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Week of 13 March 1998 Vol. I, No. 23 Feature Article Info Tech plays role in new Lost in Space movie by Marion Sawey A product of Boston University will have a role in the new movie version of Lost in Space, but don't look for an SFA grad playing Will Robinson. It's more a case of Robot meets Dr. Smith. Digital character animator Richard Nelson spent a hectic 60 hours at the Department of Information Technology last week working on the University's sophisticated and powerful Silicon Graphics Origin2000 computer system to achieve four complex special effects shots involving the stowaway Dr. Smith. Digital character animator Richard Nelson with the University's powerful Origin2000 computer and Dr. Smith-as-spider on the screen. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky Nelson works for the London-based animation house the Film Factory, part of the VTR group that provides digital special effects and postproduction facilities to the film and television industries. The company was asked to create a spider-like creature for the film, due for release on April 3. However, the animators found that they had underestimated the amount of processing time needed to complete the work. "We physically just couldn't put this stuff together in the time available because it was too big for our machine," says Nelson, who arrived in Boston on the evening of Tuesday, March 3, and worked almost constantly until the following Friday morning. "It got very tight because this was the last week we had to complete everything. So, I came to Boston University and other animators went to use computer facilities in Toronto, Switzerland, and Paris." In the film, Gary Oldman, who plays the part of Dr. Smith, turns into a spider-like creature. "At first it was taking him five hours every morning to put on the prosthetics to transform him into the monster, so we were brought in to test if we could create something that would look good enough and move well enough to allow lip synch and still convey emotion and facial expression," Nelson explains. "What we did was put little balls all over Oldman's face and then shoot from three cameras to get three-dimensional data. We then applied this data to a head based on a scan we did of Oldman using an X-ray machine, giving us a three-dimensional picture of his head. We built the creature on top of that, and then we transferred the data from his face on to the monster." In all, the Film Factory produced eight minutes of the film. "It is really a special effects-driven movie," said Nelson. "It doesn't really follow on from the TV series, but it's good entertainment." Nelson is impressed with the power of the University's Origin2000 system. "During my time here I used 2,600 processing hours -- that is the equivalent of your home computer operating for quite a few months, I would think." Last October the University added 128 processors to the system, giving it a total of 192 processors and making it one of the most powerful systems available on any U.S. university campus. Lost in Space, directed by Stephen Hopkins, is a $70 million version of the 1965-68 CBS series, and it stars, along with Oldman, William Hurt, Matt Leblanc, and Mimi Rogers.