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Pixar films in animation now use rigs with hundreds of movable parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbhsMLD9Hb0

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How Pixar's Movement Animation Became So Realistic | Movies Insider

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https://www.insider.com/how-carrie-fisher-was-in-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-2020-1

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The "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" visual effects team utilized unused footage from "The Force Awakens" to bring Carrie Fisher to screen in "Episode IX."

Visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett described the process as a "gigantic puzzle" to Insider.

Footage of Fisher's live-action face was combined with a completely digital character to bring her to life. A stand-in appeared on set who learned Leia's lines to help make the performances seamless.

Director J.J. Abrams and coscreenwriter Chris Terrio wrote scenes around the dialogue they had for Fisher.

Guyett says part of the challenge was even if they had the correct dialogue, they sometimes didn't have it with the correct delivery. It resulted in them abandoning script ideas.

Fans get to see Carrie Fisher one last time in " Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," and it was no easy feat to bring her to the screen one more time.

"It was a massive kind of problem, I mean, puzzle really. It was a gigantic puzzle," visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett told Insider of the challenge the Industrial Lights & Magic team at Lucasfilm faced.

Fisher died in December 2016 after her filming for the last "Star Wars" movie, "The Last Jedi" wrapped. At first, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told "Good Morning America" the actress wouldn't appear in "Episode IX." But, in July 2018, Disney announced unused footage from "The Force Awakens" would be utilized to bring Fisher to life to close out the Skywalker saga.

How exactly do you repurpose footage from a previous film to work for "Episode IX"? Very carefully.

Guyett and creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan spoke with Insider Monday on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, about the difficulty of bringing Fisher's scenes to the screen and the importance of making sure her performance came across as authentic.

'TROS' director J.J. Abrams originally thought they could do Leia digitally. They realized that wasn't going to work.

Back in January 2017, Lucasfilm denied that Fisher would be recreated digitally in "The Last Jedi." The topic was, at least, broached during a discussion for her appearance in "Episode IX."

"The first conversation I had with [Abrams] about it was that he thought we could just do a digital version of Leia," said Guyett.

That wasn't going to work.

"So say you went along that path. The issue that he had with that was that the performances that she gave at any moment would just be authored by some other actress or actor," he added. "[Abrams] didn't want that. He wanted to be able to look at this movie and say, 'That's Carrie Fisher playing Leia.'"

The team accomplished that with a stand-in, a mix of Fisher's past performances, and a digital character.

What are we looking at when we see Leia in 'The Rise of Skywalker'? Fisher's face was put onto a digital character.

"When you see Leia in 'Episode IX,' basically it's a live-action element of her face with a completely digital character," explained Guyett of what the audience is seeing.

This was done because they wanted to make sure that Leia's look in "The Rise of Skywalker" was distinct from her look in the previous two films.

"The reality of doing this is that you want her to have a new costume," said Guyett. "It would be weird if she just looked like she did in 'Episode VII' or 'Episode VIII.' You want her to have a new hairstyle because she's very specifically part of 'IX.' So we knew that we were going to have to do all of that."

If you're imagining that ILM simply cut and pasted Fisher's face onto a body, it wasn't that simple. ILM visual effects supervisor Patrick Tubach told Eric Eisenberg at Cinemablend the team tracked Fisher's posture and body movements from "The Force Awakens" to apply to their new scenes in "TROS."

One of the biggest challenges was matching Fisher's voice to specific scenes in 'Episode IX'

This is where the puzzle comes into play. Abrams and co-screenwriter Chris Terrio wrote scenes based off of the dialogue available to them from Fisher's unused footage.

"The mechanics of that then became very much in J.J.'s court, initially, about writing scenes using lines that we knew we had access to so you can break it down in this massive pre-plan thing where you write the script, and you base it around deliveries," explained Guyett of how Leia started to come together.

"We went back through all that footage and you can see, 'Oh, how did she deliver this line?' You know, 'Never underestimate a droid.' Once you've got whatever the line is, once you've got that kind of library, you can start feeling the emotional quality," he continued.

Imagine sifting through footage to figure out the perfect place to utilize a line of dialogue or a particular delivery. It had to be just right. There were times where they found the right dialogue, but it wasn't the correct intonation. They had to just move on.

"Some things just didn't work," said Guyett. "Even though [Fisher] might be saying the right thing, she's saying it the wrong way. So sometimes we'd abandoned certain ideas within the script. But basically the premise is now you have to stage the scenes and integrate her into those scenes, which is a massive undertaking."

There was a stand-in for Fisher on set so the actors had someone to play against

When you see Daisy Ridley, Kelly Marie Tran, or any other cast member acting next to Fisher in "TROS," there was always someone acting opposite them.

"There was great effort made to represent Carrie in those moments as well," Scanlan told Insider. "There was a huge respect. It's not just a visual effect. It wasn't, 'Oh, she doesn't exist.' There was actually a person there and the hairstyle and straight makeup. [We] found a place for [the cast] to feel comfortable and to feel that there's some way we were representing Carrie in some physical entity."

"We had a fantastic stand-in for Princess Leia who looked at all the footage and tried to learn the lines and represent Carrie as best as possible so that if you're acting against her you're not just looking at an empty space, you're looking at a human being who's delivering the line," added Guyett.

There wasn't a lot of wiggle room to fix things after filming

"The thing that I reiterated to [Abrams] about a million times was we had to get it right on the day we shot it," said Guyett.

"When you do something, quite often, you might do something and go, 'OK, well we can fix that.' We can change the timing of that explosion of something or whatever later on in post [production] or maybe that creature's moving too fast or whatever. This was something we couldn't do that with. We had to get it right on a day."

During production, when the team looked at a moment with Leia, they made sure it had elements that they were going to use. Test composites of scenes were done to make sure everything would fit right and then they would go back and re-edit the scene together to make sure it felt authentic and correct.

"Having been through this process, you can put your hand on your heart and you can say every one of those performances is delivered by Carrie Fisher," said Guyett.

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The 'Star Wars' team describes the challenge of bringing Carrie Fisher back to the screen one more time: 'It was a gigantic puzzle'

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The "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" visual effects team utilized unused footage from "The Force Awakens" to bring Carrie Fisher to screen in "Episode IX." Visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett described the process as a "gigantic puzzle" to Insider. Footage of Fisher's live-action face was combined with a completely digital character to bring her to life.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4OwUsVp9jI

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Brief history
The introduction of new Technology
Motion Capture
Light Stages
Movie examples of CGI
The future of CGI and visual culture
Unreal Engine

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Cameras are put on a helmet which is worn by an actor/actors in order to capture their facial expressions.

These expressions are captured by markings on the actors faces

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJ26DEu3E0

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https://businessnc.com/epic-games-unreal-engine-takes-movie-production-to-the-next-level/

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Epic Games’ Unreal Engine takes movie production to the next level

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Fortnite may have brought Epic Games to the forefront of the video game world, but the company’s Unreal Engine is transforming industries through its visualization technology.

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This video is about the mandalorians use of its LED walls and the use of Unreal Engine.

CGI backgrounds can be changed and altered instantly on set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk

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The Virtual Production of The Mandalorian Season One

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They made phyical models of the characters and would draw around them in a 3d software with a digitizer wand to map the face of the characters. Then they would be able to make facial expressions with those mappings which allows the characters to move their mouths and talk.

other objects had to be made from scratch in the same software made by a modeler.

took 3 years to storyboard

3d models made in the software were layered over eachother as the camera in the software was moved around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_HL3nULMM

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Before cgi, producers used to take a range of photos of figures and put them together to get the motion of the figure moving.

Glass was painted on to put over the top of some scenes. cgi wasnt invented so phyical drawings were used instead building an impossible set.

Blue screens were used behind models of spaceships so that the scenery could be put in over the blue. in this case it was space that was the background.

props were actually blown up and this was also captured in stop motion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHl3b8_cFw

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How Does Motion Capture Technology Work?

Motion capture technology facilitates animators and visual effects artists to acquire and leverage reference points.  Motion capture is executed at the shooting stage of production, rather than in post-production. In this process, performers with reference points attached to their bodies are captured by digital cameras, and these reference points, often painted dots or small balls, become the key control points in building a digital figure. The data collected through this process is then uploaded into a motion capture program that connects each of the reference points and creates a digital skeleton that moves exactly as the actor who originated the movement. As these reference points are filmed at the standard 24 frames per second, the output of the program contains the exact number of frames needed for the final film. This output is then sent to CGI artists who apply the digital rendering techniques on top of this skeleton to the desired naturalistic effect

https://amt-lab.org/blog/2020/3/cgi-motion-capture-and-the-commercialization-of-celebrity-images

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This is part 1 of a two-part series. Continue reading here to learn about holograms and how the technology is being used in the arts. What Exactly Is CGI?
Over the past twenty years, computer-generated imagery has become nearly ubiquitous in film and television productions. This ubiquity is due to enhanced computing power and higher resolutions coupled with increasingly lower costs. The use of CGI has reached a point in both cost and artistry that the computer-generated or digitally-altered character is for the first time being used outside of the science-fiction and animated genres with some regularity. Not only can directors raise beloved actors from the dead, they can also have their lead actors age (or de-age) forty years, all with a degree of artistry and precision that retains audience believability. Though the fundamentals of these technologies have been in use for some time, the recent advancements in the technology and-perhaps even more importantly-their new applications have begun to disrupt the film industry.

To understand how these technological advancements and their artistic applications in recent years are disrupting the industry, there are three key technologies that must be understood and disambiguated: computer-generated imagery (CGI), motion capture, and holograms. Of these three, CGI is the most foundational technology for the current state of production.

On a fundamental level, CGI is self-descriptive: it is any imagery rendered on screen through the aid of a digital generation system. Prior to CGI, all visual effects for live-action productions were "practical effects." Practical effects consist of makeup, prosthetics, miniature modeling, or any other physical properties that the camera shoots in synchronicity with the actor's performance. If a character aged through the course of the film, the age effect was achieved through makeup; if a character were non-human, an actor would either wear some combination of costume, makeup, and prosthetics to give a non-human impression (e.g. Chewbacca from Star Wars), or an artist would create a puppet manned by an out-of-shot puppeteer (e.g. Kermit the Frog). The first step away from practical effects and toward CGI came in 1978, when George Lucas founded Lucasfilm Computer Development Division (LCDD) to develop digital applications in filmmaking. He leveraged technology developed by LCDD in 1982's TRON, which consisted of 15 minutes of pure CGI and 25 minutes of mixed CGI and live action (Thompson and Bordwell). Lucasfilm shortly thereafter spun off LCDD as Pixar, and the company exclusively used CGI animation in all of its short and feature film productions.

By 2000, Pixar had created the "Geppetto" system of digital character control. Like its puppet-master namesake, the Geppetto system allowed animators to control their digital creations like puppets. The animators would identify points on the characters' figures that they could control, and the rest of the figure would follow, thereby creating movement, much like the strings of a puppet. Not only did Geppetto ensure that a given character would always move in the same manner, it also dramatically increased the efficiency of computer-generated imagery production. The film industry standard is 24 frames per second, and prior to the Geppetto system, artists created characters and rendered them frame by frame. For a 90-minute film, that is 7.8 million frames to be rendered individually. From this statistic alone, the need for improved efficiency is evident.

In the same year, Disney released Dinosaur, which was the first feature to place CGI animals against live-action backgrounds (Thompson and Bordwell). As all characters were dinosaurs, and therefore did not interact with human actors, there was no need to have "stand-ins" when the crew filmed the real-world backgrounds and environments. By placing CGI creatures in an identifiably real environment, Disney had created the standard for the ambitions of many science-fiction and fantasy films in the following years, including The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises.

In the mid-2000s, as computing power and memory grew, animators could add complex textures and control hundreds of points on a figure via Geppetto, and with increased efficiency. The greater rendering power also began the widely-accepted misnomer of "3-D animation," as CGI programs gave characters and sets depth and volume rather than leveraging stereoscopic technology only to be appreciated through special "3-D" glasses. At this point, the level of control was sufficient to create and render non-human characters in a live-action environment with relative success. Productions could now employ CGI animation to create characters like the fantastical Dobby in Harry Potter, rather than using a practical puppet effect. CGI technology had not yet advanced to the point of rendering human characters in live-action environments, largely in part to the "uncanny valley" phenomenon. The theory of the uncanny valley - a term originally coined by Japanese roboticist Masaharo Mori - maintains that a "human appearance or behavior can make an artificial figure seem more familiar for viewers - but only up to a point. The sense of viewer familiarity drops sharply into the uncanny valley once the artificial figure tries but fails to mimic a realistic human." To avoid such a fate, animated humans, therefore, maintained exaggerated features.

Such artistic representations could not hold up in a live-action environment, especially if CGI humans were to interact with human actors, giving audiences immediate points of comparison for both appearance and movement. As CGI technology continued to advance the capabilities of texture, lighting, and shading, movement became the most likely attribute of a character that would land it in the uncanny valley.

The issue of character consistency of movement in a CGI production environment was largely solved by the Geppetto system. A character could be programmed to move in a manner specific to that character, which allowed multiple animators to animate the character's movements through common programming. Again, this works sufficiently for toys, cars, or other objects of animation that do not have innate or recognizable movement patterns, but when characters' movements resemble a human or animal with recognizable behavioral patterns, more specific guidelines are required.

To achieve the desired motion effects, animators used a technique called " rotoscoping" for decades. Invented by Max and Dave Fleischer in the mid-1910s, the rotoscope allowed an animator to project live-action films frame by frame onto a piece of paper and trace the outlines of its figures (Thompson and Bordwell). By tracing the actions of the desired object of replication one image at a time, the animator could produce characters that moved naturally as whole figures. Animators in the Disney studios employed this technique to great effect when they created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is widely recognized as the first successful attempt at animating human characters with naturalistic movements. The theory behind rotoscoping, that of filming a human actor or model to act as the reference upon which to build a character, is the same theory behind the motion capture technology that came into use in the mid-1990s and is now used regularly to create the motions of characters that are completely rendered through CGI.
How Does Motion Capture Technology Work?
Motion capture technology facilitates animators and visual effects artists to acquire and leverage reference points. Motion capture is executed at the shooting stage of production, rather than in post-production. In this process, performers with reference points attached to their bodies are captured by digital cameras, and these reference points, often painted dots or small balls, become the key control points in building a digital figure. The data collected through this process is then uploaded into a motion capture program that connects each of the reference points and creates a digital skeleton that moves exactly as the actor who originated the movement. As these reference points are filmed at the standard 24 frames per second, the output of the program contains the exact number of frames needed for the final film. This output is then sent to CGI artists who apply the digital rendering techniques on top of this skeleton to the desired naturalistic effect.

Unlike the rotoscope, which captures only the outline of the performer, motion capture displays the connections between as many points as is desired. The more reference points placed on a performer, the higher the precision of movement in the final product. These reference points can be either "inertial/non-optical" or "optical." When inertial motion capture began, the special digital "cameras" required large reference points (around the size of ping pong balls) to correctly collect the data uploaded into the motion capture program. To keep the relative space between each reference dot consistent from shot to shot and to ensure that nothing interfered with the data collection, performers donned head-to-toe motion capture suits with reference dots sewn on.

Due to a lack of computing power in the early stages of motion capture, only a small number of reference points could be captured so these suits typically had reference dots at major joints, much like the key points identified by animators within the Geppetto system. This small number of reference points resulted in the "digital skeleton" that relied completely on CGI rendering for the final images; no trace of the original performer's appearance was included in the image, only the movements. In this inertial motion capture, the vantage point of the "camera" is irrelevant; the captured data reflects the reference points' relative positions to each other. As a result, the digital skeleton output can have CGI effects applied from any angle, and the character can be moved to fit the other elements of the shot (Thompson and Bordwell). This non-optical system is most often shot on a controlled soundstage.

Optical motion capture systems use a similar system of reference points placed on the performer, but rather than only capturing the movement resulting in a digital skeleton, the reference points are used as visual cues to approximate the actor's motion. These optical systems became more widely adopted as computing power increased because more reference points could be processed by the motion capture software programs. Reference dots on motion capture suits therefore could become smaller, which resulted in more precise capturing of movement. Due to this increased computing power both for capturing digital data and rendering the resulting images, productions gained flexibility in shooting locations, and motion capture suits could be worn on location. Peter Jackson used this on-location optical motion capture to acclaim with the Gollum character in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (Thompson and Bordwell). This allowed for direct communication with fellow actors, which helped actors create naturalistic performances with their once-absent digital scene partners. With the capabilities of today's computing power, reference points can be small enough to be placed on a performer's face, which increases the precision - and therefore naturalism - of the resulting CGI renderings.

The optical motion capture technique has evolved to the point of being near "markerless," and these types of optical systems leverage software to track distinctive references, like an actor's nose, and a few painted dots on an actor's face. The optical reference points are now subtle enough that the actor's image and likeness is not obscured whatsoever, but rather enhanced by CGI. Two films notably used this type of optical motion capture in 2019: Gemini Man and The Irishman. These films are notable in part for the accuracy and precision with which the motion capture software de-ages the well-known actors Will Smith and Robert De Niro, respectively. Both actors have had long careers, and audiences have a collective memory of what these actors looked like when they were truly the ages that the CGI effects aim to replicate. These films' success in de-aging its stars to a level that avoids the uncanny valley and convinces audiences of its legitimacy is indeed disruptive.
Conclusion
CGI and motion-capture technology have evolved in tandem to disrupt film content and the production pipeline. Artists and curators have been experimenting with similar technologies in a live performance and museum context in recent years. To learn more about how this technology is foundational for "holograms," and how arts managers can leverage it in their own organizations, read part two of this series.
Resources
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B, Benjamin. "Gemini Man: Building a Virtual Face." American Cinematographer, November 12, 2019. https://ascmag.com/blog/the-film-book/weta-virtual-face-for-gemini-man.

Belson, Ken. "Capturing Football's Snaps, Crackles, and Pops in Madden NFL." The New York Times, January 28, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/arts/video-games/capturing-footballs-snaps-crackles-and-pops-in-madden-nfl.html.

Bishop, Bryan. "How The Shape of Water's Visual Effects Turned a Merman Into a Romantic Lead." The Verge, January 17, 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/17/16898382/the-shape-of-water-special-effects-vfx-cgi.

Dent, Steve. "What You Need to Know About 3D Motion Capture." Engadget, July 14, 2014. https://www.engadget.com/2014/07/14/motion-capture-explainer/.

Dyer, Richard. Stars. London: BFI Publishing, 1998.

Ebiri, Bilge. "A New Generation of Character Actors." The New York Times Magazine, November 21, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/t-magazine/character-actors-andy-serkis-ben-mendelsohn-don-cheadle.html.

Haysom, Sam. "Robert De Niro Explains How They De-Aged Him for 'The Irishman'." Mashable, September 26, 2019. https://mashable.com/video/robert-de-niro-de-aging-the-irishman/.

Heller, Scott. "Extending the Stage with Technology." The New York Times, January 25, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/theater/theater-technology.html.

Hu, Jane C. "The Whitney Houston of the 3D Hologram Tour Will Be Neither 3D Nor a Hologram." Slate, May 22, 2019. https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/whitney-houston-3d-hologram-tour-technology.html.

Hsu, Jeremy. "Why 'Uncanny Valley' Human Look-Alikes Put Us on Edge." Scientific American, April 3, 2012. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-uncanny-valley-human-look-alikes-put-us-on-edge/.

Kadner, Noah. "Toy Story 4: Creating a Virtual 'Cooke Look'." American Cinematographer, November 1, 2019. https://ascmag.com/articles/toy-story-4-creating-a-virtual-cooke-look.

Markoff, John. "Camera System Creates Sophisticated 3-D Effects." The New York Times, July 31, 2006. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/technology/31motion.html.

Marr, Bernard. "The Best (And Scariest) Examples of AI-Enabled Deepfakes." Forbes, July 22, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/07/22/the-best-and-scariest-examples-of-ai-enabled-deepfakes/#2c95cf912eaf.

Marsh, Calum. "VFX Companies Struggle Even as Their Movies Break Records." Variety, May 30, 2018. https://variety.com/2018/artisans/production/vfx-summer-box-office-1202824543/

Metz, Cade. "Internet Companies Prepare to Fight the 'Deepfake' Future." The New York Times, November 24, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/technology/tech-companies-deepfakes.html.

Reed, Ryan. "Whitney Houston Hologram Tour Plots First 2020 Dates." Rolling Stone, September 17, 2019. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/whitney-houston-hologram-tour-2020-dates-image-885666/.

Ritman, Alex. "James Dean Reborn in CGI for Vietnam War Action-Drama." The Hollywood Reporter, November 6, 2019. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/afm-james-dean-reborn-cgi-vietnam-war-action-drama-1252703.

Serjeant, Jill. "James Dean Set to Appear in a Movie Six Decades After His Death, Horrifying Fans." Reuters, November 6, 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-james-dean/james-dean-set-to-appear-in-a-movie-six-decades-after-his-death-horrifying-fans-idUSKBN1XG34A.

Thompson, Kristin and David Bordwell. Film History: An Introduction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010.

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CGI, Motion Capture, and the Commercialization of Celebrity Images: Part 1 - AMT Lab @ CMU

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Over the past twenty years, computer-generated imagery has become nearly ubiquitous in film and television productions. This ubiquity is due to enhanced computing power and higher resolutions coupled with increasingly lower costs. To understand how these technological advancements and their artistic

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https://raindance.org/how-dramatically-film-graphics-may-change-in-the-next-years-film-technology-in-the-future-of-the-21st-century/

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Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is fast becoming the backbone of modern entertainment. Look around; films are using digital technology more than ever to capture unpleasant background

scenes and everyday roles commonly played by actors.

Why? Film CGI allows the producers to create one scene fast and with minimal costs for reshoots. Besides, film graphics are proving to have the capacity to achieve more depth than previously thought was capable.

For instance, it is now effortless to use digital animation to bring a dead actor back to life on screen. A good example is the use of visual effects to keep alive the character of the late lead actor in Fast and Furious 7, Paul Walker, who died mid-production.

This then begs the question, what will films of the future be for both actors and viewers.

The Future Of The Film Industry With CGI

Today, many films incorporate CGI technology into building the natural landscapes, buildings, weather phenomena, among other objects and details inside a movie.

Now, imagine a future where you can no longer tell the difference between an actual image and one that is synthetically made on someone's personal computer at home. Here's the puzzle, we are already living in this future.

More and more people find it challenging to tell the difference between imagery created by CGI and that which is natural. Companies continually develop animation, rendering, and modeling technologies that can simulate and convince humans that the images they perceive in a film are authentic.

Nonetheless, humans can still detect the fake CGI element in a film. But while the film industry has been taking note of the possibilities that CGI offers film production, more people in public are noticing.

And now, individuals, whether in the film industry or not, can also create the same life imagery and animated characters just like professional filmmakers. Why? The commoditisation of computer graphics.

So unlike in the past, where the graphic cards were only accessible to production companies, they are available to the public today. This means that anyone can now gain access to 3D

rendering abilities and create a home-based film at the same level as the best Hollywood movies.

How then can film developing within big production companies become different from the rest? This is where the scale of development, film screening, and film impact come to play. For instance, the economies of scale will become a significant factor in creating new films amid CGI.

This means that filmmakers will be more watchful of areas that demand high costs, such as buying parts for movie objects. In essence, components used in one movie will be used to make other movies to ensure profit margins remain high amid significant competition.

This determines the near future of film and CGI because the focus will be on consolidating, constructing, and selling the new films faster and more significantly. But this is merely scratching the surface of what CGI technology for films will be in the future.

Many 3D artisans are expected to embrace the imperfections that come with CGI. As a result, CGI technology will be used to express the vision of the filmmaker. Besides, this comes from the understating that art created by CGI is not real.

Instead, it is a form of enhancing the artistic attributes of each filmmaker. You can think of CGI for film as your chance to get a from ancient Egypt.

Ethical Boundaries Of Using CGI In Films

Take a minute to think about the ramifications of these technological developments. The emergence and growth of fake news due to the internet is an excellent example of how technological development can provide adverse outcomes.

Think about it, if anyone can learn how to use CGI to create media that makes a massive impression on reality, it means the said individual will carry the capability to manipulate events. On a small scale, events like students creating and spreading fabricated videos to bully their classmates can be devastating.

But what if this transcends into everyday vital parts of humanity like politics. What happens if the forensic experts can no longer tell the difference between real and synthetic evidence in a court case?

Even though we have watermarks that can identify synthetic creations, the technology is not entirely foolproof. Here is the paradox: humans are increasingly finding it challenging to distinguish between authentic and CGI imagery.

Yet somehow, this same technology is giving film changing waves of perception since producers can bring to reality concepts that are only made viable through mathematical formulas. How then will humans respond to these contradictions?

What about the public and real human actors? Will they be quick to embrace CGI technology? In the beginning, using CGI for the film will be a relief because it will reduce the need for taking numerous reshoots. Such reshoots often happen under emotional and imperfect circumstances.

However, the fact that the creative directors will have unlimited freedom to explore the acts of actors through animations means that the film industry might be facing an imminent lack of authenticity.

Suppose there is no real actor to act out emotional scenes. How can CGI technology provide the necessary emotional connection for making a human connection between the actor and the viewer? The fast answer is that CGI technology cannot offer these benefits since it does not carry any emotional connection.

But the challenge many film producers have is that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have left them no choice but to incorporate computerised animations to cater to the limitations of social distancing.

If this trend carries heavily into the future, then many actors and their doubles will morph into licensed voice artists and body scan models. In turn, the film screening will become a representation of fictionalized characters.

This means that the film industry is more likely to lose the human element of entertainment. But what will be this industry if it loses reliability and authenticity? It would mean that many films would fail to connect with the audience.

Conclusion

Then is it safe to deduce that the era of debating over the best blockbusters might be coming to a near end? Well, if CGI takes over film screening, this might no longer be mere speculation but a film reality.

You will find considerable evidence of CGI and how it is already taking over the world of screen technology, be it in videos, ads, or films. Film graphics are heading to a future of many unknowns, where the borders of real and animated will become more blurred.

Do you think we'll develop the propensity to adapt to the changes that CGI promises to bring to the film industry as humans? Whether your answer is yes or no, let us know about your views in the comments.

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How Dramatically Film Graphics May Change In The Next Years? Film Technology In The Future Of The 21st Century

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Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is fast becoming the backbone of modern entertainment. Look around; films are using digital technology more than ever to capture unpleasant background scenes and everyday roles commonly played by actors. Why? Film CGI allows the producers to create one scene fast and with minimal costs for reshoots.

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https://www.idtech.com/blog/how-hollywood-is-using-virtual-reality-to-make-movies

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Hollywood is always looking for ways to entice moviegoers into theaters-and what better way to do that than with technology? Technology has clearly changed other historical institutions, like sports, and the movie industry is no exception.

Already, IMAX screens offer immersive viewing experiences that rival those seen in theme parks. D-Box seats offer movie viewing in 4D, allowing you to feel on-screen explosions and ride along in a car chase as your seat tilts with the turns.

Then there's the behind-the-scenes technology that helps producers and directors make movies: tech like motion-capture and computer-generated imagery (CGI) has been used by filmmakers for a long time, but no technology has both worked as a draw for audiences AND helped Hollywood make movies.

That is, until now.

Hollywood studios, producers, and directors alike are all turning their collective attention toward virtual reality and learning how to use VR to both tell stories and immerse moviegoers in brand new adventures.

Just Like Being There

In Marvel Studios' Black Panther, there's a scene where a futuristic aircraft swoops through the cavernous valleys of Wakanda; the valleys overflowing with lush and giant waterfalls. For the location scout, it would be momentous to finally see this location appear on-screen.

The thing is, the location doesn't exist.

Working with virtual landscapes doesn't come without problems, though. James Clyne, a design supervisor at Lucasfilm, was responsible for designing elements that would be part of the train heist scene for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Clyne helped design the Imperial train that would be the main set piece for the sequence; however, when the film's production leads started questioning if characters could actually manage the fictional gap and jump between the trains, well, Clyne had to find out for himself.

But how do you experience something that's fabricated for the big screen and thus doesn't physically exist?

For Clyne, the answer was in Lucasfilm's Virtual Scout technology, which is typically used by designers who want to take a life-sized virtual tour of their CG creations. The application helps designers get up-close and personal with the details of their designs, and assists directors who want to visualize shots in a virtual space.

Clyne uploaded his model of the train to the Virtual Scout application-which is housed in a small office on the Lucasfilm campus-and as he tells StarWars.com, "virtually" climbed aboard:

"You put the goggles on and you're standing on a train car 60 feet up."

Clyne then asked the Virtual Scout team if he could, "Run and try to jump."

The team was a bit taken aback, Clyne said. "They were like, 'Well, we've never done that. We usually just have people slowly walking around the room.'"

Nonetheless, with Clyne's train design potentially on the chopping block, he had to try. And try he did.

"I just put my back against the one wall and I ran. But I was able to do it! And I went back and reported back to production, the directors-I, normal Joe, can jump over that!"

Clyne solved a potential production problem using virtual reality, and so have other filmmakers.

Mastering the Digital Domain

One of the companies that continues to exploit and pioneer the use of technology in moviemaking is Digital Domain.

Founded by filmmaker James Cameron and special effects wizard Stan Winston, Digital Domain has been at the forefront of technological filmmaking. They use VR to give directors, actors, and production teams advanced tools that help them visualize the action, using multiple camera streams and even virtual cameraman.

For instance, they're using virtual reality to help render virtual set pieces and characters that can be used "on location" during pre-production and the filming of live action.

Let's pause, because if you don't have any experience in filmmaking it can be hard to visualize.

Imagine you're an actor on a green screen set. The "set" you're standing on is being created digitally, inside a computer. The green screen is used to mask out the film negative so artists can then add the CG set later.

But as an actor, wouldn't it be helpful to have some idea what backdrop you're supposed to be acting against? Tossing on VR headgear can now help you see pre-visualizations of computer-generated characters and sets-just like it did for James Clyne and Solo. For a director and DP (director of photography) on set, they can now visualize a different angle-one that can only be seen "virtually."

(Here's a look at the making of Ready Player One, to see how filmmakers utilized the HTC Vive to help bring a virtual universe to the big screen.)

This "virtual set" method dates back to when James Cameron made Avatar. Cameron assembled an on-set production team that included a CGI unit that helped pre-visualize set pieces as the scenes were shot. The director and his actors could then see (in real time both during and after the shot), what the finished product would eventually look like, even though the elements only existed in a computer.

Using Virtual Reality to Make Movies

Making movies for virtual reality presents its own set of problems. The next time you put on a VR headset, watch a live-action film and put yourself in the shoes of the director. To make the movie, they would need a camera, sound equipment, crew, and a set. But 360-degree cameras capture everything. So how do you get the shot?

Then, of course, there's the on-screen action and story arch. In a theater, the audience is captive and everyone is looking forward. With VR, the audience can look wherever they want. As a director, you have to take all these things into consideration and, in a sense, direct the audience.

Directors exploring virtual reality as a filmmaking tool are trying several techniques to combat these problems, like building immersive sets and removing any production crew or equipment from the shot beforehand. Framing the action also becomes more important, guiding the audience to follow the action, as seen in the animated film Invasion.

It's why executives at major studios tend to lean toward directors and producers that have worked with technology like virtual reality and CGI-they understand both the limitations and benefits tech can provide.

The Future of Filmmaking

Filmmaking has always been propelled by technology. In the 1950's, 3D ruled the local movie houses. Advances in camera technology and practical special effects propelled blockbusters like Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park through the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, sometimes practically whole films are computer generated.

Virtual reality still has a way to go before it's adopted wholly by the film industry to make movies, but it's already beating a path to the box office.

With TV entertainment and production values that rival film, it's not too far-fetched to think in the future you'll go to the movies for a completely customized movie experience, not unlike something out of Ready Player One. Want Luke Skywalker to fight dragons as you ride along for the massive battle against Thanos and his army of little pink Trolls? Drag. Drop. Press play.

Make no mistake, mastering the digital domain is the key to the future of filmmaking.

Have a child who wants to take the next step? Check out our video production courses or virtual reality summer camps. And if they're interested in VR in games, our new Unity VR Development summer course.

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How New Technology & Virtual Reality Are Changing Filmmaking Forever

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Hollywood is always looking for ways to entice moviegoers into theaters-and what better way to do that than with technology? Technology has clearly changed other historical institutions, like sports, and the movie industry is no exception. Already, IMAX screens offer immersive viewing experiences that rival those seen in theme parks.

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Rise of CGI & VFX

Director James Cameron, a founder of Digital Domain, is a pioneer in the development of CGI in film. His films continuously push the boundaries of what technology can do for movies. Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic are markers in his filmography for the development of his use of CGI. Cameron’s Avatar was a milestone in cinema. Around 70% of the footage in the film was built from CGI.

While Avatar was groundbreaking, more and more films are using technology to create settings we’ve never seen before. An iD Tech article discusses the scene in Black Panther where a futuristic aircraft flies through the valleys of Wakanda. The location of these scenes do not exist. Solo: A Star Wars Story also contains scenes with locations and set pieces that do not exist. They are generated with virtual reality technology.

Motion Capture Tech

Motion capture technology, used to create the onscreen character of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is another technology that revolutionized film. Movies like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Avatar, and Avengers: Endgame all used motion-capture technology to animate digital models for characters in their films. It is rare to see a movie today that does not use some sort of CGI or VFX technology. Films have even been able to de-age actors with technology. The inventions of CGI and VFX opened the door to the future of film.

What to Expect in the Future of Film in Technology

The application of technology continues to advance and pave the way for new movie viewing experiences. Ready Player One depicts a world where you put on a pair of goggles and enter a whole new reality. Films have a history of predicting future technology. It would not be so far fetched to think that some version of a Ready Player One movie experience is in the cards. The gaming world has already progressed in this realm of virtual reality. Movies might be next.

Raindance discusses how digital technologies are reshaping the film industry. Autonomous Drone Cameras, 3D printing, 4k 3D cameras, algorithmic video editing, and cloud-based technologies can all be at the forefront in the evolution of film. These are the more tangible expectations for film. We already see the implementation of these technologies today, and it is reasonable to think that film will find a way to incorporate them. And as science fiction has predicted in the past, there might be technology used in the future of cinema that would seem outlandish today. We will have to wait and see.

https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/technology-in-cinema-cgi-motion-capture/

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Hollywood Insider - News Entertainment & Culture

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Photo: Evolution of technology in Cinema/Twentieth Century Fox

A Look Back at Technology

In 1895, the Lumiére Brothers used their invention, the Cinématographe, to capture some of the first motion pictures . Auguste and Louis Lemière's short films were the start of the commercial development of film and cinema. Georges Méliès, another pioneer in filmmaking, built on the Lumiére Brothers' foundation with films like A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage . These early short films set the groundwork for the future of the movie industry. The Lumiére Brothers and Méliès are credited with some of the earliest innovations in film and are still revered by filmmakers today. Martin Scorsese's Hugo was a five times Oscar winner that paid homage to these earlier innovators of film.

History of Technology in Cinema

Once the medium was created, it expanded and continued to evolve with the times. Color, animation, and sound were the next steps in the development of film. While color in film had been around since Méliès time, implemented with hand coloring frames, the two-colour and later three-colour systems of Technicolor propelled color in film . Films in the 1930s, like The Wizard of OZ , started to use the three-colour system to great effect. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves , the first animated feature film, was released by Walt Disney Studios in 1937. It was also released in color. And the film, The Jazz Singer , which came out in 1927, is credited with introducing sound to the movies. All three of these innovations in film carried the medium forward and paved the way for technology.
Related article: MUST WATCH - Hollywood Insider's CEO Pritan Ambroase's Love Letter to Black Lives Matter - VIDEO
Technology Advances - Film to Digital

A significant change in movies that still attracts debate today is the digital filmmaking process. Hollywood began to capture films digitally in the early 2000s, and by 2013 Many directors spoke out against the shift from Paramount was the first studio to announce they would digital was more common than movies shot on film . . 35mm film to digital, but the shift is hard to stop . There might be sentiment and reasons for holding on to the past, but new technological innovations will always challenge the medium of film. no longer release 35mm prints of films in the United States

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) and special effects (VFX), arguably the biggest technological innovations in cinema, have paved the way for the future of cinema. An Insider article discusses groundbreaking movies that brought special effects and CGI to new levels. Westworld , Tron , Toy Story The Matrix all had roles in establishing and improving new ways to use CGI. Westworld , and is credited with the first use of CGI in a film while Tron pushed the boundaries and extensively used CGI throughout the film. Toy Story was the first feature film made entirely with 3D animation. The Matrix used CGI and VFX to shoot iconic scenes that are ingrained in the pop culture of the late 90s.

Related article: The Power of Positivity: Ikorodu Bois + Chris Hemsworth + Russo Brothers + Sam Hargrave
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Rise of CGI & VFX

Director Around James Cameron, a founder of Digital Domain, is a pioneer in the development of CGI in film. His films continuously push the boundaries of what technology can do for movies. Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic are markers in his filmography for the development of his use of CGI. Cameron's Avatar was a milestone in cinema. . 70% of the footage in the film was built from CGI

While was groundbreaking, more and more films are using technology to create settings we've never seen before. An Avatar iD Tech article discusses the scene in Black Panther where a futuristic aircraft flies through the valleys of Wakanda. The location of these scenes do not exist. Solo: A Star Wars Story also contains scenes with locations and set pieces that do not exist. They are generated with virtual reality technology.

Related article: Finding the New James Bond? 'No Time To Die' Will Be Daniel Craig's Final 007
Related Article: Want GUARANTEED SUCCESS? Remove these ten NORMAL & CRUEL words | Transform your life INSTANTLY
Motion Capture Tech

Motion capture technology, used to create the onscreen character of Gollum in Movies like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Avatar, and Films have even been able to The Lord of the Rings , is another technology that revolutionized film. . It is rare to see a movie today that does not use some sort of CGI or VFX technology. Avengers: Endgame all used motion-capture technology to animate digital models for characters in their films . The inventions of CGI and VFX opened the door to the future of film. de-age actors with technology

What to Expect in the Future of Film in Technology

The application of technology continues to advance and pave the way for new movie viewing experiences. Films have a history of Ready Player One depicts a world where you put on a pair of goggles and enter a whole new reality. predicting future technology Ready Player One . It would not be so far fetched to think that some version of a movie experience is in the cards. The gaming world has already progressed in this realm of virtual reality. Movies might be next.

Raindance discusses how digital technologies are reshaping the film industry . Autonomous Drone Cameras, 3D printing, 4k 3D cameras, algorithmic video editing, and cloud-based technologies can all be at the forefront in the evolution of film. These are the more tangible expectations for film. We already see the implementation of these technologies today, and it is reasonable to think that film will find a way to incorporate them. And as science fiction has predicted in the past, there might be technology used in the future of cinema that would seem outlandish today. We will have to wait and see.

By Drew Ross
Click here to read Hollywood Insider's CEO Pritan Ambroase's love letter to Black Lives Matter, in which he tackles more than just police reform, press freedom and more - click here.

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Evolution of Technology in Cinema: Film to Digital, CGI, VFX, Motion Capture & Beyond - Hollywood Insider

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Photo: Evolution of technology in Cinema/Twentieth Century Fox In 1895, the Lumiére Brothers used their invention, the Cinématographe, to capture some of the first motion pictures . Auguste and Louis Lemière's short films were the start of the commercial development of film and cinema.

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What is CGI?

CGI stands for computer generated imagery, which is the use of computer graphics in art and media. These can be 2D or 3D animations, objects, or renderings; the type of art or media can be a film, television program, video game, or simulation. CGI can be used in films ranging from science fiction epics to quiet intimate dramas. How the CGI is used varies, from animating entire locations to subtle work on characters and environments. In recent years, CGI has been the go-to visual effect for most major movies, whether its use is subtle or obvious.

What are CGI characteristics?

Two-dimensional computer generated imagery, such as text, objects, backgrounds, backdrops, and environments.

Three-dimensional objects, figures, spaces, and environments.

In good cases, composite imagery and video that tricks the eye into believing in the illusion presented.

In bad cases, obviously fake figures, renderings, objects, and environments that look artificial and/or stand out with regards to everything else.

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-cgi-meaning-definition/

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CGI Meaning

What does CGI mean?

Any CGI definition is necessarily broad because the term includes many types of visual effects. So, before going over the most notable CGI examples in film and animation, let's define CGI in a way that covers most of its uses.

CGI DEFINITION

What is CGI?

CGI is the use of computer graphics to augment or create images in art and media. What does CGI stand for? CGI stands for computer generated imagery. These can be 2D or 3D animations, objects, or renderings in a film, television program, video game, or simulation. CGI can be used in films ranging from science fiction epics to quiet intimate dramas. How the CGI is used varies, from animating entire locations to subtle work on props or environments. In recent years, CGI has been the go-to visual effect for most major movies, whether its use is subtle or obvious.

How does CGI work?

Two-dimensional imagery such as text, objects, backgrounds, and environments.

Three-dimensional objects, including figures, spaces, and environments.

When successful, it creates composite imagery that tricks the eye into believing in the illusion presented.

When unsuccessful, it creates obviously fake imagery that shatters the illusion presented.

So, when people refer to CGI today, they are almost always talking about VFX work. This can include 3D models of people, monsters, buildings, cars, explosions, and many other things. These 3D models are then put into a live-action scenario, such as a monster attacking a city or a car being blown up by an explosion. These types of CGI effects are commonplace and are often seen in high-profile productions.

CGI can also be seen in movies as different as romantic dramas and science-fiction blockbusters. In a period drama, for example, it can be used to fill out locations with period-specific details, as well as maintain consistent scenery (e.g., background environments, people, and vehicles). In many of the best action movies, computer generated imagery can be used to render nearly everything you see.

The beauty of filmmaking these days is that CGI effects are possible at any budget. Our VFX recreation of Inception's Paris cafe scene proves just how easy it would be to pull it off using a couple hundred bucks and video editing software.

CGI Movies VFX

The beginning of CGI movies

The question of "when was CGI invented?" can be traced back to the 1960s. Various inventors and companies experimented with the new and evolving world of computer animation. Most of this was two-dimensional in scope, but all of it was being used in disciplines ranging from science to engineering and even medicine.

As CGI evolved, so did the ways filmmakers sought to use it in the first CGI movies. They could create digital viewpoints in Westworld (1973) and wire-frame models in Alien (1979), but those were still relegated to computer screens and the like. Here's a quick history on how they used imaging technology from NASA to create the computer generated imagery in Westworld.

Computer Generated Imagery, courtesy of NASA

The role of CGI would evolve even further in the 1980s, with films like TRON (1982), The Last Starfighter (1984), and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) making use of the technology to create full models of real-life objects and life-like characters. This video documents the massive undertaking involved with making one of first major CGI movies, TRON.

TRON is one of the first CGI movies

TRON was a major breakthrough and glimpse at the future of CGI movies to come. Throughout the '80s, we saw even more examples, like this one from Young Sherlock Holmes, where live-action and CGI animation could be combined.

Early CGI Movies * Young Sherlock Holmes

In these early CGI movies, the "quality" of the computer generated imagery was primitive but it opened up a world of possibilities. Visual storytelling could go anywhere thanks to computer generated imagery...and it did. In the next section, we'll cover more recent movies that define CGI all over again.

Modern CGI Examples

The evolution of CGI movies

Many CGI movies utilize the technology to do things they could never do otherwise. James Cameron movies are known for pushing what was possible from visual effects, from the pseudopod scene in (1989) to the liquid metal T-1000 in Terminator 2 (1991).

The Pseudopod * A Huge Leap for Visual Effects

It also made Titanic (1997) that much more effective, with its use of CGI models along with actual sets. Most movies that use CGI effects well often balance it out with other VFX work. Jurassic Park (1993) might be the gold standard of this, as it used computer generated imagery along with practical effects to create realistic looking dinosaurs.

More recently, Avatar (2009) demonstrated Cameron at the top of his visual game, using various VFX to create a unique experience, and one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

What is computer generated imagery? Avatar changed the game

Other CGI movies that use it in ways we won't even notice, such as adding more textures, characters, or objects in an environment. For example, a shot of a real city can be manipulated to include additional textures, buildings, people and cars. Zodiac (2007) used extensive computer generated imagery for creating these environments.

What is CGI in David Fincher's Zodiac?

Computer effects may have been mainly used for fantastical movies at first, but plenty of filmmakers in different genres have taken advantage of it. It's also no longer as expensive or limited as it once was, allowing more movies to take advantage of the tech.

And in some movie genres, such as children's films, it has become the dominant form for making these types of movies. Now that we've covered the CGI definition in live-action, let's turn our attention to animation which has also seen great strides in the last two decades.

CGI Animation

What is CGI animation?

One area of filmmaking that has completely embraced computer generated imagery is animation. After 2D, cel animation, many types of animation emerged like stop motion animation and claymation. Animation done with computers was simply the next step in that evolution. Here's a great recap tracing the history of animation to remind us how far it has come.

To define CGI animation, we need historical context

Stop motion animation was a fairly popular style for a while, even while many animated movies were still hand drawn. It was the closest filmmaking got to three-dimensional animation, but it took time and a lot of effort to get done.

Soon computers began dominating the arena once ruled by hand-drawn and stop motion. This technology made it possible to create three-dimensional worlds that were not constrained to actual real-life filmmaking. Not only that, but CGI animation allowed filmmakers to be as realistic or as fantastical as they wanted.

Pixar was among the very first to experiment with fully computer generated animation, as seen in early Pixar short films. Toy Story (1995) became known as the first CGI movie done completely with computer generated imagery, which alone could make it notable.

However, the movie was also critically acclaimed and a financial hit; it's known as one of the best animated movies of all time and an early example of the Pixar storytelling formula.

What is CGI animation? Just ask Pixar

Other studios decided to try their hand at computer generated animation, like Dreamworks, who first put out Antz (1998) with positive results. However, if any movie put them on the map, it was Shrek (2001), which was a massive success and gave Pixar some serious competition.

What's CGI animation? Shrek behind the scenes

Since the beginning of the century, there have been almost too many CGI animated films to keep track of. Disney themselves committed to this style over ten years ago when they started putting out their own 3D animated work outside of Pixar.

While Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks dominate family friendly animation, studios like Illumination have broken through to create their own brand of animation. Even though they're relatively new to the scene, hits like Despicable Me (2010) and The Secret Life of Pets (2016) have proven that CGI animation is still very much evolving.

THE DEBATE OVER CGI

The stigma of bad CGI movies

A loud voice decrying computer generated imagery started to rise in the last decade or two from moviegoers who had gotten tired of bad CGI. It even got to a point where people (still) ask, "Why is CGI used instead of practical effects?"

Bad CGI is certainly a problem in some movies, but as this very popular and well-done video below states, the best type of computer generated imagery is the one where you don't even notice it.

The point is that computer generated imagery should be judged on a case-by-case basis. Let's define CGI without the negative assumption that just because it's "fake," it must be bad. Nothing is "real" in filmmaking, it's all smoke and mirrors and computer generated imagery is just another tool used in the creating the illusion.

UP NEXT

Explore more VFX

We have gone over the basics of computer generated imagery, but now it's time to dig into more general visual effects. Here you'll get an overview of VFX featuring examples like how they pulled off "bullet time" in The Matrix or how they used motion capture to create photo-realistic performances in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

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A Brief History of CGI - From TRON to Avatar and Beyond

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Any CGI definition is necessarily broad because the term includes many types of visual effects. So, before going over the most notable CGI examples in film and animation, let's define CGI in a way that covers most of its uses. CGI is the use of computer graphics to augment or create images in art and media.

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Light stages are used to photograph an actors face from a range of different angles and light varieties.
They are used to insure the actors in the movie if anything happens to the actors.
Also the photo scans are used in cgi to adapt the face of an actor or to replace another actors face. e.g stunt double.

https://vgl.ict.usc.edu/LightStages/

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I thought that most people these days knew what CGI was, but Google data tells me the exact opposite. Over 8,000 people in the US search for an answer on this every single month. Clearly it couldn't hurt to get back to basics and dig into the history to CGI and breakdown exactly how it works so more people can better understand this relatively young art form.

What is CGI?

At the most basic level, Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) is the creation of still or animated visual content with computer software. CGI most commonly refers to the 3D computer graphics used to create characters, scenes and special effects in films, television and games. The technology is also used in everything from advertising, architecture, engineering, virtual reality and even art.

CGI is used extensively these days because it is often cheaper than physical methods which rely on creating elaborate miniatures, hiring extras for crowd scenes, and most commonly for when it's simply not safe or humanly possible to create the visuals.

CGI is created using a range of different methods. The use of algorithms can produce complex fractal patterns. 2D pixel-based image editors can create vector shapes. 3D graphics software can create everything for simple primitive shapes to complex forms made from flat triangles and quadrangles. 3D software can even simulate the way light reacts to a surface and generate particle effects.

Where CGI starts to get really exciting is when computer-generated imagery is layered into digital film footage using a technique known as compositing. This technique is becoming more familiar to people as often refered to as green screen.

The History of CGI

For those who want a chronological list you can read the timeline of CGI in film and television. For the rest of you, I've pulled out what I believe are the most notable milestones that contributed to the evolution of CGI.

The history of CGI goes back to the 1950's, when mechanical computers were repurposed to create patterns onto animation cels which were then incorporated into a feature film. That first film which used CGI was Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).

Alfred might have got out of the gates early with some 2D trickery, but it wasn't until 1972 when Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke created a computer-animated short film called A Computer Animated Hand that introduced 3D computer graphics to the world. This feat was achieved when Edwin drew 350 triangles and polygons in ink on his hand and then digitized and laboriously animated the data in a 3D animation program that Catmull actually wrote.

A few years later CGI took another leap forward with the help of Hollywood. In 1973 Westworld flexed its muscles with the first 2D CGI scene showing "Gunslinger" vision - an interpretation of how robots could see. The movie was so successful that it inspired a sequal.

Futureworld pushed the boundaries of CGI even further when it rendered a 3D head using the same techniques as Edwin Catmull had outlined. The kicker is that the studio executives used the original hand animation created by Edwin and incorporated it into the film. This amazing work was quickly recognised by the Oscars about a decade later with a Scientific & Engineering Academy Award.

Shortly after robot cowboys blew everyone away, Industrial Light & Magic created an iconic piece of cinema history that truly showed the potential of CGI. The Trench Run Briefing in Star Wards: A New Hope showed a wireframe rendering of the Death Star designed to help give the Rebel Alliance some last minute training. Directed by George Lucas, the film and it's incredible imagery would ultimately become indirectly responsible for ushering in the CGI era.

It took years for computers to fully harness the power of CGI and to allow directors to bring their visions to life. By the end of the '70s, computer-generated imagery started popping up in a few science fiction movies such as The Black Hole (more wireframe goodies) and Alien (another wireframe).

As the '80s rolled around, Industrial Light & Magic dropped into second gear and truly changed cinema for good with the release of Tron in 1982. Due to the proposed complexity of the film and it's first time Produce and Director at the helm, Disney nearly passed up on the chance. The movie didn't break records at the box office, but it did go on to eventually win an Academy Award fourteen years later.

CGI continued to really push the boundaries of computer power in the '80s - how good was The Last Starfighter (1984) and The Abyss (1989) - and more companies jump in to try their hand at this mesmorising mix of technology and art.

In the '90s, computers allowed CGI masters to start really going big with their ideas and new found techniques. During this decade, countless groundbreaking films were released such as Terminator II; Judgment Day (1991), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Toy Story (1995), Star Wars Special Editions and of course The Matrix (1999).

Leading the charge with many of these movies was ILM, Stan Winston Studios and Phil Tippett who dropped arguably the best CGI of all time - Jurassic Park (1993). The bar was set so high with this, many CGI artists strongly believe Jurassic Park has the best visual effects to date. What really changed at this point was how they used a mix of real actors, animatronics and CGI to bring dinosaurs to life alongside the actors which has never been done successfully before.

Beyond 2000, CGI accelerated at an exponential rate. The need for more computer power, better software and new ideas helped usher in an abundance of CGI films, most notable being Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Avatar and Up.

CGI is now an integral part of all feature films - even ones you don't think have them. There is simply no pixel that is not touched these days by CGI. Take for example Jurassic Park again, director Steven Spielberg and company crafted no more than 63 visual effects shots for this film. By comparison today, one of the most successful films of all-time, The Avengers, has over 2,200 visual effects shots with CGI. Adding to this, 90 minutes of Transformers: Age of Extinction's running time has CGI effects. Even the widely acclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy relied on CGI for 2,750 of its shots. In other words, 90 percent of Guardians features CGI in some capacity.

Key CGI Roles and Departments

The process of creating CGI is long, challenging and very technical. Teams are large and very diverse which means there are opportunities for all types of people ranging from hardcore coders through to illustrators and non-artists who like managing teams. Everyone plays a crucial role in producing the final visual effects and I've listed some of the most common creative and technical roles below to help you understand where you mind fit it best.

Art Department

The Art Department is responsible for translating a Directors vision and a script into visuals that can be shared with the entire team to truly understand the creative and technical challenges that lay ahead. These concept artists and illustrators create everything from storyboards to photorealistic artworks that show what the finished shot will look like.
#artistic #conceptart #illustration

Pre-viz

Pre-visualisation Artists are responsible for creating the first 3D representation of the final visual effects shot. They use artwork and basic 3D models to create normally low-quality versions of the action sequences so the Director can start planning out camera placement and creative/technical requirements.
#technical #planning #setup

Asset Department

Virtual assets are need in visual effects to match real world objects or create new objects that don't exist or are too expensive to build in the real world. These are mostly created by modeling artists, texture painters, shader developers and riggers.
#creative #artistic #design #3dmodel #shaders #rig

Research and Development

Considered a very technical department, RnD artists are responsible for building new software and tools to accomplish the tasks that can't be done, or are simply too time consuming for artists to manually complete over and over again. The role requires a very strong background in computer science and a passion for problem solving.
#technical #code #computerscience

Animation

This one is pretty obvious. Basically anything that moves on film needs to be animated. It doesn't matter if it's a small prop like a chair, a huge space ship or even a hero character or creature. If it moves and has a performance, an animator will most likely be behind the controls.
#actor #keyframes #characters #performance

Matchmove

This is also referred to as motion tracking and without it there would be no way to incorporate 3D data into live action footage. To make digital assets appear as if they completely real, you need a virtual camera that moves exactly like the camera in the live action footage. This is where matchmove artists come to the rescue. It's their job to use the live action video footage and create a virtual camera for all departments to work with.
#matchmove #virtualcamera

FX Simulation

An FX Artist designs and creates FX animation, procedural simulation, dynamic simulation, and particle and fluid systems. They are responsible for recreating the behaviour of real world elements such as fire, water, explosions, cloth, hair and a whole lot more that most people don't even realise. Highly technical, yet creative role.
#fire #water #smoke #destruction

Lighting

The lighting artist is responsible for applying all lighting effects to the digital scene. The artist takes into consideration the light sources of the live-action plate and applies virtual lighting to mimic the existing illumination within the environment. The goal is to ensure that the VFX and live-action elements blend seamlessly, as though both exist in the same environment.
#lighting #colour #illumination #mood

Matte paint

A matte painting is an image, created using digital or traditional painting techniques, to create a representation of a scene that would be impossible for filmmakers to deliver in real life. This might be because the landscape does not exist in the real world, it's not financially practical to travel to a location, or to extend the set outside of its filmed parameters.
#painter #mask #setextension

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is used to create a matte or mask for an element so it can be extracted out of place on a different background, masked out so colours can be changed or any other set of reasons. The rotoscoping artist will normally trace an object using a set of tools to create a new alpha channel for a specific part of an image sequence or video.
#mask #roto #trace #alpha

Compositing

Compositing is the action of layering all the various elements in a shot - live action, mattes, multiple CG passes, 3D lighting, animation, particle effects - and blending them all seamlessly to create the photo-realistic final shot. Working throughout the production process, you'll need to collaborate with other VFX departments to creatively and technically problem solve along the way.
#colour #grading #layering #finaltouch #composition

Production

There are also a number of roles for people who prefer managing teams, budgets and schedules. The top production role at a studio is the VFX Producer who works closely with the VFX supervisor to project manage the entire process, defining the resources required, hiring artists and crew, managing budgets and making sure the project is delivered on schedule. Other common roles include Production Manager and Production coordinator which support the Producer by liaising with artists, flagging issues and generally tracking progress and making sure everything stays on track from a scheduling perspective.
#scheduling #management #budgets #glue

The subtle art of seamless CGI

CGI has become synonymous with massive tent-pole blockbuster films such as Avatar, Star Wars, Avengers: Endgame. However, where CGI becomes truly impressive is when it's used as the "supporting act", not the "slap in your face" version some directors have become famous for.

With the ability to edit every single pixel of a movie, film makers can take another more subtle root to enhance their films in ways previously unobtainable. The beauty is that CGI can be used to help remove unwanted backgrounds, change the mood of a scene, fix errors, change locations and even add a tear to help improve an actors performance. When people think of CGI, the first movies that come to mind is not Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. Just check out the following highlights from the movie:

Another spectacular example of subtle CGI in movies is Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. From the simple backdrops to entire buildings, most of Gatsby's great American dream was no more than a visual spectacle that at the time completely took viewers by surprise.

Mind Blowing examples of CGI (not subtle)

Subtle CGI effects take people for surprise when the tricks are finally revealed to them. However, on the other end of the spectrum it can even be harder to impress people when deep down they know something isn't real. Take for example Caesar - the fully CGI chimpanzee in Rise of the Planet of the Apes -, everyone know the character could not be a trained monkey, but yet they get sucked into the film and believe every second of the performance because the CGI is so damn impressive and realistic.

Here are some further great examples of how 3D computer graphics is used to add fictional characters, create backgrounds, change the mood and completely overhaul a scene.

Game of Thrones

The Martian

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Life of Pi

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Pirates Of The Caribbean

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Where CGI can go wrong

The art of computer graphics is extremely technical and requires teams with hundreds, often thousands of highly skilled artists. The problem is that as CGI improves in movies, so do the viewers. Viewers become critics and can start picking out CGI that is not perfect and scream for the skies and make sure everyone hears it.

The good news is that studios have - for the most part - realised that story is king, not CGI. Computer graphics is there as a tool to tell a story and it should never be the reason for creating a film in the first place.

To help highlight this fact, here are what I believe are some of the most cringe-worthy CGI that I hope never gets approved again.

Oh, and let's not forget what nearly happened when they tried to release Sonic the Hedgehog recently. We can all thank social media for jumping on this one and preventing a massive disaster to a franchise we all love.

How do I start learning CGI?

Traditionally speaking, there are two main ways to start learning Visual Effects. Go to a school, or teach yourself at home. It's very easy to find persuasive case studies for both learning paths so which should you choose?

In my opinion this depends entirely on you. Some people are great at learning skills themselves and don't need help for the heavy lifting part. On the other hand, there are people who need to be surrounded by others and need strict schedules and tasks. It really is up to you, and how you like to work.

Regardless of which approach to learning vfx you take, the most important thing to do is just start. It's that simple.

Regardless of which approach to learning you take, the most important thing to do is start. It's that simple. Pick up a book, start sketching, watch and analyse a movie, watch documentaries about visual effects, attend local events. Just get started. If you don't have the passion and motivation for this, then it doesn't matter how good your education - you will never make it.

Top 10 Schools in the World to learn CGI

Wouldn't it be great if schools actually competed against each other to see who was the best school? This is exactly why the Rookie Awards was started back in 2010 and why their annual School of the Year rankings are so important to everyone.
The School of the Year rankings are based on the quality and performance of student work that is submitted to our judging panel each year for the Rookie Awards.
Most people feel that traditional school rankings that include peer and employer reviews, faculty to student ratio, citations and other data are not adequate when ranking the best creative schools. This might work for more traditional career paths, however when it comes to technical and creative such as Visual Effects which don't have standardised testing.

For a full breakdown on how the results are calculated make sure to visit the official public announcement.

Please find below the official Top 10 Visual Effects Schools in the World as awarded for 2018.

Interested in learning more about CGI?

I hope this has given you a good overview of what CGI is and the amazing career prospects available to you. It's really up to you now, you need to put in the hard work. You need to take the next step using the advice provided in this guide.

So do yourself a favour, grab the following list and start working though it. One step at a time. That's all it takes.

register an account at The Rookies and start your journey

join a discord channel and talk with other aspiring artists

speak to a free career advisor about finding a school

start observing the world, drawing, building things

watch movies and show and read about how VFX were created

download the recommended software and free training resources

start building your first portfolio and learning the basics

follow software companies on social media

follow inspiring vfx artists on social media

follow big production studios on social media

keep learning everything you can and don't give up

Thanks for reading this guide. I plan to keep updating this often to make sure it remains relevant and helpful. Please reach out to me via the comments section with any suggestions or questions.

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What is CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) & how does it work?

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At the most basic level, Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) is the creation of still or animated visual content with computer software. CGI most commonly refers to the 3D computer graphics used to create characters, scenes and special effects in films, television and games.

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https://computeranimationhistory-cgi.jimdofree.com/westworld-1973/

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Westworld (1973) First digital animation in a feature film

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The footprints of CGI dates back to the 1950s when mechanical computers were repurposed to create patterns onto animation cells, which were then incorporated into feature films. The first film to ever use CGI technology was Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in 1958. Vertigo was made very early with 2D tricks. No movie was able to cope with the same technology or success in the near future. After that, a computer-animated short film named ‘A Computer Animated Hand’ came out in 1972. The movie by Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke introduced 3D computer graphics to the world.

CGI took another leap forward in 1973 with the first 2D CGI scene showing in ‘Gunslinger’ vision, an interpretation of how robots could see. The movie was so successful that it inspired other moviemakers to try their hands on CGI. The movie Futureworld gave a new face to CGI as the studio executives used the original hand-animated creations by Edwin and incorporated it with the film. The movie attracted an Oscar and a Scientific & Engineering Academy Award.

Later, CG technology was highly adopted by cinema people. The technology has not just leveraged more features to the movie industry but also gave a sign of creativity to storytellers where they don’t have to worry about how to make supernatural creatures real. The need for more computer power, better software and new ideas helped usher in an abundance of CGI films, most notable being Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Avatar and Up.

CGI is now an integral part that can’t be separated from the movie creation group. There is simply no pixel that is not touched by CGI in the modern movie era. Famous movies like Jurassic Park again, The Avengers and the Guardian of the Galaxy relied on CGI visual effects shots ranging from 63 to 2,750. While espoused with virtual reality technology, CGI extends its features and capabilities to an extreme level. The future of cinema is expected to be more of animation, visual shots and less of human interface.

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/computer-generated-imagery-cgi-the-magic-wand-of-cinema-industry/

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Computer Generated Imagery (CGI): The Magic Wand of Cinema Industry

The cinema industry has been through many twists and turns to come to the place it is now. Movies have started from mere zero and are rocking over a hundred in the modern technological era of innovation. Cinema has evolved greatly, especially in the area of visual effects. In the last few decades, computer generated imagery (CGI) has taken centre stage in delivering supernatural, animated and extra featured movies and dramas. Henceforth, let us go through what CGI is and what it means to the cinema industry.

What is computer generated imagery (CGI)?

Computer generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to augment or create images in art and media. CGI is utilized for visual effects because the quality is often higher and are more controllable than physically based processes such as constructing miniatures for effects shots or hiring extras for crowd scenes. It allows the creation of images that would not be feasible using any other technology. These can be 2D or 3D animations, objects, or renderings in a film, television program, video games, or simulation. CGI can be leveraged in films ranging from science fiction epics to intimate dramas.

CGI is used extensively these days because of its low-cost spending. It is much cheaper than the physical methods in creating elaborate miniatures, hiring extras, and most commonly for when it is simply not safe or humanly possible to create the extraordinary visuals. CGI is created using different methods. 2D pixel-based image editors create vector shapes while 3D graphics software makes everything for simple primitive shapes to complex forms made out of flat triangles and quadrangles.

Currently, there are many CGI application software with many different features. The extraordinary capabilities of CGI technology are making films more professional, cost-effective, safe, and video games lively and attractive.

The evolution of CGI in the cinema world

The footprints of CGI dates back to the 1950s when mechanical computers were repurposed to create patterns onto animation cells, which were then incorporated into feature films. The first film to ever use CGI technology was Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo in 1958. Vertigo was made very early with 2D tricks. No movie was able to cope with the same technology or success in the near future. After that, a computer-animated short film named ' A Computer Animated Hand ' came out in 1972. The movie by Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke introduced 3D computer graphics to the world.

CGI took another leap forward in 1973 with the first 2D CGI scene showing in 'Gunslinger' vision, an interpretation of how robots could see. The movie was so successful that it inspired other moviemakers to try their hands on CGI. The movie Futureworld gave a new face to CGI as the studio executives used the original hand-animated creations by Edwin and incorporated it with the film. The movie attracted an Oscar and a Scientific & Engineering Academy Award.

Later, CG technology was highly adopted by cinema people. The technology has not just leveraged more features to the movie industry but also gave a sign of creativity to storytellers where they don't have to worry about how to make supernatural creatures real. The need for more computer power, better software and new ideas helped usher in an abundance of CGI films, most notable being Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Avatar and Up.

CGI is now an integral part that can't be separated from the movie creation group. There is simply no pixel that is not touched by CGI in the modern movie era. Famous movies like Jurassic Park again, The Avengers and the Guardian of the Galaxy relied on CGI visual effects shots ranging from 63 to 2,750. While espoused with virtual reality technology, CGI extends its features and capabilities to an extreme level. The future of cinema is expected to be more of animation, visual shots and less of human interface.

The bad ray of CGI movies

CGI technology has at least dragged half the criticism as its compliment. A loud voice decrying the bad CGI effects is there in the past when cinema used minimum visuals when a movie can't sustain without CGI. Bad CGI is certainly a problem in some movies. People are often dragged into comments like 'fake' and 'not real' when they see a visible CGI mistake. However, despite all the downfalls, CGI technology is still travelling the path to make it to the top.

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Computer Generated Imagery (CGI): The Magic Wand of Cinema Industry

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Computer Generated Imagery (CGI): The Magic Wand of Cinema Industry The cinema industry has been through many twists and turns to come to the place it is now. Movies have started from mere zero and are rocking over a hundred in the modern technological era of innovation.

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This light stage video breaks down how they work and what they are used for in actual movies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6UkiC3fYX0

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How CGI technology is Advancing in Hollywood

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This article is the definition of CGI and its traits

https://www.nfi.edu/what-is-cgi/

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What is CGI? - Everything You Need to Know - NFI

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Discover what CGI is, how it's used in movies, and its evolution in the entertainment industry. From creating fantastical creatures to mind-bending special effects, learn about the technology that brings imagination to life on the big screen.