Favourite bit of CG ?

monkeyleader

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Was reading this months copy of dvd review and they have a good piece on CG over the past 20 years or so - got me thinking how much things have come along since mr alien burst onto the scene all those years ago - so a couple of questions, whats peoples favourite bit of CG so far [it does not have to be the most spectacular, but perhaps something that was years ahead of its time ] and what do you think will be the next film to dazzle us ... for example Gollum - the first time i saw him, it really did take my breath away ...

monkey
 
The "morphing" effect in T2 was pretty cool - was it the first example of the technique? I was well impressed when I saw that in the cinema (Just turned 18!)

Funny, the state-of-the-art is so good now that we take that sort of stuff for granted.

But why can't they seem to do moving people well - eg Spiderman flying around, or Anakin riding the beast in Episode II, or Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan dropping out of the air vent into the hangar in Episode I......it really grates to watch those bits!
 
I still like the stained glass knight in Young Sherlock Holmes.

I think computer animators have got to a point where the subject looks perfect if it has the right lighting effect, but the animation has got a long way to go before it looks convincing.

I'm eagerly awaiting to see the cgi skeleton crew in Pirates of the Caribbien.
 
Originally posted by Kazuya Mishima
The "morphing" effect in T2 was pretty cool - was it the first example of the technique?

I think you will find that James Cameron had done that before with the water thingy in "The Abyss".

As for best GC it would have to be without doubt "Gollum" from the Two Towers - Emotion and Special Effects :eek: Unlike Jar Jar Binks who just got on everyones T*TS!!!

Worst CG would be "The Scorpion King" in "The Mummy Returns" :rotfl: then of course there is that bit in the Two Towers with Legolas running over a hill and shooting arrows that was a dodgy.

Gary
 
I thought that when Gandolf breaks the evil spell over the chieften in Two Towers was well done.
 
Tron looked awesome at the time, and so did The Last Starfighter (watched that last night)

T2 & The Abyss, both groundbreaking for reflections/lighting.
 
The intro to Mechwarrior 2, that was simply awesome CG, two massive robots fighting each other, then one runs out of bullets, click click click, then an ohhhhhhh sh............

Most Final Fantasy in-game CG is simply stunning, including certain parts of the film.

As far as films go, they don't really compare to what goes in video games. Gollum came close. CG still looks out of place in films.
 
Originally posted by Sinzer


As far as films go, they don't really compare to what goes in video games. Gollum came close. CG still looks out of place in films.

I agree, but to do some of the storylines today there really is no other option.
 
My top three are:

The morphing effect in T2.

The first time you saw that Dinosaur in Jurassic Park, I was completely blown away.

And of course Gollum from TTT, especially the debate he has with himself the first convincing use of CGI and real acting, absolutely amazing
 
The whole of Starship Troopers - CGI and live action meeting seamlessly for the first time.
 
The "Hell" scene from Spawn:rotfl:
 
I agree with Sinzer, CG looks fantastic in games- my favorite two are all of FFVIII and the opening of FFX (the blitzball match and attack of sin- amazing stuff)
 
I think the beauty of the videogame is that they are not constrained by trying to make it "blend" in. That makes the CG do what it is supposed to do and that is provide fantastical video sequences.
 
surely that's just easier then, video games are CGI in their entirety, very impressive and skillful sure but nowhere near as difficult as making CGI look realistic in a film.

Creating realistic CGI in films is incredibly difficult and few have managed it, these bloody horrible CG stuntmen a la Blade 2 and Daredevil are proof of that.

I was stunned when I first saw T2, especially the "pulling out of the chequered floor" scene but most of the effects now look dated, especially the bit where Robert Patrick first arrives, the time displacement sphere looks ridiculous.

Gollum is the most breathtaking, jaw dropping piece of CG I have ever seen!
 
For the 'wow' factor:

Gollum - no doubt about it. The greatest CG character ever created IMO

T2 - for nostalgia rather than anything else. Looks a bit dated now, still stunning though.

Jurassic Park - still looks great now.

For photo-realistic CG I'd pick Pearl Harbor. In some of those battle scenes there are 200-300 planes yet only 10 were real and the rest were CG :eek: Bet you couldn't pick them out if you looked at still pics for a month.
 
The most realistic cgi, I think, is in Black Hawk Down - simply because I never noticed a single bit of it. Nothing stood out at all, it just looked totally real to me.
 
Originally posted by Rambo John J
The most realistic cgi, I think, is in Black Hawk Down - simply because I never noticed a single bit of it. Nothing stood out at all, it just looked totally real to me.

Ditto. Didn't even think about it until I watched the DVD extras.

MuFu.
 
The best CGI is the one where you don’t think of it as CGI and I must agree with Juzminator on Starship Troopers, even though they could not have done the scenes any other way I never for one moment whilst watching it thought of GCI. Unlike the recent Spider-Man which I though was absolutely terrible for the technology we have today(how many years on from Jurassic Park).
 
Just like to say.

There's more to it than just technology or how good the animators are.
There is a whole command structure right down from the director making decisions as to what the stuff should look like within the constraints of budget and time.

The best results tend to stem from an understanding that the visual effects play a coherent role in the film itself ie: Matrix , Starship Troopers ( there are a couple of duff shots in these ones two though: its rare for a film not to have at least the odd manky one).

You take a good director a good visual effects supervisor a good team and a decent amount of time and money and you get a good result. Remove one of them and you might get an OK result remove a couple and you're talking train wreck time.

All too often you get an attitude of "Oh they'll fix it in post" . Which we can but the time and energy...and money (its not a charity) has to come from somewhere: robbing Peter to pay Paul.
 
but certainly on the character animation side of things I've yet to see human movement portrayed realistically. Even shot in the distance movement looks jerky and unnatural.

Three shots spring to mind; Blade 2, vampire messengers swinging through the rafters of the warehouse. Daredevil, bullseye and darevevil scaling the pipe organ. LOTR:FOTR, overhead shot in the mines of moria when the fellowship are running from the orcs.

is that down to technology?
 
Problem is with a lot of these things we have no frame of reference, e.g. Spiderman - I haven't seen too many people who can swing from building to building like that!

The physics models they use these days are ridiculously accurate, it's just that our brains automatically reject alot of the movement as being implausible.

On the AOTC DVD there's some spiel about the cloth animation of Yoda's cloak when he's fighting - the model was initially a bit *too* precise and looked a bit weird, so they deliberately made the movement more etheral and flowing. I think the results look pretty convincing.

I would guess that the CGI movement that's modelled upon impression seems far more realistic to the casual observer than that which is correct according to scientific principles.

MuFu.
 
The Avalance scene in xXx was pretty amazing and very realistic in my opinion.
 
Black Hawk Down, as the single most convincing work of CGI I have ever seen. Like everyone else, I couldn't see the CGI for the film, and it's only when they tell you that the crowd at the food station were CGI, or that all the dust is CGI, some of the little birds are CGI, and 75% of the bullet hits are composites that you realise.

Then again, I'm the kind of bloke who prefers to work with miniatures, and wants to build his own motion control rig someday...
 
Greatest piece of CGI I've seen - James Bond surfing the waves in Die Another Day!!! :rotfl:
 
lol2.gif


MuFu.
 

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