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Digital Paint Artist Hillary Covey Uses Liberty Paint Software from VDS for Lord of the Rings Trilogy & Matrix Sequels
Veteran Artist Cites Application's 16-bit Quality as
Key Factor in Creating Dramatic Visual Effects
MELVILLE, NY, December 07, 2002 - Creating a world like Middle-earth inhabited by creatures like the hobbit
Frodo Baggins or a dwarf named Gimli, and making movie-goers actually believe in what they're seeing, is
no easy task. But that's just one of the challenges that veteran digital paint artist Hillary Covey has
faced over the years, in her work on some of Hollywood's most graphics-intensive blockbusters such as the
Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Matrix sequels. To help her pull off such visual legerdemain, Covey relies
on Liberty Paint software, developed by Video Design Software (VDS).
Covey describes Liberty Paint's 16-bit quality as an important factor when dealing with the depth and resolution
inherent in film, especially the Lord of the Rings trilogy, shot in succession as part of one production over
a period of two years. For these films, Covey used Liberty Reel Paint as the primary software in the paint department.
"We used it to do complicated rig and wire removals as well as head replacement shots for the hobbits," she says,
adding that Liberty's user-friendly interface was important due to the enormous scale of the project. "Many scenes
required a lot of touch-up," Covey says. "For example, in a scene where the mask on the Gimli character inadvertently
shifted due to the weight of the rubber, we had to paint the rubber around the eyes and mouth to fix the creases
between the real face and the mask. In addition, producers often change their minds and want something painted into
or completely out of a scene, such as a farmhouse in the background that just doesn't fit. The Liberty software was
up to every challenge, and the results were truly impressive."
Covey is currently working on Matrix 2 and Matrix 3, the upcoming sequels to the highly successful 1999 film. For
this project, she is primarily using Liberty for rig removal, which is the very delicate and time-consuming process
of removing pieces of equipment in scenes that were used to help film the production, but must be digitally removed
from the scene for the final cut. The software is also being used for matte painting.
"These films are using Liberty for its 16-bit capability, which is becoming an industry standard due to the high
image quality required for film work," she says. "The size of the mattes and map paintings on Lord of the Rings
were so large, only Liberty could support it. It was a given that we were going to be using Liberty."
In addition to giving Covey the freedom to work in 16-bit, Liberty also worked well with the Windows NT platform.
"Liberty is really solid on NT, which is great," says Covey. "And if there's ever an issue, I send off an e-mail
to VDS and the problem is solved. They're very helpful and supportive."
About Liberty
Liberty V8 products are comprehensive paint, animation and compositing software and turnkey systems for
WindowsNT/2000/XP and SGI-IRIX Workstations. Liberty also runs on Chyron's Duet and Aprisa platforms, and networks
to iNFiNiT! and IMAGESTOR!, as well as most other industry standard graphics and NLE systems. Versions are available
for video and film applications. Liberty is being used globally in major broadcast and post-production facilities
and has been a standard graphics design package for over a decade. Liberty V8 products include: Liberty Film, Reel
Paintster, Liberty Reality Studio, Liberty Studio, Liberty Paintster, Twister for Chyron's Lyric, Synapse for the
Quantel iQ and the Liberty CP-HD-DDR high definition recording system.
About VDS
VDS is committed to providing automation and content design tools for the broadcast, cable
television, internet, and post production markets. VDS designs products for the automated
control of broadcast television systems, with an emphasis on graphics-related operations,
content distribution and automation, and internet-to-video and video-to-internet systems.
VDS content creation systems provide industry tools that deliver graphic design, universal
file translation and integration capabilities.
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