Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

CGI in Movies/TV Discussion

Right, I'm going nominate Dragonslayer. I used to be into stop motion and used to always want to try and replicate Ray Harryhausen's stuff (really, really, badly in super 8). So I followed all this stuff closely at the time. It shocked all of us who thought that rubber puppets and scale models of the sort that reached their peak in Clash of the Titans were as good as you were likely to get. It really was a game changer - I'm sure I remember Ray getting very cross in an article about it at the time. (Possibly Starburst magazine?)

I'm also going to suggest the Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. (1978). I remember this one well, it used animation but traced from live action. (We know it now as rotoscoping.) It enabled battle scenes and used a scale impossible if you were to draw every character and its movements individually. It was an early sort of very early motion capture (albeit analogue in execution.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: twietee and Huntn
scubachap said:
Right, I'm going nominate Dragonslayer. I used to be into stop motion and used to always want to try and replicate Ray Harryhausen's stuff (really, really, badly in super 8). So I followed all this stuff closely at the time. It shocked all of us who thought that rubber puppets and scale models of the sort that reached their peak in Clash of the Titans were as good as you were likely to get. It really was a game changer - I'm sure I remember Ray getting very cross in an article about it at the time. (Possibly Starburst magazine?)

I'm also going to suggest the Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. (1978). I remember this one well, it used animation but traced from live action. (We know it now as rotoscoping.) It enabled battle scenes and used a scale impossible if you were to draw every character and its movements individually. It was an early sort of very early motion capture (albeit analogue in execution.)
Click to expand...
Clash of the Titans, the original was outstanding, but you have to then remember King Kong (1933). :)
[doublepost=1543249507][/doublepost]
SoggyCheese said:
Surprised nobody has mentioned the trailblazer for all this. Tron.
Click to expand...
Tron was exhilarating.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scubachap
Huntn said:
Clash of the Titans, the original was outstanding, but you have to then remember King Kong (1933). :)
Click to expand...

Of course... The thing about Dragonslayer was that it was obvious after seeing it that the writing was on the wall for the 50 year old technique of using conventional stop-motion as the go to way of doing monsters etc (I think Industrial Light and Magic were involved...)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
Scepticalscribe said:
And am somewhat surprised that nobody has mentioned Shrek. A terrific movie, which told a great story, featured stunning visuals and came complete with compelling characters.
Click to expand...
Shrek is an outstanding movie. However I think that I have been focusing on examples of where CGI has been incorporated into live action movies versus animated films which now incorporate CGI.
 
Huntn said:
Shrek is an outstanding movie. However I think that I have been focusing on examples of where CGI has been incorporated into live action movies versus animated films which now incorporate CGI.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying that; I must say that I thought the use of CGI (and the use of lighting) both excellent in the Shrek (and that is, leaving aside the terrific cast, great script, superb story, and outstanding animation).

My mother loved that movie, I remember how we both laughed our way through it - an intelligent, funny, clever, (and, at times, moving) and beautifully put together movie.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
Scepticalscribe said:
Thanks for clarifying that; I must say that I thought the use of CGI (and the use of lighting) both excellent in the Shrek (and that is, leaving aside the terrific cast, great script, superb story, and outstanding animation).

My mother loved that movie, I remember how we both laughed our way through it - an intelligent, funny, clever, (and, at times, moving) and beautifully put together movie.
Click to expand...
In both animations and live action, there are just things that can be done with CGI that are impossible to do otherwise. There was the highway chase scene in The Matrix Reloaded (2003) where the camera was literally passing through vehicles as it followed the pertinent chase vehicles down the highway. I was going to mention the Battle of Pelenoor Fields in Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, riding along with a Nazgul, but there is so much CGI that, live action is almost the exception. :)
 
I always think CGI looks worse on tv than in the movies. I'm not sure why, maybe cause I'm closer to the screen or the transfer from "film" to bluray. For example, Deadpool2 has a great, one-shot action sequence with Domino running through the street while cars flip over her and blow up and other craziness. The cars that were CGIed were so obvious when I watched this movie on bluray last night. I don't remember it being like that in the theater.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
I don't mind CGI if it can show something that would otherwise be impossible. But that has limits. Justice League was awful for a few reasons, but overuse of CGI was one of them. I remember walking out of the theater after seeing Transformers (2007) and thinking that if I didn't know it was fake a lot of the effects could pass for "real." I guess it's a necessary evil these days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
Just saw mission Impossible fallout again on Blu-ray. Really shows the difference in CGI. I posted above how many of the cars looked fake in an action scene in Deadpool 2. In MIF, Tom cruise is riding a motorcycle through the streets of Paris. Many of the cars have to be CGI, there is no way even Tom cruise was allowed to do some of the stunts they had in the scene for real, the cars had to be have added later. They looked completely real. You would never know they were CGI.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
Mac'nCheese said:
Just saw mission Impossible fallout again on Blu-ray. Really shows the difference in CGI. I posted above how many of the cars looked fake in an action scene in Deadpool 2. In MIF, Tom cruise is riding a motorcycle through the streets of Paris. Many of the cars have to be CGI, there is no way even Tom cruise was allowed to do some of the stunts they had in the scene for real, the cars had to be have added later. They looked completely real. You would never know they were CGI.
Click to expand...
How would you compare them with The Matrix Reloaded Highway scene?
 
Last edited:
Mac'nCheese said:
Forgot about that. Yeah the matrix scene was done really well, too!
Click to expand...
Another good example of both practical effects and CGI is The Island (2005) besides being a very enjoyable sci-fi thriller, is the highway chase scene.

Speaking of highway chase sequences: https://chrisoncars.com/20-greatest-movie-car-chases/

Regarding the absolute best practical effect highway chase scenes, it has to be Bullit (1968) and The Blues Brothers (1980), the latter is mind blowing as they destroyed over a 100 vehicles.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/65269/18-fun-facts-about-blues-brothers

FCD76D23-0E0C-4D71-A4E3-7FE3E796B9D8.jpeg

​
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: hawkeye_a, AngerDanger and Mac'nCheese
Huntn said:
Looking at some Avatar info and stumbled across this:

Alita: Battle Angel (Feb 2019) another James Cameron project, where the lead character is animated based on motion capture. Yes, I will have to see this in the theater. :)

Skin or CGI? Alita: Battle Angel takes manga to photorealistic levels
https://www.cnet.com/news/alita-battle-angel-takes-manga-to-photorealistic-levels/

Here’s Looking At You, Kid: ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Has Changed Alita’s Anime Eyes
http://sciencefiction.com/2018/11/19/looks-like-alita-battle-angel-changed-alitas-anime-eyes/
Click to expand...

Just returned from seeing Alita: Battle Angel, based on the Japanese Cyberpunk Manga series called Gunnm and give it a big thumbs up because it appealed to me on several levels. The story, a cyborg (biometric machine with a human brain) is found in a trash dump, by a doctor who provides artificial parts to, as far as I can tell, both cyborgs and humans. He rebuilds her body and activates her, but she has no memory of her past. It becomes evident quickly that she is a warrior and becomes a threat to the powers that exist in Iron Town and the ultimate power above in floating city of Zalem.

Some will argue the story is shallow or non-exististant, I will counter it take its time as the conflict in this story is a major element, resulting in many fighting sequence, that establish Alita’s abilities to prevail against bad odds, but it is not gratuitous, and they all serve a purpose, it is the different forces in this movie working out their differences. ;)

Caveat: Some of you will not like this movie. Also the primary story element is not resolved by the end of the movie, not even close. There will be a sequel.:)

DDF17529-3620-44AE-82E1-F5F32874D676.jpeg

This is not a real person​

And since I placed this review in the CGI thread, it’s because is has the best CGI for facial animation to date, not blue Na’vi, but someone who other than has largish anime eyes, looks very human in everything she does and with the knowledge of a lost martial art, and super human strength, it still looks realistic. The run down city Iron Town looks surprisingly good. And despite frantic action in both fight scenes and the Motoball Arena, the viewer stays grounded and it is easy to actually observe that action as more than a blur as was the case in some previous CGI films. I’ll have to watch it again. :)

Just found this: https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...review-robert-rodriguez-james-cameron/582742/
Most importantly, there’s action and lots of it—beautifully rendered, clean action, the likes of which only Cameron can provide. Though he’s only a producer and writer here, Cameron nearly drowns out Rodriguez’s directorial voice in the process of transposing the motion-capture technology he deployed so well in his last film (Avatar) onto this future-punk extravaganza. This is a world where people’s hands can turn into spinning chains or projectile spike-balls, and where Waltz’s character wields a 10-foot-tall hammer powered by a rocket engine. As in so many blockbusters of the moment, the set pieces have all the potential to be chaotic CGI messes. But Alita takes special care to have the choreography of its elaborate clashes make sense at every moment.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Mac'nCheese and AngerDanger
TonyC28 said:
I don't mind CGI if it can show something that would otherwise be impossible. But that has limits. Justice League was awful for a few reasons, but overuse of CGI was one of them. I remember walking out of the theater after seeing Transformers (2007) and thinking that if I didn't know it was fake a lot of the effects could pass for "real." I guess it's a necessary evil these days.
Click to expand...
Agree!
 
Huntn said:
Just returned from seeing Alita: Battle Angel, I give it a big thumbs up because it appealed to me on several levels. The story, a cyborg (biometric machine with a human brain) is found in a trash dump, by a doctor who provides artificial parts to, as far as I can tell, both cyborgs and humans. He rebuilds her body and activates her, but she has no memory of her past. It becomes evident quickly that she is a warrior.

Caveat: Some of you will not like this movie. Also the primary story element is not resolved by the end of the movie, not even close. There will be a sequel.:)

View attachment 822194
This is not a real person​

And since I placed this review in the CGI thread, it’s because is has the best CGI for facial animation to date, not blue Na’vi, but someone who other than has largish anime eyes, looks very human in everything she does and with the knowledge of a lost martial art, and super human strength, it still looks realistic. The run down city Iron Town looks surprisingly good. And despite frantic action in both fight scenes and the Motoball Arena, the viewer stays grounded and it is easy to actually observe that action as more than a blur as was the case in some previous CGI films. I’ll have to watch it again. :)

Just found this: https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...review-robert-rodriguez-james-cameron/582742/
Most importantly, there’s action and lots of it—beautifully rendered, clean action, the likes of which only Cameron can provide. Though he’s only a producer and writer here, Cameron nearly drowns out Rodriguez’s directorial voice in the process of transposing the motion-capture technology he deployed so well in his last film (Avatar) onto this future-punk extravaganza. This is a world where people’s hands can turn into spinning chains or projectile spike-balls, and where Waltz’s character wields a 10-foot-tall hammer powered by a rocket engine. As in so many blockbusters of the moment, the set pieces have all the potential to be chaotic CGI messes. But Alita takes special care to have the choreography of its elaborate clashes make sense at every moment.
Click to expand...

We saw it tonight, too. Really liked the setting/concept, and the CGI was incredible.

I just hope there actually is a sequel, as the box office results were kinda weak. If I don't get to see Zalem after all that, I'm gonna Panzer Kunst all over 20th Century Fox.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
shinji said:
We saw it tonight, too. Really liked the setting/concept, and the CGI was incredible.

I just hope there actually is a sequel, as the box office results were kinda weak. If I don't get to see Zalem after all that, I'm gonna Panzer Kunst all over 20th Century Fox.
Click to expand...
Well, there is the World box office, and while this is not on the same level as Avatar, if I recall correctly, word of mouth propelled it up.. Fingers crossed.
 
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)- This movie has it all, story, humor, camaraderie, adventure, great soundtrack, and outstanding CGI. The plaza on Xendar and live action in the city blends in seemlessly with it’s CGI surroundings.

2F7D0813-2C44-4AD6-BD7C-B13C9B716C6D.jpeg




35A35BFB-BECF-45A7-B374-01BF0CF2FE6A.jpeg

Rocket & Groot​
 
The cat in Captain Marvel was CGIed at least twice. It's noticeable if you are into looking for stuff like that.
 
Jumanji (1995)- A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind! :D One of my favorite movies, and one of the first that I remember with a combination of practical effects with impressive CGI. Imaginative story! Great performances all around.

3EA3840B-2C9D-4FEC-9687-902FBE6030F8.jpeg

 
Last edited:
Jurassic Park(1990)
This scene is one of my all-time favorite CGI scenes, probably because it combines practical effects, sounds, camera in conjunction with CGI. For something made in 1990, it seems to have aged really well.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
hawkeye_a said:
Jurassic Park(1990)
This scene is one of my all-time favorite CGI scenes, probably because it combines practical effects, sounds, camera in conjunction with CGI. For something made in 1990, it seems to have aged really well.

Click to expand...
My understanding is that this was a ground breaking movie, the first time that large animals were CGI’d seamlessly into the environment. The bronto pulling leaves off a tall tree, was accomplished with a crane doing the pulling. :)
 
I restarted The Expanse, space opera on Amazon (was ScyFy before Amazon picked it up) and have to say that the CGI in this show is top notch. Here is the battle between the Donager, the Martian flagship and unknown assailants. This would be a spoiler if you have not watched this and intend to. The video looks darker than it does on my TV. First 7 minutes, then it moves onto another Expanse battle, I believe,

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back