Great Falls of the Missouri without the dam

My first matte painting! I've wanted to try something like this since about 1977, and finally I have the tools in my evil hands to do it. It's pretty straightforward --I substituted a landscape I built in a 3D program for the current dam and composited the two in iMovie.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• special
• effects
• montana
• great
• falls
• lewis
• clark

[drwatsup]

Thanks for posting ajtooley. I was wondering what the falls looked like before the damming after following Lewis and Clark's trail on the web. When did the dam go in?

[ajtooley]

It started operation in 1915.

[YellowstoneLover95]

not true not true. they covered up over half of the falls with the dam

[ajtooley]

Nope. Google up some before and after photos.

[ajtooley]

To clarify, YellowstoneLover95 is partially correct, in that the construction of the power generation portion of the dam covered up a large part --not quite half, but quite a lot-- on the north side of the falls. But my vantage point here is of the middle and southern part of the falls; I didn't have to remove the generator building and spillway, because you can't see them in this video. Based on my research, I stand by my belief that the part of the falls you can see is accurately represented.

[pamschel]

What a dumb-assed place to put a dam, right at the prettiest place on the Missouri. Who knows how many levees and dams have already plugged and crippled the river upstream from there?

I vote we blow them all!

[razorflown2]

Sweet! The dam really does make it look cool.

[manole41]

Great, like in my dreams! merci.

[Aphoticbeauty]

Awesome work AJ, I never knew you were the creative sort! But very very nice!

[yanndick]

Nicely done.