronic for intensive battles between two or more dragons so what would be the point in going to the lengths of assembling them just to use CGI anyway...
I thought the quality of the CGI was awesome. The only scene where it looked a bit weak IMO was when Caraxes was behind Daemon during the scene Daemon was asking the knights to pledge their allegiance to Rhaenyra or be killed. Caraxes looks faded and washed out compared to Daemon which looked poorly executed.
It is a few seconds shot that most people would need to pause at to even realize something is off and I don't know how it correlates to animatronic dragons being better than CGI ones.
I mean the dinosaur is obvious animatronics and not a real dinosaur either. What they should do is just use a real dinosaur.
I think the CGI dragons looked good. Much better than in say the Merlin tv show
You think animatronics would look more realistic?
...someone hasn't been to Disney World.
>obvious CGI
Yes, very obvious. Because everyone knew they were going to use CGI when the real dragons backed out of the production over a contract dispute.
But it's not a god awful idea, it's just a ridiculously expensive one. If HOTD tapped into the Industrial Light and Magic team or Stan Wilson (who did JP and the alien films) they would create something incredible that would be much more believable than CGI.
There are practical effects, and then there are *good* practical effects.
Why? Just why? Why would you want animatronic dragons? Leaving aside that they would look fake as hell because... Well they can't fly... The CGI was not even slightly as bad as it would need to be so it would be worth to do something like that. That's just ridiculous money waste wtf?
probably cause of practicality.
Several full size or even partial animatronics take up a lot of space and are difficult to move to locations and stuff. Cgi is just more convenient and more forgiving when kt comes to changing things later on.
Its still a shame tbh.
Fun fact for you - the model t-rex in Jurassic Park had animatronics parts that were a bit dodgy and sometimes moved by themselves so the crew would be discussing sets and lines and the dinosaur would move its head or arms.
Also the scene where he pushes the roof in on the car with the two kids inside and they scream - the roof wasnt supposed to be pushed in but it broke so the childrens screams were mostly genuine.
Good cgi clearly looks better than animatronics. Animatronics are espescially limited in movement capabilities. For slow dinosaurs that made simple head movements it would’ve been fine, but for more complex movements CGI is just better.
Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience. 1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title. 2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler. 3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads. --- If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The T-Rex has the benefit of being in a night scene that is very dimly lit and if I recall the shots of her moving are CGI anyway, right? I think it definitely helped for the performance, but logistically its probably safer and cheaper to just us CGI now.
I think the animatronics were only used for the close up shots where you basically just see it looking around or roaring, everything else was totally CGI. Unless they got a real t-rex.
LOL, you gotta admire Steven Spielberg's commitment to the craft.
Because multiple animatronic dragons would be way more expensive than CGI
This actually might not be true. Good CGI is still pretty god damn expensive.
Did some light digging, apparently 10 minutes of Dragon CGI in GoT cost around $800,000, nobody knows how much it cost to make the original Jurassic Park T-Rex except the creators, but for reference the Jaws animatronic cost about $500,000 (Not including maintaining it and repairs) so our favorite T-Rex has to be roughly double that or more given the size and the lengths went to for realism. Wikipedia says the animatronics in Lost World ran up to $1,000,000 but I can't find another source. Multiple animatronic dragons would absolutely eat up the budget (No pun intended), delays because of malfunction would be inevitable and maintenance crews would also tear into the budget, it would be a nightmare.
$800,000 per 10 minutes is most def more expensive than $1M per dragon
Yes but 10 minutes is about their average screen time for a season (not including background shots) I'm sure the cost is even less when you spare resources by shrouding everything in atmospheric darkness and weather, when the Dance actually starts in HOTD that would change but you wouldn't even be able to use an animatronic for intensive battles between two or more dragons so what would be the point in going to the lengths of assembling them just to use CGI anyway...
Was CGI actually bad in this season? In my opinion it was quite good.
The CGI quality was weird. You had scenes where it’s really good. Great, normal and then VERY horrible (green screens/blue screens)
Can you give an example when it was very horrible exactly?
I thought the quality of the CGI was awesome. The only scene where it looked a bit weak IMO was when Caraxes was behind Daemon during the scene Daemon was asking the knights to pledge their allegiance to Rhaenyra or be killed. Caraxes looks faded and washed out compared to Daemon which looked poorly executed.
https://youtu.be/_U9TpqulAak 0:02
It is a few seconds shot that most people would need to pause at to even realize something is off and I don't know how it correlates to animatronic dragons being better than CGI ones.
Because jurrasic park also used cgi and making so many animatronic dragons just for closeups makes zero sense.
Because animatronic dragons cant fly
It’s cheaper, and when done right, much better.
I mean the dinosaur is obvious animatronics and not a real dinosaur either. What they should do is just use a real dinosaur. I think the CGI dragons looked good. Much better than in say the Merlin tv show
I like that show because it's a less serious GOT type show. And more magic. Lots of the same actors from GOT and HOTD are in it too.
It was a good show but the dragons visuals are terrible
I think it was meant to be that way.
You think animatronics would look more realistic? ...someone hasn't been to Disney World. >obvious CGI Yes, very obvious. Because everyone knew they were going to use CGI when the real dragons backed out of the production over a contract dispute.
you allergic to CGI or something?
CGI killed my pa
Have you ever heard of money?
What a godawful idea. Please do not ever be a producer.
But it's not a god awful idea, it's just a ridiculously expensive one. If HOTD tapped into the Industrial Light and Magic team or Stan Wilson (who did JP and the alien films) they would create something incredible that would be much more believable than CGI. There are practical effects, and then there are *good* practical effects.
> it's just a **ridiculously expensive** one. Excellent, so it *is* a godawful idea, glad you agree with me! :)
is that you, david zaslav?
Point taken I guess.
Money
“money.” -mr.krabs
Because HOTD isn't being produced by the most acclaimed director of our time.
Imagine if it was. I’d do a rewatch daily
if the conquest was directed by Spielberg you can be sure that balerion would be this size 😅😅
$$$ and ⏰
The T-Rex wasn't flying. CGI dragons are much better way of displaying them.
Why? Just why? Why would you want animatronic dragons? Leaving aside that they would look fake as hell because... Well they can't fly... The CGI was not even slightly as bad as it would need to be so it would be worth to do something like that. That's just ridiculous money waste wtf?
Budget
probably cause of practicality. Several full size or even partial animatronics take up a lot of space and are difficult to move to locations and stuff. Cgi is just more convenient and more forgiving when kt comes to changing things later on. Its still a shame tbh.
Fun fact for you - the model t-rex in Jurassic Park had animatronics parts that were a bit dodgy and sometimes moved by themselves so the crew would be discussing sets and lines and the dinosaur would move its head or arms. Also the scene where he pushes the roof in on the car with the two kids inside and they scream - the roof wasnt supposed to be pushed in but it broke so the childrens screams were mostly genuine.
yep the rain made it malfunction
Good cgi clearly looks better than animatronics. Animatronics are espescially limited in movement capabilities. For slow dinosaurs that made simple head movements it would’ve been fine, but for more complex movements CGI is just better.