DIGITAL L.A. THE ONSCREEN CRITTERS ARE REALLY THINKING.

Byline: David Bloom 

Sometimes, all that work on basic technology research ends up paying off in wonderful, and wonderfully unexpected, ways. Take artificial intelligence (AI), where researchers have toiled for 30 years trying to figure out how to make computers think like humans do.

A decade ago, researchers were doing interesting work with tiny computer-generated creatures that were programmed with a handful of basic rules and turned loose onscreen to see how they would behave.

The results were startling. AI-driven ``birds,'' for instance, were given simple rules like avoiding each other and objects in their flight path. Lo and behold, they would then generate startlingly birdlike flocking behaviors such as flocking together.

Now flash forward to Hollywood, where such rules-based AI has been incorporated in animation software to help create, in relatively painless fashion, complex scenes like the wildebeest stampede in ``The Lion King'' and the Huns' charge in ``Mulan,'' without the painstaking frame-by-frame work of a human animator.

Those techniques were relatively simple, though, compared with what's being done as part of the ongoing filming of the three-movie ``Lord of the Rings'' in New Zealand.

To portray two huge battles in the trilogy, director Peter Jackson and his special-effects company developed software that governs the behavior of hundreds of thousands of computer-generated orcs, elves, humans and dwarves, said Mark Ordesky, the Fine Line Pictures president who is overseeing the films' production.

Using AI techniques, the computer creatures are each given offensive and defensive actions characteristic of their species. The creatures then will be set loose on each other with the computer ``cameras'' recording the action. The AI is sophisticated enough so that when a creature ``kills'' an enemy; it knows enough to move on to the next opponent, said Ordesky.

``It's really wild stuff,'' he said. You won't see the first product of all this work until December of next year, however. Sigh.

Whale of a time

Making your own cassette tapes used to be the way people compiled songs they liked, especially for friends or parties.

More recently, CD ``burners'' that create custom CDs are getting some notice, with Philips and other electronics manufacturers offering audio-oriented dual drives that ease that process. And of course, many computers these days come with CD-RW drives built in that can do the same thing (as well as make backing up files a breeze).

But I'm looking forward to rewritable DVD drives, given their huge capacity, as soon as two competing formats stabilize into one. In the meantime, we're seeing lots of fun music-oriented DVDs hitting the market, including a series from Palm Entertainment that include discs of music videos about Bob Marley, Sly and Robbie, and a collection of dance-oriented artists.

And now comes word from Moby, the brilliant Grammy-nominated electronica artist, that he's planning a DVD with ``the music videos, B- sides, concert mixes'' on it. Speaking in a recent Webchat interview on Wherehouse.com's ``The Lounge,'' Moby didn't say when he'll be rolling out the disc, but expect it fairly soon.

I expect more artists will take advantage of the medium because it can hold so much material, up to a few hours' worth. Another great musician and producer, Todd Rundgren, told me he expects the next big push in music will be to remix albums to take advantage of the 5.1-channel sound that is part of the basic specifications for DVD and home theater.

And finally, what used to be called CustomDisc.com has changed its name to imix.com as it begins offering not only custom-made CDs online but also custom-made DVDs.

Imix has tens of thousands of music tracks that people can purchase for the custom-made CDs, and recently added music videos for custom DVDs. Just this week, the company said it had cut a deal with Beverly Wilshire Filmworks/Telefilms International to let people compile film DVDs from about 100 movies of several kinds. Imix says its discs can hold up to 180 minutes of film, about two average movies' length.

Big fake dough

Next time Time-Warner Cable pulls a bonehead move like dropping ABC during ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,'' be prepared.

Oh, you could go get a satellite broadcast system, or a pair of rabbit ears, both rational responses to an irrational move by the entertainment giant. But that won't fix your immediate need to put sweat-soaked information freaks on the hot seat.

Thankfully, Buena Vista Interactive has just released the second edition of its CD-ROM version of ``Millionaire,'' adding 600 more questions and other odds and ends to what was a chart-topping first edition. Even better, it works on Mac and Windows 95/98. Bad news: The money you win in the computer game still isn't real.

Make a list

One little side effect of the ability to split a high-definition TV signal into three or more standard-definition broadcasts is some serious confusion for the companies that provide TV listings, said KCET's Laurel Lambert.

``I've called a couple of the services and asked what they were going to do and they said `I don't know,' '' Lambert said. They have to figure out how to show the multicasting, which typically will be done in daytime and other off-peak hours, and the high-def broadcasts done in prime time. And even if a station isn't multicasting, it may show very different programs sometimes on its digital and analog channels.

SITE OF THE WEEK

--IFILM: An online directory to about 4,000 Internet-based films on numerous other sites, as well as other filmmaking information, reviews and features.

--Where: www.ifilm.com

--What's cool: Web sites are popping up all over the Net (and Hollywood) featuring mostly animated and live-action shorts and some feature-length films. But keeping up with the good stuff is a challenge, given all the sites, so IFILM makes it easier. They have lists of the Top 20 Viewed, the Top 20 Rated, sections on genres such as foreign films, and the aptly named Must See section, which highlights oddball stuff from all over, including that Gotta Watch, President Clinton's own spoof video of his last days in office.

--Features: They've added nine broadband sites as ``premier partners,'' so all you high-speed Webrunners can enjoy. You can easily e-mail links of your favorites to friends, plus the site offers lots of links to many kinds of sites related to filmmaking, along with features, product reviews and much more.

--You'll like this if: You want to see a movie this weekend, but can't bear to get up from your computer. If it's on the Net, it seems, it's probably here.

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