Lucasfilm vs. Weta Digital vs. all the others

[Teebin]

I have never read any industry talk about how Lucas feels about upstart Weta. Interesting that Weta created the 100 anniversary animated logo for Universal.

What are your thoughts on the two companies and the myriad of other smaller companies that sometimes outdo both of them?

[Octobers Fade]

As much as I like Weta, I still think ILM is the one to beat.

[Teebin]

I believe Lucas lost not a few of its top people to either the other companies or they left to start up the smaller ones that you spoke of. The larger companies have their own team of programmers to develop specialized plug-ins and patches while that might be a stretch for the smaller groups.

Lucas is still a big player, but Weta was built-up in a flash due to the necessity of the project. When they were finished with the well known trilogy they sucked a whole lot of air out of Lucas' business. Too, Weta has become king of the model and model filming business. As I don't really care for George Lucas (he is such an ass caught up with his own importance) I kinda lean to the spunky and can-do spirit of Weta as more impressive.

Pixomondo in Germany has become a huge player in recent years. Check out the rollovers on the four images in the link below to see the green screen vs. finished product for HUGO.

http://www.massivesoftware.com/hugo.html

[Octobers Fade]

Everything you just discribed about Weta is exactly what built ILM and describes their story to a tee.
And you can thank Lucas for a lot of the way movies are seen and heard today. I like what he has acomplished and it was his money that was risked/invested to make companies like the above mentioned possible. I will stand behind ILM all day long, they gave me The Empire Strikes Back and for that they have my eternal graditude.

In the end it's theres some great FX being produced these days and these quailty companies competion benefit all of us at the theater or watching from the couch.