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Technically speaking whats the best CGI in a film today?

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WrikaWrek said:
Dude, TRON sucks come on.
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As flawed as Tron Legacy is, I still have a major soft spot for it. Young-Flynn aside, I love love love the look of the film. The architecture, the unexpected textures, the reflections, the lighting. I just love it.

I also love what they did with the major action sequences. Each was so fully realized. I remember getting so pumped in the theater during the dogfight sequence. Also, those stunts during the disc battle...

1e2t13.gif



Also, although it's maybe not directly relevant to this thread, the mix of music and visuals is just so enjoyable. It's the sort of movie I always want to have going in the background when I'm in my apartment. Just crank up the bass and enjoy
 
StudioTan said:
neytiri-beautiful-warrior-in-avatar-wide.jpg


Mind pointing out the flaws in this? Aside from the abnormal size of the eyes, if you told someone who didn't know anything about Avatar that this was a person with makeup and prosthetics they would believe you.
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I never noticed that the braids actually have the burned tips at the end. As a black man that's lived around and with black women this is a great touch of realism that I would have never expected from Hollywood that's (lets be honest) is white. Great job!
 
mckmas8808 said:
I never noticed that the braids actually have the burned tips at the end. As a black man that's lived around and with black women this is a great touch of realism that I would have never expected from Hollywood that's (lets be honest) is white. Great job!
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CG artists generally are always pushing for as realistic look as possible, so it shouldn't be that surprising. VFX has never really been stereotypical "Hollywood" in that sense.
 
Tom_Cody said:
As flawed as Tron Legacy is, I still have a major soft spot for it. Young-Flynn aside, I love love love the look of the film. The architecture, the unexpected textures, the reflections, the lighting. I just love it.

I also love what they did with the major action sequences. Each was so fully realized. I remember getting so pumped in the theater during the dogfight sequence. Also, those stunts during the disc battle...

1e2t13.gif



Also, although it's maybe not directly relevant to this thread, the mix of music and visuals is just so enjoyable. It's the sort of movie I always want to have going in the background when I'm in my apartment. Just crank up the bass and enjoy
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Completely agreed.
 
To me the king is the Fifth Element. For some reason I never pay much attention to the CGI. I accept it completely doo doo ship and all. Yet at the same time all the physical props and costumes stand out as silly and fake. I love that messy ass film.
 
satriales said:
They talked about it in the podcast

The bit that is CGI is the two guys that get run over. The car itself is real but the two people are CGI as it'd be too dangerous to have stuntmen do it. It looks amazing though and they even added a CGI bandana floating down to earth after the crash.

The shooting is also real except for some CGI blood splatter.
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There is a DVD extra on the making of this scene. Couldn't find it with a quick youtube search though
 
Leona Lewis said:
Obligatory Davy Jones/Avatar mention. Transformers is impressive from an animation standpoint, but technically it's a mess of information overload.

The food in Ratatouille was a revelation, the first time CG ever impressed me. I wanted to jump into that world so freakin' bad, a feeling which no animated film before or since has inspired in me.

2dtnmoo.gif
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The environments in Ratatouille are truly something to behold. They have such richness and warmth, they're better than photorealistic.
 
Davey Jones - 1 Character
Avatar - the Whole movie.


Avatar wins by default because it took the concept of doing such a good cg with 1 character and applied it to the whole movie and all its characters with even better quality
 
Ahhh, Internet. Where nothing can ever merely be "good" it either has to be the pinnacle of the medium or it's a steaming pile of shit. Half you guys must see two movies a decade with that attitude.

In terms of most effective CGI, yeah thats a tough one, Avatar, TF3... I kind of lean TF3 on this one, despite the fact that hard surfaces are "easier" to generate than organic ones. Still, one thing I don't enjoy about the TF3 CGI is that while it is technically very proficient, I have a hard time watching it. Things are TOO detailed, and it is too hard to discern what is going on half the time (though this was more of a problem in the first two movies). TF is one of the few franchises I actually found to be more enjoyable on the small screen, I just find it easier to watch on it.
 
icarus-daedelus said:
I would hardly call the fire extinguisher scene understated in any way, shape, or form. Looks pretty fakey up close, too, assuming you pay attention and don't wuss out and cover your eyes during it.
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Looked amazing when I saw it, left me with a 'how the hell did they do that?!'. Sure the camera cuts away for most of it and I didn't put my nose up against the screen to examine pixels but I thought it was really effective up until the obvious dummy end.

Also, CGI dick. I did cover my eyes during that scene though.
 
Tom_Cody said:
As flawed as Tron Legacy is, I still have a major soft spot for it. Young-Flynn aside, I love love love the look of the film. The architecture, the unexpected textures, the reflections, the lighting. I just love it.

I also love what they did with the major action sequences. Each was so fully realized. I remember getting so pumped in the theater during the dogfight sequence. Also, those stunts during the disc battle...

http://i54.tinypic.com/1e2t13.gif[/img


Also, although it's maybe not directly relevant to this thread, the mix of music and visuals is just so enjoyable. It's the sort of movie I always want to have going in the background when I'm in my apartment. Just crank up the bass and enjoy[/QUOTE]
Yup I agree with everything you said (even the last bit!). Though the choreography looks a bit goofy during some of the hand-to-hand stuff, certainly nothing too bad.

I was surprised that I wasn't pulled out of the movie when the dogfight came up. I can't remember the last time I dug a "CGI roller-coaster" like that. After being disappointed by heavy use of CGI time and time again (mainly in big action scenes like that) Legacy felt like a breath of fresh air.

The best ways I've heard people on GAF describe it is "best music video ever" and "laser christmas", sums it up pretty well. Just a simple, fun and ABOVE ALL stylish movie, we don't get enough of those!
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JdFoX187 said:
Well part of the reason you notice it's CG is because it's so alien. It's rare that you CG that looks so realistic you think it's physical. Even Davey Jones has that look the last time I watched it.
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This was posted already, but needs to be posted again.

Zodiac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT491ctM8Kk

A true example of realistic CGI, which many didn't even notice in the movie. Unlike in Avatar, where everything seemed phony and plastic. And it's got nothing to do with being alien, as Jurassic Park's dinosaurs could be called pretty alien as well.
 
JeSmX.jpg


I just got the bluray of Dark of the Moon in from Netflix last night and I now think that definitely should included on any shortlist. The bots look scarily real in almost every shot.
 
People seem to forget that the whole world in Avatar is CGI, and not only the characters.

Even if you didn't like the movie, the CGI is outstanding.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Also, if you haven't visited our homepage in a while you should check it out for the neat before/after effect you can see on the front page.

www.ilm.com

http://i53.tinypic.com/20gmv0l.png[img][/QUOTE]
I had hoped that at least parts of Iron Mans suit were real :*(
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Tom_Cody said:
I just got the bluray of Dark of the Moon in from Netflix last night and I now think that definitely should included on any shortlist. The bots look scarily real in almost every shot.
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Does this take place in a world without shadows?
 
Fernando Rocker said:
People seem to forget that the whole world in Avatar is CGI, and not only the characters.

Even if you didn't like the movie, the CGI is outstanding.
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I find characters and animals horrible . As mentioned above animals have wired plastic shine and they are basically earth animal with one extra leg. I liked vegitation though that was beautiful. People i do not like much because they had faces and human body already to build something on to. I hope next avatar is not under water kind of thing becuase the one scene where hero jumps in to the fall and in the water is very very bad.
 
For me, its Pirates of the Caribbean and in particular Davy Jones

Transformers and Avatar looks great in still images, as good if not better but i find transformers to be overwhelming, you can't even appreciate how good it can look and thats basically the only good thing about it

Avatar looks amazing, the plant life especially and as i mentioned still images like the ones posted of the na'vi themselves up close, but when watching it recently, they look a bit plastic and the animations aren't as believable / fluid as i had remembered

But i think just for the fact that Davy Jones looks so good as to appear realistic; as if to blend into the suspended disbelief of the film, i think its the best CGI i've ever seen as it meets the performance and embellishes upon it to create a believable character

edit;
zodiac was a good catch earlier, didn't realise that either until watching the extras
 
People say Avatar a lot and while technically, they're right, my mind doesn't allow me to believe in the realism of the Na'vi character models regardless of how many polygons they're pushing. Also, in some of the scenes the faces of the Na'vi are too smooth to look real. If they had more pores (without overdoing it), it would improve their realism. Still wouldn't believe it completely, but it's a step in creating more believable CGI because real people (and be association, humanoids) have pores. We can always tell when someone is airbrushed.

Edit: The natural environments, on the other hand, sans the glowing things, are indistinguishable from reality, especially the leaves.

Others in the thread pointed out Zodiac, which had way more CGI than I was aware of. By that metric (of being aware), I would say Zodiac is probably better than Avatar. When you don't even know that something is CG, then the digital effects guys have done their job well.

People brought a lot of irrelevant info into this thread. This wasn't a thread about the quality of the story or acting or box office numbers or film budget. You don't say that District 9 had the best CGI based on budget. That's the "AMD" argument.
"Sure, this processor is a piece of shit, but I only paid a hundred bucks for it so AMD ftw."
 
Bombadil said:
Others in the thread pointed out Zodiac, which had way more CGI than I was aware of. By that metric (of being aware), I would say Zodiac is probably better than Avatar. When you don't even know that something is CG, then the digital effects guys have done their job well.

People brought a lot of irrelevant info into this thread. This wasn't a thread about the quality of the story or acting or box office numbers or film budget. You don't say that District 9 had the best CGI based on budget. That's the "AMD" argument.
"Sure, this processor is a piece of shit, but I only paid a hundred bucks for it so AMD ftw."
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My thing is that Avatar not only does the obvious stuff very well, but it handles the stuff that we don't think of as CGI very well too.

There's nothing in Zodiac that isn't or couldn't be easily replicated in Avatar, so I can't really be too impressed by it except that it's based ona real setting.
 
I just rewatched Matrix Reloaded yesterday...that Smith fight is still as horrible as ever. It switches from looking like a 360 game to live action.
 
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