CGI in Movies

[UZER]

I wanted to ask this in one of the other music threads but they keep getting hijacked and end up talking about pit bulls.

If you have a problem with music using technology for songs in terms of no live instruments (ie bass or guitar player) do you have the same problem with movies using cgi for so many special effects? Many of the old school directors and effects guys think....or thought.....that this was cheating when it came to movie making, but had to change with the times or get left behind.

[silverblk mystix]

It is hard to argue with results. If the movie comes out looking great and the graphics aren't a distraction then why not?

If it is off-putting and takes away from the movie-it might bother some viewers. IMO.

[cantthinkofanything]

I wanted to ask this in one of the other music threads but they keep getting hijacked and end up talking about pit bulls.

If you have a problem with music using technology for songs in terms of no live instruments (ie bass or guitar player) do you have the same problem with movies using cgi for so many special effects? Many of the old school directors and effects guys think....or thought.....that this was cheating when it came to movie making, but had to change with the times or get left behind.

Totally different.

[JamStone]

I think it has to be done well. The vampire thingies in I Am Legend were god-awful. I know you're supposed to suspend reality at the movie theater, but the film has to allow me to do that. Even the first couple Spidermans weren't believable enough to me when he was swinging through the city. I want to believe it. Film makers are getting better at it though. It just needs to be good enough for me to get into it. For example, whether you liked the movies or not, the Transformer series of films graphically did it for me. I believed what was happening on the screen.

[cantthinkofanything]

All that being said about music today, maybe one day they are able to recreate the human voice and standard instruments artificially so that it doesn't sound manufactured.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

They already make instruments that don't sound manufactured. Avatar was totally done with a computer.



CGI kebab double edge sword. Pirahnaconda is the bad edge of that sword.

[UZER]

Exactly. Nolan hated cgi, but even he has accepted it and uses it in his movies. inception could not have been made 10 yrs ago.

[cantthinkofanything]

They already make instruments that don't sound manufactured. Avatar was totally done with a computer.



CGI kebab double edge sword. Pirahnaconda is the bad edge of that sword.

I think the difference is that in music, the reality is the instrument. No need to try to recreate it when you have access to the original. With movies, there is no access to spaceships, monsters, alien planets, etc. So the CGI is used to try to most perfectly create it.

[JamStone]

They already make instruments that don't sound manufactured. Avatar was totally done with a computer.



CGI kebab double edge sword. Pirahnaconda is the bad edge of that sword.


I really liked Avatar and think it was an amazing film, especially visually. But I still had some problems with the Avatar people. Seems like no matter how many light bulb thingies you put on an actor for reference to human movement, you still miss something. The fluidity and curves of the human body and how it moves, twists, contorts are just near impossible to get exact. I think that's the problem I had with some of the scenes in the Spidermans. You could tell some of the movement wasn't naturally human. There are some things you simply cannot recreate and fabricate with CGI.

Lol a lot of the SyFy B-movies are like Pirahnaconda. I get a kick out of a lot of them but because they are so bad that it's amusing.

[UZER]

I think the difference is that in music, the reality is the instrument. No need to try to recreate it when you have access to the original. With movies, there is no access to spaceships, monsters, alien planets, etc. So the CGI is used to try to most perfectly create it.



Just like you want to use cgi for shaceships, which can still be done with live props but it won't look as good, the same can be said about techno (scifi so to speak) music. It can be done with "real" instruments, but no where near as effective as synths, computers etc.

[cantthinkofanything]

Just like you want to use cgi for shaceships, which can still be done with live props but it won't look as good, the same can be said about techno (scifi so to speak) music. It can be done with "real" instruments, but no where near as effective as synths, computers etc.

Sure, but with techno, you're not trying to capture the sound of standard instruments anyway. They're driven by the beat and the notes.

I was thinking more about pop/rock music and the current reliance on computers, electronic drums, auto tune, etc. to "create" a song.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Auto tune is not an instrument. Its being used as an effect and if you internalize the title "auto tune" you'll realize its not even being used the way it was intended to.

[UZER]

Autotune is the equivalant of greedo shooting first.....its can ruin things.