With amazing computer generated effects in movies becoming increasingly popular, it is often easy to overlook the other uses of computer generated imagery or CGI (and there are many other uses). With that in mind, here are 12 cool ways CGI technology has been used recently, from cinema to cranioplasty.
1) Richard Parker
Richard Parker is the name of the CGI tiger in the 2012 movie “Life of Pi”. Beautifully animated, it is pretty much impossible to tell which scenes in the movie featured Richard, and which ones featured King, the live tiger who was used for a few scenes in the movie. This kind of animation could have a more far-reaching potential than just creating awesome effects for movies. Recently, discussion of just how well animals are actually treated in movies has been fairly prevalent. Although “Life of Pi” did use a real tiger for a few of the scenes, as CGI technology for building realistic animals becomes more advanced, it might be possible to replace all live animals in movies with animated versions.
2) Artistic imagery
Christophe Huet is an artist who uses a variety of techniques to create amazing 3D images and surreal photo manipulations, like this striking Perrier ad that instantly brings Salvador Dali to mind.
3) Implant Surgery
One of the many medical uses of CGI is in the creation and preparation of implants. For example, it can be used in the preparation of cranial implants. Cranial implant surgery is generally used for victims of accidents who have suffered head injury and trauma. Since these types of injuries can be fatal, it is important to have high-quality implants. Using CGI, surgeons can create patient-specific implants, as opposed to the implants made by surgeons based on their own clinical experience, which were used before the technology was more widely available.
4) Davy Jones
Davy Jones was one of the best characters in “Pirates of the Caribbean: at World’s End” and his entire exterior was CGI. Just by looking at him, you can tell he wasn’t easy to create.
Still not convinced? Watch this video explaining the animation process:
5) This scene for a Nordic Subaru commercial
Graphics for car commercials are generally pretty impressive, but this one still stands out. This entire scene is CGI, created using 3ds Max, Vray, and After Effects. It was made by Air CGI Production Company, which makes plenty of other cool CGI videos and images.
6) “Transformers”
The CGI effects in this movie were spot-on. Creating animations that change regular cars into towering transformers at the blink of an eye is no easy task: Optimus Prime alone was made up of 10,000 individual parts, and the rendering of each frame took Industrial Light & Magic 38 hours.
7) Trial aids
The Use of CGI to provide an aid to the prosecution in courtrooms has been a subject of debate, especially since studies show that a jury is highly likely to believe the story illustrated by the animation. Precedents have been set, however, for allowing CGI into courtrooms, provided that it is thoroughly explained to the jury that the animation is not proof, and it is a pretty great tool for explaining exactly how a crime could have been committed. For example, it can be hard for a jury to picture just how a car crash could have occurred by listening to an attorney, or even a witness, explaining it. With the help of an animation, the details of how it could have happened become a lot clearer.
8) “World of Warcraft”
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGS, are incredibly popular ways to spend time online. Consistently getting top reviews, “World of Warcraft” is one of the most popular MMORPGS out there, and for good reason. Its use of CGI to create an incredibly realistic fantasy world makes for a game that is both addicting and beautiful to look at. In fact, World of Warcraft has become so popular that a WoW-themed movie is scheduled to be released in 2016.
9) Filling in for actors
“The Fast and the Furious 7”, and the “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” both recently suffered filming setbacks with the deaths of actors Paul Walker and Philip Seymour Hoffman, respectively. Both movies were reported to begin using CGI versions of the actors to fill in for them in not-yet-filmed scenes. While the ”Hunger Games” will be going down a different path, FaF will be featuring a CGI Paul Walker when it is released in April 2015.
10) “Avatar”
The beautiful landscape and realistic dinosaurs in this movie were only part of what made the special effects so magical. The statuesque blue Na’vi people were created with strikingly accurate facial movements, using some incredibly innovative facial-motion recognition techniques.
11) “Second Life”
Created by Linden Labs and launched in 2003, “Second Life” is a virtual world that currently has over one million active users, and about 13,000 new users every day. “Second Life” is different from MMORPGS such as “World of Warcraf”t in that it does not have objectives, and the user is not able to win or lose. Rather, it is supposed to be used as an extension of the user’s non-virtual world. Not only does second life have its own built-in graphics, it also allows users to build their own 3D virtual objects, and even has its own simple scripting language, which its occupants can use to add interactive functions to their objects.
12) Machinima films
Machinima, a combination of the words “machine” and “cinema” is a genre of film-making where the creator makes a movie entirely out of footage from a video game. Machinima has had a dedicated following for a long time, but it has recently been becoming slightly more mainstream. For example, in 2010, Lawless director John Hillcoat released this short machinima film based on the game “Red Dead Redemption”.
By MaryElizabeth Koepele
Advertisement
