Computer Generated Images: Difference between revisions

Computer generated graphics have been a revolution in film making. From a slow start in the late seventies, through the eighties where they were seen as a less than fully practical utility, to the nineties and beyond when they started to become nearly ubiquitous in all blockbusters and even many less [[Special Effects]] heavy films and become cheap enough to appear on TV.

 

 

For this reason some film makers have had a sort of [[Hype Aversion]] to the use of computer generated effects, proudly sticking to [[Practical Effects]] while others have leapt on it as a chance to realise what they were imagining all those years before.

* CGI caught on much sooner in broadcasting than it did in film, largely due to the smaller budgets involved, and most of its appearances on TV were in advertising, [[Station Identification]] and educational shows like ''[[The Electric Company]]'' due to its strange but eye-catching appearance. The first computers used in video work were analog machines like Scanimate, which were in turn based on the switcher consoles used in TV studios (some of which later incorporated Scanimate-like effects such as picture-in-picture). Later on, as digital computers became more capable, animation from companies like Cranston/Csuri, Digital Productions and [[Dreamworks Animation|Pacific Data Images]] became common, as did special-effects systems like the Chyron and the Paintbox. TV commercials are also what kept [[Pixar]] alive in the years between leaving ILM and the premiere of ''[[Toy Story]]''.

* 1990s TV classic ''[[Babylon 5]]'' was only made possible by using CGI. Having received heavily burned fingers due to the massive budget overruns of ''[[V]]'', [[Warner Brothers]] was not willing to stump up a mega budget for JMS's epic space opera, and using CGI was literally the only way the show could get made.

 

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