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I apologize in advance for this topic being unrelated to D&D, but seeing the Star Wars and Spiderman theads really made me start thinking. I know the latest buzz in movies has been CGI. Everything now is CGI this and CGI that. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm really beginning to get a little ticked at CGI. At times, it can produce amazing results in movies, but to much of it just makes me sick. Do we really need a CGI yoda, when he has been doing fine as a puppet in the last 4 Star Wars movies? What about the CGI Scooby in the upcoming Scooby Doo movie? (yech!!!) Take for example the famous T-1000 is T2. The T-1000 couldn't have been done in any other medium. That was a great example of early CGI. Now think of the CGI abomination known as Jar-Jar Binks! Now that CGI allows cheap and versatile special effects, Lucas and other movie makers are only thinking about whether or not such a CGI character is possible, not whether it is necessary. Methinks that Lucas added Jar-Jar to show off the capabilities of CGI rather than to make a real character.
Some of my favorite movies such as Aliens and the original Star Wars trilogy were filmed before the advent of CGI. They still have good special effects, without CGI.
Moreover, often CGI and real actors just don't combine. There just is something that doesn't look right with slick CGI images superimposed upon scenes of real actors and real backgrounds. There are plenty of cheap CGI scenes to demonstrate this.
Don't get me wrong. There are some places where CGI works really well, and I think that some all CGI movies such as Toy Story were great. However, too much CGI in the wrong places is just sickening.
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It's good that all this CGI is being used in such high-profile films. This is because it raises the bar, forcing CGI to continually improve and progress. At this rate, CGI will be next to impossible to pick out in 5 years or less; the only way to tell would be if something that obviously couldn't really exist or happen was on screen. Actually, that may be part of CGI's problem now; it's being used to portray stuff that couldn't possibly be in the real world, so it's easy to point at it and say CGI. There have been some good, subtle uses, like in Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates.
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I kinda see what you mean. After seeing trailers for AotC, I think it has a good shot at being nominated for the best animated film oscar next year.
But like it or hate it, CGI is here to stay. From what I understand, Yoda kicks butt in the new film, and he pulls off some interesting acrobatics that you couldn't do with puppets.
I agree that there is good CGI and bad CGI. But in the good 'ol days there was always good fx and bad fx. Thanks to CGI, there has been an explosion of cool films that could have never been made, namely, LOTR.
Even though most of us hate Jar Jar, I have to admit, the character CGI was done quite well. If Jar Jar had been done with a suit and mechanical mask, he would have looked like a silly muppet.
Originally posted by ColonelHardisson There have been some good, subtle uses, like in Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates.
I agree Colonel. Thanks to CGI, films like these would have been extremely difficult to make.
Some of the best CGI effects are the subtle ones, like in any Bob Zemekis film in the past 8 years. Remember how they erased Gary Sinise's legs in Forrest Gump?
Well, I think CGI is good. Without CGI, we couldn't have such wonderful things as this forum, for example. Then there's things like shopping carts, search engines, and classifieds, none of which would be possible without CGI.
__________________ "This is the genius of my enemy! Lock a door against him and all that happens is that he learns first how to pick a lock and second how to build a better one against you!"
Originally posted by shadow I apologize in advance for this topic being unrelated to D&D, but seeing the Star Wars and Spiderman theads really made me start thinking. I know the latest buzz in movies has been CGI.
I for one, like what or where CGI is going. I think it is true that the truely fantastic (cave trolls) ( flaming eye) are awesome and we know that it is CGI because we know they do not truelly exist. I agree about the subteldies of CGi.... i.e. Private Ryan and Gump....
Like the Colonel, in 5 years or so we may not know what is actually real!
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Originally posted by Randolpho Well, I think CGI is good. Without CGI, we couldn't have such wonderful things as this forum, for example. Then there's things like shopping carts, search engines, and classifieds, none of which would be possible without CGI.
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There are sentences, however, where they really shouldn't be used: Piratecat looked over the computer-generated, politically correct, chaotic good player character that he had written on his own personal computer...
__________________ "The best gnomes were in Dark Sun." --GRAOUH !!! (WotC boards)
Originally posted by shadow I apologize in advance for this topic being unrelated to D&D, but seeing the Star Wars and Spiderman theads really made me start thinking.
ahhh but what of the horrid D&D movie it HAD CGI and so therefore you are now slightly on topic
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Originally posted by Darkness Heh. I love acronyms!
There are sentences, however, where they really shouldn't be used: Piratecat looked over the computer-generated, politically correct, chaotic good player character that he had written on his own personal computer...
You've been sitting on that for a while now, waiting for the perfect time to use it, right?
pure cgi is crap.. look at movies like the original star treks.. the ships looked so real because they used actual models.. all of this pure cg crap is just that.. crap.. (my word for the day)
its laziness and cheapness and i'm sick of it
i refuse to see spiderman because of this very reason.. if i want to watch a cartoon, i'll watch a cartoon
No... CGI means "Common Gateway Interface" in the internet world; it has absolutely nothing to do with graphics. It's that stuff you use to send information to CGI scripts written in such varied languages as Python, Perl, C, or yes, even PHP.
See up at the top of your browser window where it says "Address"? See that part that says, "showthread.php?s=&threadid=12196"? *That* is CGI. Not *all* of CGI, but part of it. See all the buttons you can push and text boxes you can type in? Without CGI, those wouldn't be part of HTML.
It was a bad pun, I know, but it had to be done.
__________________ "This is the genius of my enemy! Lock a door against him and all that happens is that he learns first how to pick a lock and second how to build a better one against you!"
You've been sitting on that for a while now, waiting for the perfect time to use it, right?
Almost... Truth be told, the "PC" word plays crop up in Nutkinland every now and again.
The first time I did it, though, I didn't think of "personal computer" and when Ruin Explorer pointed it out to me and remarked that he found it strange that I managed to miss it even though I obviously was sitting before one, the word "D'oh!" was all could think of for quite some time...
(edit - And when Liquide mentioned Computer-Generated in this thread, undreamed-of possibilities were suddenly available to me... )
__________________ "The best gnomes were in Dark Sun." --GRAOUH !!! (WotC boards)
Last edited by Darkness; 6th May 2002 at 01:40 AM..
![[OT] Down with CGI!](http://www.enworld.org/forum/iconimages/media-lounge/ot-down-cgi_ltr.gif)
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