In Reply to: Well, I have no idea on that, but the SOTA capabilities advance regardless. posted by Audiophilander on January 3, 2006 at 00:27:44:
"There are lots of high quality CGI authoring programs available now that are more user friendly than when the Jurassic Park films were being shot."User friendlynes is simply not an issue when effects houses are pushing the SOTA. Certainly he programing is improving because they are building on what has already been writen, but that is just a part of what makes excellent CGI.
" I'm sure that Steven Spielberg maintained very tight control over the proprietary CGI work"
Not at all. He is actually extremely hands off on this level.
" in his JP films and took all the time necessary to integrate it with his live action footage,"Now thre is a key element. time to do things right. It is rare these days. You usually find quantity over quality. There are other problems too that are more sublime. ILM and Tippet weren't competing with anybody for Jurassic Park. They were given carte blanche to make the dinosaurs as good as they could. These days there is intense ompetition for that same CGI work. There is a common tendancy for CGI houses to bid low, promise the world and deliver sub par quality CGI at a bargain price. This economic force simply was not in play with Jurassic Park.
"but the line has definitely moved since then. Apparently the biggest issues in CGI integration are time and money, issues which aren't mutually exclusive of course.'
Let's not forget artistry. But yes time and money which is finite with each show. It really does play into the competition cutting corners to meet the budgets and deadlines and the promise of long laundry lists of effects.
"Judging from the seminar enrollment I glimpsed at Siggraph a few years ago (2002) there should be a sizeable increase in the number of talented animators working on CGI authoring with various firms now as opposed to what there was back when JP 1, 2 & 3 came out."
Well, here in lies yet another economic issue. It doesn't pay to be an entry level CGI person. A lot of the talent that was going into CGI is now leary fo the market and their future in it. You end up with a lot of CGI night school hacks that are willing to make garbage doing much of the important grunt work. It
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Follow Ups
- Re: Well, I have no idea on that, but the SOTA capabilities advance regardless. - Analog Scott 18:03:19 01/03/06 (0)