CGI doesn't HAVE to blow....

[ctc]

So;

A lot of folks aren't too impressed with CGI effects, and I kind of agree. MY problem isn't the CGI itself; but that the creators feel the need to add all sorts of extraneous details, just because the can; and the end result is a washed out, low impact crowd scene.

But it doesn't HAVE to be like that. Here's an example of stuff that doesn't suck; and it dsoesn't suck because the shots are composed, and the CGI is used for what it's best for: adding depth and solidity by allowing varied angles and rotations without turning to mush:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na0-n...eature=related

I believe this is part of a pachinko machine ad that someone dubbed the theme over. In addition to not being overwrought, you'll notice that nobody felt the need to monkey with the designs.

Don C.

[palitoy]

I've always felt CGI is a wonderful tool that gets the blame for other's (Stephen Sommers* cough! George Lucas *Cough) complete lack of restraint and taste.

This clip gave me goose pimples.

[ctc]

>complete lack of restraint and taste
>This clip gave me goose pimples

What's ironic is that I found the actual MOVIE to suffer from the overdone CGI thing.... including the Cosmo-Gerwalk thingie.... But this ad (and I think there are a coule more) is dead-on.

Don C.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

I tend to not like the shaky camera, zoom in and try to stay focused thing that a lot of CGI does now. (Like this clip at 48 seconds in or the new BSG, for example). That is when I lose focus/concentration of what is going on and it looks fake to me. On a news cast or real life, yes. In a film that I want to escape from real world, no. I want my old school steady cam and ship fly by.

[MicromanZone]

The CGI animation comes from in-play animating that are a part of the Space Battleship Yamato pachinko machine.

Also, folks tend to ignore CGI in films you don’t think would have it. Like Titanic and The Pianist.

[emeraldknight47]

CGI is best used as a storytelling device (just go back and watch ROTPOTA) rather than the story itself. There are a lot of cool things you CAN do with CGI, the question then becomes SHOULD they be done or does the CGI stuff become extraneous.

The best CGI is the kind where you don't even REALIZE it's CGI at all until you watch the special features on a DVD or someone tells you "so and so scene in that movie was all done with CGI."

Unfortunately, several Hollywood types have yet to learn that more is not necessarily better when it comes to computer animation.

Still, to date, some of the BEST CGI use I've ever seen has to be this...

http://youtu.be/iuy2cZTagCQ

After seeing this commercial, I really am hoping that someone, somewhere will see what's achievable with CGI and finally give us a WATERSHIP DOWN movie that will be everything the book is!

[Mikey]

I like the coming out of the water part

[GaryPlaysWithDolls]

Dude, you gotta warn me before dropping that kind of intergalactic-nostalgia-bomb on me! I LOVED that show as a kid. LOVED IT.

[MIB41]

The best CGI is the kind your not aware of.

[Figuremod73]

to bad Ray Harryhausen is to old now to make a movie using CGI. He might use a lot of it but i bet it would still be real cool

[ctc]

>to bad Ray Harryhausen is to old now to make a movie using CGI.

Yeah. I think the problem we all have with CGI is one of spectacle and changing tastes. Movies have always been about the latest and the greatest, and the easiest thing to amp up is the effects. Been happening forever.... CGI escalates things 'cos it's now easy to fill up an ASTOUNDING amount of visual arc; so they do. All the extraneous details make folks go "ooohhh!!! lootit all that stuff going on!" 'Course the recenteness of CGI means it's pretty far removed form what we were programmed with as the "right" way of doing things, which of course means we don't like it. But we're guilty of the same sort of thinking; if you've ever considered that the OLD way of doing things was better, then you're guilty 'cos you're looking more at the HOW and not the WHAT.

To that end, I'd love to have seen Harryhausen try his hand at producing some CGI effects; thate the new technique and apply the old mentality so's to produce something new. The thing I thought neat about the Yamato footage was that they used the new technique, but with the old aesthetic. Looked pretty good. (One thing that bothers me about overdone CGI is that we're at a point where the movies are operating at higher resolution and detail than real life. CGI doesn't look real at all.... which is funny, 'cos neither did the old school cheapie effects. We've come back around.... hence why I consider most new films really expensive B-Movies.)

Don C.

[MIB41]

Yeah, at 91 Ray won't be making any new films. My favorite remains Clash of the Titans. The new one can't touch it.