Strange Days...moving on...

I must admit, I am very glad I posed this question (Strange Days). For better or for worse I appreciate any feedback possible. Well done so far...any reply either to or for the original question is respected. How about a new subject?

Would you rather have the special effects of the late seventies (i.e. 1977 Stars Wars on) until, say (as I refer to the new TRULY digital age when the movie Twister came out) nowadays? In my personal opinion, blue/green screens and models produced a better effect than this ridicuoulous crap we see these days (exemption: The Fifth Element, or Starship Troopers, for example...in other words, high budget films with actors with, oddly enough, people who can act...well, sort of in ST)

I can sincerely say without remorse or embarrasement that the days of realistic special effects are gone. In ten years perhaps we can make a Smeigel (sp?) that look relatively realistic, but until then...folks, I'll take the models.

Let's see the the responses roll in...ideas, questions, comments, concerns?

CGI looks is appropriate to budget of the particular movie and quality of hired FX studio. Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park were the first movies whcih showed us digital FX in full parade and they look good even now. Where, f.e. FX in True Lies, first Spider Man and even some recent B-grade scifi flicks look funny.

But when you have animatronic models and dolls, their interaction with the world looks better, they have "depth" , they don't look like flat pictures.

Ive heard that makers of Aliens vsPredator movie did use more animatronic models than CGI, they prolly know what they are doing. CGI is good for creating fascinating landscapes, but when you have to make detailed shots of monsters, puppets are better choice I think.

CGI is interesting to use for some FX, like replacing matte painting. Sadly, they are using it for almost everything. Each frame is filled with so much CGI that it's like watching animation instead of life-action movies. Yes, I'm afraid to report that the days when I was mesmerized by spaceships and other Sci-Fi devices (all once models) are completely over. From now on I have to get by with only the old movies.

CGI took away the magic of Yoda in Star Wars. And everyone seems to be perfectly happy with that, as it appears that younger generations treat Lucas like a god. They even applaud when CGI Yoda jumps up and down like a rabbit when he duels Dooku. These are all signs that the future looks grim. Intelligent Sci-Fi movies like Blade Runner and Gatacca are being punished at the box-office. Which studio in their right mind still wants to make them?

I think CGI is over-used - so much has been used in the new Star Wars films that I'm beginning to think that they may as well have done the whole thing in CGI and not bothered with the live action at all.

I think the balance has gone too much the other way. We used to have live-action films with a few overlayed CGI effects - now we have CGI films with a few over-layed live-action sequences. For me the Matrix films were ruined by over-use of CGI - there was so much going on that you couldn't take it all in and therefore a lot of the scenes lost their impact.

At some point they will have progressed character animation to a level that will be indistinguishable from real-life - but it won't be animation as we know it today, it will be virtual actors with AI existing in a virtual environments. They already have this sort of set up today - materials such as cloth no longer have to be animated, they just 'dress' the virtual actors and let the computers calculate the movement of folds and creases as the character moves. What they need to do now is give the virtual 'actors' more independence through intelligence.

The real good thing about the CGI technology today is that you can now produce some pretty convincing images on your own desktop - the ability for almost anyone to produce scenes from their own imagination is an exciting prospect. Films that Hollywood wouldn't touch with a barge-pole can be created by almost anyone with the time and patience to do so - I'd rather see a totally CGI movie of something original than the re-hashed live-action 'blockbusters' that hollywood continue to churn out.

Like many BR's before in this topic have stated, the CGI was waaaay over-done. I will never forget when I was in the theatre watching Star Wars II.

I live in Hamilton, New Zealand, and unfortunately the release of most films comes to us a few months after it hits the US and Europe. Finally, once I got to see it I was very stoked. Then I saw it. Someone before had mentioned that younger generations thought it was brilliant and that Lucas was a God. I agree whole-heartedly with that. I can't put these emotions into words however. I write in my spare time, but I cannot convey these feelings on "paper." I swear though, of the people in my generation (i'm 27) we were in a state of absolute shock when Yoda was jumping around like a "rabbit." It is funny that someone previously had mentioned this, because when I started this topic this is the scene that was in the back of my mind. When he started to jump around, however, that is when (after much derision and unwillingness) that the days of realistic effects were gone. The hell with that, I strike that. In that case, it wasn't so much the effects that had shocked us, it was the fact the Lucas would allow such a thing to happen to Yoda. I have never read the books, but I must imagine that it was never quite exactly like THAT. For me, that was the day of dawning.

On another note, someone had previously mentioned T2, and you are correct, that is by far the most advanced CGI for its time. I remember our physics teacher showing us bits and pieces of that in school back in, what, 91'? That, in my opinion was the PERFECT balance between CGI and humans. When I mentioned Twister, I will never forget the impact it had when it came out in NZ. It was probably, in my opinion, the absolute maximum CGI can take in a film and still be remotely realistic. Very borderline. Anything else, and your basically watching a Pixar film, Star Wars included.

So where am I going with this? I'm not sure exactly. I guess I am waiting for more feedback to see if I am crazy or that I am not alone in this world (other than three other BR's). I have not yet seen Predator vs. Alien, but I will now that someone had mentioned they used a lot more amnitronic models. Funny, I have a degree in mechanical engineering, maybe someday I'll make my own company that will bring back the "Golden Age."

i personally (as a CGI model maker and a movie maker) think that models and puppets and suits and stuff is better than CGI. it may be more expensive, but it looks as real as you can get. i still think yoda should be all puppet (not cgi/puppet). nothing is more real than something real, like models.

"Mama says CGI is the Devil..."



lol!

There will come a big latex puppet renaissance in few years, believe you me!