Main bulk of essay

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is not a new creation, it was used in the 1970’s to train pilots (Yan, 1985). The technology has advanced since then though, in his report Yan, 1985 states that the technology was “effective for certain simple training missions” but also stated that the technology was “incapable of such sophisticated training tasks as terrain following and other tactical manoeuvres”. Yan, 1985 also indicated that “another deficiency was the inability of these systems to transition from one level of detail to the next one in a smooth manner”, this made the sequence unrealistic. By the mid 1980’s advances in algorithms and electronics meant that a lot of the initial problems were corrected (Yan, 1985). More recently CGI has been used within the film industry, some films have tried to rely on stuntmen instead of CGI; such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, James Bond and the Quantum of Solace, Die Hard and Rambo (Weinman, 2008) where as others prefer to rely on CGI; such as Spiderman, The Matrix and the remake of Knight Rider (Weinman, 2008). Stunt co-ordinator Roberto Lopez claims that although CGI has become useful it has “gotten outta hand” (Weinman, 2008). In Weinman’s report Roberto Lopez is quoted as saying "The Matrix used CGI, but it took a lot of time with the actors, so you could actually see the actors' faces and see them going through the paces. But a movie like Blade 2 tried to do entirely digital fight scenes, and it looked very bad." Although there are films which prefer to use CGI instead of stuntmen James Logan, a stuntman was “asked to name a movie that eliminates stunt performers altogether” and is quoted as saying that he cannot name any film that has eliminated stuntmen (Weinman, 2008). Even though films still use stuntmen Roberto Lopez is also quoted as saying that it is getting harder to find work even though the work is still there, most of it has been replaced with CGI. Another point Weinman makes in his report is that one benefit of Computer Generated Imagery as a replacement to stuntmen is that they don’t have to pay as much insurance for big stunts; this can be very costly for film makers but CGI eliminates this cost almost entirely. Weinman also states in his report that even “with the technical standards of TV improving every year, stunt work is the only element that is actually worse than it was 20 years ago”.

Even though many films are opting to use CGI along with or as a replacement to stuntmen there are certain problems to overcome when using CGI within films (Cohen, 2008). When creating objects such as cars which are known to have shiny surfaces, the light has to be reflected just right in order to make the scene realistic (Cohen, 2008). This was one of the two main problems found by Scott Farrar a vfx supervisor who worked on the Transformers film (Cohen, 2008). In Cohen’s report he quotes Scott Farrar as saying “reflective objects reflect the world around them, so that’s how you light them”. In the debate as to whether to use stuntmen or CGI, the film Transformers uses CGI because it would be impossible due to the nature of the characters to use stuntmen. There are, however, “techniques for approximating the common global illumination for RVIs [Real Video Image] and CGIs [Computer Generated Imagery], assuming some elements of the scene geometry of the real world and common viewing parameters are known” (Fournier, A. et al., 1993). Although films like Transformers rely heavily on CGI, James Logan once said “CG-laden films like Transformers and Titanic employed hundreds of stuntpeople. Maybe thousands.” (Weinman, 2008) and Weinman added to this that “the new idea is to take stunts and enhance them with computer effects, or use human stuntpeople as just one of the many things we see in a larger special-effects canvas.”

Although the argument mainly revolves around semi-CGI films and non-CGI films there are some totally CGI films which may use people to create realistic movements for the characters in the films. One film which is totally Computer Generated Imagery and that uses no RVI (Real Video Image) is Surfs Up (Cohen, 2008). Surfs Up, although completely Computer Generated Imagery, still had to overcome similar issues to a film using partial CGI such as Transformers.