Tuesday, 8 December 2015

Limitation: Animation meets live action

Computer generated animation gave birth to a new generation of live action film films and unlocked the possibilities for writers and directors that were once closed to them. Animation has given artists and auteurs alike the ability to create imagery that could not exist in the real world and tell incredible stories through this limitless scope animation provides.

Live action film has used animation for a long time to help tell stories for example the great Ray Harryhausen created many stop motion special effects for block buster films. Unfortunately these kind of special effects quickly became dated with emerging camera technologies and film makers started looking to computers for the next generation of special effects.

In 1972 the westworld became the first feature length film to feature computer generated animation. This was the start of a revolution in film making. Most blockbuster films these days will contain some for of CG animation and many feature it heavily. The highest grossing film of 2015 was "jurassic world" , a film without CG animation could not be created. All of the dinosaurs where created using 3D animation. The high poly models and complex texturing make animated characters look like they belong in the real world. The technology is always evolving as computer become more powerful the limitations of 3D animations is a list growing ever smaller.














A problem this has created is film makers have taken CGI as a tool and seriously overused it. Its much easier and often cheaper to do something in CG that it would be as a prop.  The over glossy approaching of green screen everything such as the films of Michael bay lack any kind of substance and almost feel like an excuse for a technical excise. Actors often work better with physical sets rather than working with green screening and I've found films that try to have as many physical sets as possible feel a lot more genuine. A great example of this is interstellar which used used CGI a lot more conservatively than it could of. Nolan pushed for as many physical sets as possible for actors to interact with and the result was one of the best sci-fi films of a generation.



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