4 ms·
There's still a huge tell in contemporary CGI, which is pretty obvious when compared side by side to older, practical effects: smoke and light scattering. Given
by stillkicking 9y ago
There's still a huge tell in contemporary CGI, which is pretty obvious when compared side by side to older, practical effects: smoke and light scattering. Given the amount of destructive action we typically get on screen, the picture should quickly devolve into a murky, misty mess that takes ages to settle down. But of course it doesn't, because the audience needs to be able to see the spectacle.
If the scene is composited digitally out of differently rendered layers, the light won't scatter and occlude correctly through the mist. There's a reason why e.g. the original Blade Runner still looks so timelessly atmospheric compared to your run-of-the-mill dystopian cyberpunk city of today.
In that sense, we've been in the age of post-real CGI for much longer than the quest for photorealism suggests. We're not actually seeking photorealism, we're seeking the hyperstimulus version of it that obeys cartoon physics more than real physics. Simulating fire, smoke and fluids is one thing, but simulating realistic combustion, fogging and drainage is quite another.
Then again, you could make exactly the same observation about cars that explode upon flipping over, or the jumping bus scene in Speed. In real life it made a tiny hop and then smashed its front wheels. Magicians don't need CGI either.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Merad 9y agoI don't know about that. CGI effects are everywhere in modern film and TV, but I rarely hear people talking about them except in the case of action scenes or "obviously CGI" (fantasy/fictional) creatures. Take a look at the VFX highlights reel from season 1 of Game of Thrones [1]. Even 8 years ago they were using CGI throughout the show's environments. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjdpDx8_l8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjdpDx8_l8
- bsenftner 9y ago"Everywhere" is right. Case in point, that old show "Ugly Betty" made major use of virtual sets: https://vimeo.com/19274597 https://vimeo.com/19274597
- osteele 9y agoThe bus scene in Speed used a 50-foot practical jump from a ramp. CGI was used to remove the road that beneath the jump, not to lengthen the jump itself. I guess you could call that a “tiny hop” if you're measuring vertical distance from ground; not if you're measuring distance from road, or length. Sources: I remember this from Cinefex, which is not online; Wikipedia repeats the description https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(1994_film)#Filming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(1994_film)#Filming
- barrkel 9y agoFake physics is the most distracting thing about character CGI in particular. Any time a character is leaping, landing, swinging on a rope, etc. - it all just looks incredibly wrong and jarring.
- banku_brougham 9y agoFor me the most painful and infuriating example of this was The Hobbit trilogy.
- wott 9y agoWhen they are inside barrels on rapids, Jesus... Anyway the shots are so short that you cannot understand anything about what is happening. You just have to wait patiently until the end of the cinematic scene so that the game^Wmovie starts again.
- zamber 9y agoIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/ - another example of unreal physics.
- Florin_Andrei 9y ago> We're not actually seeking photorealism, we're seeking the hyperstimulus version of it that obeys cartoon physics more than real physics. On a much higher level, this is what art has done since the dawn of time. Presenting a version of reality that's subtly altered to make a point and convey a message. Now we can finally do it easily at the low purely graphic level for motion pictures.
- Certhas 9y agoLasers don't make sound in space. The uncanny valley isn't about making things realistic, it is about making things feel natural. Things flying by make sounds, so it's natural to assume lasers in space zipping by to make sounds. Same with all sorts of visuals rendering situations we are highly unfamiliar with.