WETA forums problem

[bill59]

Looks awesome to me ...great job ...liven it .

 

[KingKong]

Looks awesome to me ...great job ...liven it .

Thanks Bill I can't wait to see it's finished!!! And i hope Wetacollectors forum can be back soon so i can update the KingKong thread!!!

 

[Olórin]

Okay all, I have some good news and some bad news....

Bad news first: we were not able to get hold of Chuck so the old forum and anything on it must be considered lost.

Good news: Stig, Red, Scriff and myself have been working on a new forum for the last few weeks. Magnus from Weta has been helping us out and it's about ready to go live. But not just yet... In the meantime, you can visit the Shadow and Flame Facebook page and enter in a giveaway (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1582937891979126/) What do you need to do to win? Easy! Guess the name of the new forum!

You can enter your guess on the Facebook page (one per 24 hours). First one to guess correctly gets first pick of some neat Weta swag! Second one to guess correctly gets second pick, etc.

For those of you who don't have Facebook (Anthony ), send me a PM with your guess.

 

[Gwindor]

Oh man, from earlier posts I was led to believe that you (or someone else) actually
had a discussion with Chuck... I hope nothing has happened to him! A new forum
sounds neat but I'm really a bit sad that all the years worth of information on the
Shadow and Flame is lost, particularly the Ask Weta threads! Is there really no
way to extract the information, maybe to contact the hosting company?

I'm happy to hear about a new forum and I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Olórin]

Stig did contact him. And a few weeks ago Stig did receive a reply, but nothing since then. We still waited a while for Chuck, unwilling to let all the info/posts/fun get lost but in the end we had to make the decision to move forward.

The new forum will also be a vBulletin so, if one day we do get access to the old forum, we can move threads from the old forum to the new one. I'm not counting on it though.

But as Aragorn would say: "There is always hope"

 

[DEADDACK_33]

Glad to hear the flame will burn on, even if it's under a new name. Sad that so much is lost, but as long as we can get the same crew back together it won't be long at all till it will feel like the S&F.

 

[JohnH]

Orc from Morc - That's a great paint job on that one Well done mate

KingKong - Stunning work mate, jaw dropping effort there

Bucky - To clear up any confusion, I had created some computer models for the Battle for Middle Earth 2 computer game a few years ago but because of the massive restrictions of that games programming I could never apply the amount of detail I wanted. But these new models will not be for the game so I can add as much detail as I want to So I am now just doing this for myself. While the Golden Hall environment that Mary Maclachlan made is a stunning and beautiful piece, the technology at the time ( over 10 years ago now . . . wow ) did not allow for many details of the Golden Hall to be added. But thanks to things like 3D printing and other 3D programs I can now add easily.

While I was doing this I thought it would be nice to have the other structures that were actually built on location, not just the Golden Hall. And actually set up the models in the same positions they were in from the movies. So using the Google Earth satellites I scanned the Mount Sunday location and was able to recreate the terrain and use that to place the models on the terrain, just like they were in the films. So every structure that was on the summit of Mount Sunday from the Golden Hall to the fence and even the bird houses will be added to this.

I was going to leave it at that and just call this the summit of Edoras but then I started thinking about the other structures they made there and thought to myself how cool it would be to recreate all of the structures that were actually built on that location. As a sort of monument, honoring all the hard work the people put into making that location. Due to the preservation laws over in New Zealand the location did have to be returned to its original condition after the films were finished and all the structures were destroyed as far as I am aware.

They only exist in photographs now but with an eye or two and a computer with the right programs I think I can bring them back I scoured the internet for any photos taken on the set at the time, and I think I can give this a good try

 

[Ithildin]

Sad to hear about the old S&F not coming back. So much effort put into so many threads, now all gone.

Looking forward to the new forum and seeing all my good friends again soon!

 

[theguru1]

For those of you who don't have Facebook (Anthony ), send me a PM with your guess.

, OK will do.

I guess "The Guru's Forum" is out of the question tho.....


One thing I do wonder about, which may have a baring on the name, among a bunch of other things, is exactly how involved Weta are. Nothing against them of course and while the old S&F was Weta's official forum, it was still basically independent, not owned or operated by them. So while any discussions were usually civil, that didn't stop anyone from having a go at Weta (or any other company) when things just weren't up to snuff.

 

[Fingolfin]

Wow, that is...huge news, to say the least. I'm disheartened to hear that we had to resort to a contingency plan but I'm grateful that there is something moving forward.

 

[tdl84]

Thank you guys for working on a new forum, that is very awesome of you! While it is sad that everything may be lost, at least there is still a little hope it may yet be recovered. I don't have a Facebook account, so I won't be making any guesses, but as soon as the new forum is up I will be there!

-Kyle

 

[SDJ]

Alas Babylon! That mighty city is fallen! There goes my Flamie I guess. I just hope that Chuck is ok wherever he is.

 

[Fingolfin]

Marcel, do you guys have the emails that everyone used to register on the Flame? It would be nice for stragglers to know about the new one, if possible.

 

[FrodoEyes]

And keep our post counts!

Not that I really care, of course...

 

[Matner77]

Very sad to hear about S & F forum
Good to hear that there's a new site in the making.
"from the ashes a fire shall be woken"

Cracked Baggins

 

[Olórin]

I don't have a Facebook account, so I won't be making any guesses, but as soon as the new forum is up I will be there!

-Kyle

You can also send me a PM here!

Marcel, do you guys have the emails that everyone used to register on the Flame? It would be nice for stragglers to know about the new one, if possible.

Alas, no. But we will be trying to make use of Weta's newsletter to let as many people as possible know that a new forum is in the air.

And keep our post counts!

Not that I really care, of course...

Very good that you don't care, because everyone starts at 0. Except for me, I already have 30-odd posts on the forum

 

[Olórin]

One thing I do wonder about, which may have a baring on the name, among a bunch of other things, is exactly how involved Weta are. Nothing against them of course and while the old S&F was Weta's official forum, it was still basically independent, not owned or operated by them. So while any discussions were usually civil, that didn't stop anyone from having a go at Weta (or any other company) when things just weren't up to snuff.

To take away your worries, this is a quote from Magnus in an email to Stig:

In order to maintain the forum software, our developers would need a superuser login as well, so that could serve as a backup plan if anything happens.

Other than that we’d like to leave you to run it and we would love to keep interacting with you on the forum like we have in the past.

For us it’s important that it’s an independent forum.

So in short: you can still criticize Weta, there won't be any censoring. As long as it's done in a respectful way. Just like on the Shadow and Flame. Weta will only log in as admin if:

- The four of us go AWOL
- The forum needs maintenance due to server updates

 

[theguru1]

OK, that all sounds good, all we need now is an official launch date, which I guess won't happen to some smarty guess the name. Of course at this stage, for all I know, I could just be re-guessing someone else guesses.

 

[tersit76]

A new name for a new forum!! I liked being a FLAMER!! Can't we still be flamers?

 

[theguru1]

Well, there's the obvious one, The Shadow and Flame Reborn

or variations of, The Shadow and Flame II, The Shadow and Flame 2, The Shadow and Flame Raises Again, etc.