The art of swordsmanship.(film)

Using 21st-century digital craftsmanship, Digital Dimension artists created photorealistic CG weapons for the epic film The Last Samurai, about a Civil War veteran who visits Japan to train its military in the use of guns as the Japanese soldiers prepare to battle the country's last remaining samurai.

"This is not an effects film, so everything we did had to blend perfectly with the five-action footage," says Ben Girard, president/founder of the Burbank, California, studio.

For several sequences, including the final battle, Digital Dimension replaced prop weapons with CG swords and lances, which were used mostly when a particular weapon had to penetrate a victim. It's easier and more effective to use CG to simulate this action, says senior animator Justin Mitchell, than to employ a practical effect, such as a retractable spring-loaded blade tip.

According to Girard, as the star (Tom Cruise) stabbed an enemy with the loose grip of the sword, the artists had to match his action and timing. One of the problems the team faced was that the sword handle would rotate unrealistically in the live-action footage.

"It's very difficult for an actor to simulate the action, or inaction, of a sword being stuck into another person's body ...