Shhh, I'm hunting Grendels

[andrewducker]

Beowulf Trailer here.
What on earth is the point of making an entirely CGI movie and then making the characters look like the actors? You can make them look like _anything_, so why make them less realistic versions of themselves?

Also - I've seen good CGI. Frankly, I've seen CGI so good I didn't know it was CGI. So why does this look like CGI?
(cheers to johnbobshaun for the link)

Comments

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

It's the old "using technology until you don't notice it any more" thing. When they can CGI believable fire or water effects I get impressed.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

This is something I've sort of mentioned (angrily) before.

Personally, I've very rarely seen CGI (done for realism) which is genuinely good - just stuff which is good at its time.

However, why this push for realism, as you say? Fine, use it for things you can't do/show in real life.... but with very, very few exceptions, CGI backgrounds/monsters/effects that -could- easily be done without CGI are a lot less convincing that actual physical sets/guys in rubber suits or animatronics/explosions.

Look at that heinous CGI fire/explosions that -still- gets used. If you're watching cheap TV shows or straight to DVD stuff, sure... but in blockbusters?

Each time I see actors painfully interacting with objects and/or creatures which are patently not there, it just pisses me off. It's less convincing than Knightmare. If you're making a multi million dollar film, surely you could afford a few sets, perhaps?

[andrewducker]

See, I know I've seen good CGI, because I've later found out that some things were CGI that I had no idea weren't real when I saw them.

Lots of it? Great big pants.

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

And on top of that stop-frame animation when done well still takes CGI outside and pulls faces at it. I mean everytime "Clash of The Titans" is on and I'm near a telly I have to watch the "Children of The Hydra's Teeth" sequence every single time. Even now I feel that has not been bested either by SFX or acting with imaginary fiends. You can almost imagine they got some real animated skeletons in from the local Dungeon Keeper and had to keep reminding them that it's only playing...

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember the last time they tried to use computer generated human beings was with the Final Fantasy movie. All the characters were CGI and whilst some did look almost human, many did not. At the time I think it was an experiment to see how good CGI had become. It will be interesting to see how much it has improved since 2001.

on CGI

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

I have yet to see Transformers. I am informed the effects are awesomely impressive.