The Marvel / Disney effect, CGI is so commoditized that you have far less truly passionate, highly skilled individuals working on CGI as an 'art', rather than to knock another scene out the door.
“I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
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Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#22It’s not the technology. It’s lack of vision, talent and passion combined with executive meddling. Most directors hired consistently these days are low talent “yes people” who won’t rattle cages and will do what the execs want, produce milquetoast inoffensive movies that can be successfully marketed to China.
Execs probably feel CGI crews are 'easier' to manage too, given the unionisation of a lot of traditional film set crews.
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#23The Marvel / Disney effect, CGI is so commoditized that you have far less truly passionate, highly skilled individuals working on CGI as an 'art', rather than to knock another scene out the door.
I think it’s more about the business need rather than the art. Many blockbusters these days are in a pretty extreme crunch. The business “can’t afford” to release late, and there’s so much CGI that everything needs to get done as quickly as possible.
I’m sure many (most?) CGI artists would enjoy taking more time, but the business need (and their need for a job) trumps that. You can draw parallels to software development there too
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#24All the examples look to me like they might have been made to intentionally look like theatrical back drops.
Yeah, this looks like a very deliberate effect to me. I don't think I'm a fan of it, but this isn't what trying and failing to blend the background and foreground looks like.
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#25Software development advances have enabled worse and smaller teams of artists to produce sorta publisher-wise good-enough CGI, in greater volumes than ever before. It's essentially the same thing we're seeing in e.g. web/service/app development: An explosion in the number of people working in the field along with an explosion in the tool space "advancements". I find it all kind of depressing.
Alternatively, you could see it as a good thing because more people can access a previously “elite” field. There are so many examples of this. The alternative is that fewer people who might be excellent can’t overcome the barrier to entry. The raw number of very good coders or CGI artists now is probably significantly higher now that more people can access the field.
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#26It’s not the technology. It’s lack of vision, talent and passion combined with executive meddling. Most directors hired consistently these days are low talent “yes people” who won’t rattle cages and will do what the execs want, produce milquetoast inoffensive movies that can be successfully marketed to China.
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Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#27The Marvel / Disney effect, CGI is so commoditized that you have far less truly passionate, highly skilled individuals working on CGI as an 'art', rather than to knock another scene out the door.
If you actually follow any CG or effects artists and listen to them discuss their work, you'll find they are extremely passionate and skilled, and tend to care a great deal about the quality of their work. However, they also aren't at all in control of the time or budgetary constraints they work under.
You also have to consider that 99% of digital effects nowadays are unnoticed because they supplement the scene (like vehicles or crowds or physics simulations) rather than act as a point of focus. You don't notice all of the things that work right, you just notice the things that don't. And nine times out of ten, that's just because of crunch.
These people are the hackers of their domain and it's disappointing to see people on HN dismiss them as hacks simply because they work for large studios. Meanwhile having FAANG on your resume in any capacity automatically signals you as an elite among elites.
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#28Disagree. CGI is getting "easier" in the sense that even low budget films can do things that used to only be reserved for large budgets. And there's so much CGI in use that you don't notice these days because it's so seamless / not the center of attention (e.g. check out this before/after about Wolf of Wall Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP2sJqoZD7g ). But at the end of the day, you still need good direction…
>Disagree. CGI is getting "easier" in the sense that even low budget films can do things that used to only be reserved for large budgets (...) But at the end of the day, you still need good direction and editing
What you disagree with? Because that's exactly what the OP said: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.” (the tech being CGI tech, and the first reference to CGI meaning "CGI as applied by most current films/directors").
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#29Disagree. CGI is getting "easier" in the sense that even low budget films can do things that used to only be reserved for large budgets. And there's so much CGI in use that you don't notice these days because it's so seamless / not the center of attention (e.g. check out this before/after about Wolf of Wall Street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP2sJqoZD7g ). But at the end of the day, you still need good direction…
I think you can see a similar effect in the music industry. Technology has practically eliminated the barrier to entry for recording. On top of that, sales are down, recording budgets are slashed. Why spend valuable studio time tweaking amp settings and mic positioning when you can record direct and scroll through a list of plugins - or so the logic goes.
To be frank, "tweaking amp settings and mic positioning" was never a requisite for good music.
Just an obsession, inspired by the Beatles and later bands "use the studio as an instrument", that often worked to the detriment of traditional musical skills, and is part of what turned the focus from songwriting to production, that enabled today's "just scroll through presets".
Re: “I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances.”
#30The Marvel / Disney effect, CGI is so commoditized that you have far less truly passionate, highly skilled individuals working on CGI as an 'art', rather than to knock another scene out the door.
lol who downvoted this