Spectacular digital effects: CGI and contemporary cinema - Kristen Whissel, Whissel

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Introduction

 

The implementation of visual manipulation within film is now being used immensely within cinema constantly increasing in its realism and pushing visual effects to its limit. This modern creation of realistic effects is now being used through a vast range of 3D software like Maya, Cinema 4D and Blender. With these software’s, artists are now able to digitally replicate real life like effects, making it hard for viewers to tell the difference between simulated and practical. For example, from the book ‘What is digital cinema?’ Lev Manovich made a good comment on this when saying “When, given enough time and money, almost everything can be simulated in a computer, to film physical reality is just one possibility.” What is Digital Cinema? (2012) Resultantly, this now creates the question whether evolving computer generated imagery using simulation is replacing practical effects in film.  Due to this essay being a comparison with practical and computer generated effects specifically in simulation this essay will begin with an explanation of what practical and computer generated simulated effects actually is along with a brief history on its early stages and its growth within cinema to where it stands now in our modern day. Their importance within films will also be explained revealing their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, a range of live action films will be looked at (with one of them being Mad Max fury Road) (2015) and the effects of simulation within animated movies like Brave(2012) will also be discussed. Within the second half of this essay I would create a simulation in the 3D software Maya to see how it compares with a lifelike practical effect. The end of the essay will lead to an overall judgment answering the title of this essay on whether digital simulation truly is on its path to replace practical effects in film.

 

 

 

 

What is Practical effects?

 

Within the early days of cinema the main form of visual effects used before the development of computer generated imagery was practical effects. Practical effects are a form of created handmade props needed for film such as sets, creatures, vehicles, models and makeup presently filmed in front of the lens. Just like CGI the ultimate purpose of practical effects is to evoke realism and due to all of the effects being physically made, actors can physically interact with it, not needing to pretend that something is there which is predominately done with Computer Generated Imagery  (CGI). This early form of effects was firstly used in the 1895 Edison short film The execution of Mary Stuart specifically for the execution scene. The beheading scene was directed by the film director Alfred Clark and this consisted of using a dummy to be replaced with the actress playing Mary by pausing the camera in between and filming again with the switched in beheaded dummy. As a result of this being one of the first forms of effects to ever hit film this birthed a new path for cinema, and this is where other practical effects like stop motion and animation began.

 

Later in the year 1902 the new practical effects blockbuster A trip to the moon by George Melies not only paved the way for film but it managed to truly kickstart and solidify its success in the effects industry. The range of practical effects used such as the sets, props, costumes and explosions in the film manged to create a believable living science fiction story of a group of scientist journey to the moon and back. George Melies showed that it is possible to make a whole film simply out of trick photography and combining it with a compelling story makes it even more believable. Until this day practical effects is still used within cinema but it isn’t as autonomous as it once was with the release of CGI which will be spoken about later in the essay.

 

 

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What is CGI and Simulation?

 

The development of special effects within cinema through the emergence of computer technology completely paved the way for new techniques to evoke a form of realism in film and this is using CGI. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is a digital creation of a still or animated visual content. This means through using computer software and graphics it can digitally create digital characters and scenes which has been used within film, TV and games. The first time CGI was released and shown to the world wasn't until 1972 when Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke created a computer-animated short film called A Computer Animated Hand. However, a year later CGI was truly defined to be a new useful visual tool for cinema with the release of the 1973 Hollywood film Westworld and this was through the success of showing robot vision using 2D computer graphics. Furthermore, in the year 1976 the sequel Futureworld continued to push limits, with them managing to use and convey 3D computer graphics with a 3D rendered head. Performing these techniques and methods began to show the potential of CGI for film and it wasn’t long after with films like Walt Disney’s 1982 Tron extensive use of 3D CGI and Pixar’s 1995 Toy story (the first fully led CGI film) to be displayed to the public.

 

 

As a result of CGI starting to increasingly have a more pivotal role in film we now see CGI completely imitating the ways of nature and physical movements as a whole and this is known as simulation. Simulation is a form of CGI where the computer software creates an approximate simulation of particular physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics, soft body dynamics and fluid dynamics. This creation of perceptual realism is involving filmmakers to collaborate with actual scientist to create new forms of realistic looking effects through the combination of science and visual art. This was also mentioned by Stephen Prince when he said “Art and science coexist in a domain where fantastic worlds are built with a physically accurate rendition of the behaviour of solids, liquids, gases, light, movement, and sound.” Through the looking glass: Philosophical toys and Digital Visual Effects (2010). This tells us that simulations ultimate purpose is to act in accordance to the laws of physics and is now opening new ways for creators to create real life like situations and scenes without physical interaction at all. The rise of simulation has mainly been seen within the video gaming industry but is now being represented much more in films like 2012  and are a dominating form of effects in modern animations.

 

 

Advantages of practical effects

 

Now coming out of the introductory phase to practical effects and CGI involving digital simulations, when looking at the question if practical effects is being replaced by CGI we have to look at the true benefits and drawbacks of the two when used for film.  As briefly mentioned when explaining practical effects earlier, a good benefit of practical effects is that it allows the actors to interact with a created model or an environment directly which could boost the sense of realism for the actors as the interactive experience is physically existing. An example of this performed was from two well know horror films John Carpenters 1982 The Thing and Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror Alien. Both of these films used practical effects to embody the aliens using created models and costumes placed physically on set. This means that the main actress in Alien (1979) Sigourney Weaver and actor Kurt Russel from The Thing (1982) interacted with present entities. On the other hand if the aliens were created with CGI the physical interaction will not be possible as it is only computer based meaning the actors would have to pretend that something is there until it is composited in the shot afterwards. Although actors are trained in preparation for this, the performance as opposed to someone with actual interaction may not be as strong because the actors focus on that invisible character could be slightly off when involving movement as nothing is actually there.

 

Another benefit of practical effects is its available use of natural lighting this is because filming in a natural setting with natural light will result in natural shadows to be casted from any practical effect such as a created set, prop or model in an instant. However if all of these mentioned effects was created by CGI the shadows will also have to be created which could be more time consuming and not look as accurate as natural light. An example of a set based on the natural environment where practical effects was in George Millar’s 2015 apocalyptical action film ‘Mad Max Fury Road.’ This film had 90% of it executed with practical effects and the director George Miller stated “This is a film that didn’t defy the laws of physics, if you’re going to go out into the desert and have two vehicles colliding, why do it artificially? It was much better to do it for real"(Insider,2016). From this comment this shows that Miller relied on practical effects and wanted to capture the feeling of realism by physically venturing out into the desert to shoot all the head on crashes and explosions in real life as opposed to creating it through CGI by simulations. It also shows his passion for authenticity when truly capturing the action shots ‘for real.’

 

 

Advantages of computer generated simulations

 

Even though Millers chosen forms of practical production was praised by critics by receiving an award for the best production design from the 2015 ‘Academy Awards,’ the filming of car crashes and explosions is very costly and stunt work alongside these effects is quite risky which leads on to the advantages of using CGI. When using CGI it is less cost effective as you would require less shots because you would be able to digitally create the scene exactly how you want it whereas through practical, if a physical crash didn’t go exactly how you want it to go you would have to physically film it all over again which is time consuming and costly. Furthermore, if a created practical effect such as an explosion goes wrong it could be quite dangerous for any people on the set and this risk is impossible to occur with CGI. This is because created computer simulations such as explosions or any other forms of destructive effects are composited into the shot once filming is done and as a result of this being created digitally, people on set will be completely isolated from it preventing any incidents.

 

Another benefit of CGI is its large capacity of created worlds and environments  that practical effects isn’t capable of making which particular films like James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and Roland Emmerich’s 2012 (2009) convey. For instance, James Cameron used 60% of CGI when creating Avatar and this shows that CGI was a vital tool to create the world of Pandora James envisioned. This is because an alien planet created through practical effects would acquire a very large set and wouldn’t be able to be as large and diverse. Therefore, CGI’s advantage with worldbuilding can perfectly capture the alien landscapes of Pandora and when its nature is merged with environmental simulations it captures the aspect of realism. Speaking of simulations the destruction scenes within the disaster movie ‘2012’ was all executed through digital simulation. This was showcased during the destruction of the city of Los Angeles when Jackson Curtis and his family was driving and flying through the enormous wreckage. The range of assets in the scene was all created 3D models by various artist and once done, the assets were all brought together onto one computer scene.

 

 

 

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For instance ‘Figure 1’ shows the models imported into one scene with the simulated effects being applied to the models in the software 3D studio max. This particular image of the scene conveys the creation of simulated dust emitting from the collapsing building which is also a simulated sequence. The collapsing building is a reaction effect of an external source created such as an earthquake or extremely strong wind within the simulation. Therefore, the computer makes physically accurate calculations based on the effect of the external source so when the building is crumbling, it imitates real world effects, obeying the laws of physics and making the scene look as believable as possible. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Figure 2 continues to emulate this process and this scene is now focused on the simulated sequence of the destruction of a garage. As shown, there is an increase in the amount of models within this scene from the vast number of cars and range of garage floors. In fact the VFX supervisor Marc Weigert said this resulted in simulation on top of simulations with him stating  “to break a high-rise building, there would be a structural simulation that mimics the behaviour of the metal structure showing how the building moves, with each floor collapsing. Then, there's a sim based upon the previous one that shows the concrete pillars and floors breaking apart. For the sand-like concrete sulfate appears when chunks of concrete break apart."  Popular Mechanics (The Anatomy of Disaster scene in the Movie 2012, 2009)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This whole simulated scene with car crash destruction, falling trees from the shaking ground, the splitting open of asphalt roads, crumbling grounds, explosions and collapse of buildings on this immense scale would literal be impossible to do without the involvement of CGI. It also demonstrates how much of an impact simulation actually had to create this apocalyptic scene. When completed this sequence was described to be complicated yet fantastic by Roland Emmerich. Popular Mechanics (The Anatomy of Disaster scene in the Movie 2012, 2009)

 

 

 

 

Practical effects and CGI in animation

 

Now when looking at the journey between practical effects and CGI in animation it is also becoming more prevalent that animation studios are now heavily embracing the usage of CGI in their films increasingly deviating from the use of practical effects . Firstly, when looking at practical effects animation studious such as Disney primarily began their animations with practical effects through hand drawn drawings and stop motion, which both creates sequences conveying motion. As a matter a fact, from the book ‘The Illusion of life’ by animators Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas, the fundamental principles of creating well hand drawn animations originated from the 12 principles of animation. These principles consisted of a range of techniques accompanied when drawing characters such as squash and stretch, exaggeration and timing. For instance, from the exaggeration aspect, the book explained how animators reinforced character expressions and movement simply by changing shape and size when Johnson and Thomas (1981, p. 47) stated ‘A smile was no longer a simple line spread across the face; it now defined the lips and the relation to the cheeks.’  The hand drawn animated effects then went on to produce major animated classics like ‘Snow White and the seven dwarfs’ (1937) and lasted until early 2000s with The princess and the Frog (2009) being Disney’s last major hand drawn animation.  

 

 

Furthermore, stop motion was also another early animation technique revolving around practical effects. However, instead of being hand drawn this required an actual creation of a model giving it subtle movements on each camera frame eventually developing an animated sequence. An example of a form of stop motion film is the Claymation’s technique presented on ‘Wallace and Gromit’ created in (1989) by animator Nick Park. The characters Wallace and Gromit are created by clay, placed within a small created environmental set in front of the camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3 shows an image of the layout and typical creation of stop motion. This particular image however is a shot from the creation of the film ‘Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the ‘Were Rabbit’ (2005). As a result of this being a full length film Nick Park described shoot to be over 18 months with at least 25 animators and 300 people shooting on 25 created sets which will each be the environmental settings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presently from the mid 2000s and beyond to our modern day, we are now seeing the technological advancements in CGI to be having a more pivotal role in modern animation films specifically through the role of simulations. This is because we can now see this simulated digital artistry of animated facial features, clothes and environments to be combined with physics resulting in more realistic looking representations in animation. Therefore, hair and clothing simulation is dependent on the movement of an animated character and animated environments such as water and fire has to act like natural phenomena’s to create that believability. For example, a researcher at Pixar Animation Studios known as Michael Kass was talking about a range of animated simulations and when talking about character clothing he explained that the main physical effects in motion are primarily stretching, shearing and bending. He also stated  ‘While animating clothing still presents problems, it's now part of a standard bag of tricks. Our simulations have become accurate enough that we can design garments with commercially available pattern-making software and then have them move largely as a tailor would expect in our virtual simulations." Live Science (Inside Movie animation: Simulating 128 Billion Elements 2007).

 

 

 

 

 

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Conversely when looking at hair simulations Michael describes it to be a slightly easier process due to hair being individual threads he says that “The difference is that clothing doesn't move like clothing unless the threads interact. In a real head of hair, the threads do interact, but you can get convincing motion without taking that into account." Live Science (Inside Movie animation: Simulating 128 Billion Elements 2007). A good example of this is the hair creation on Merida’s character in the Disney Pixar animation ‘Brave’ (2012). The grand scale of Merida’s hair required much more hair to hair soft body collisions than any character Pixar had used and the long curls of the hair on top of that provided it to be a challenge. As a result of this, a new multithreaded simulator was developed by Pixar for the creation process of the hair and despite the large size of it they managed to provide convincing motion making it still look natural and realistically interact with other created simulations.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Created Practical through Maya 2020

 

 

As a result of us looking at the difference between practical and simulated effects to see how well simulation manages to imitate reality I created an environmental simulated example myself conveying the creation of water within a pool. This example was created within the 3D software Maya 2020 using the Bifrost Ocean Simulator System or BOSS as the abbreviation.

 

Firstly, I began by creating a plane within Maya which is shown In Figure 5. The plane’s width and height was increased to 50 subdivisions as this would be essential for the performance of the water as it will provide more waves when converted.

 

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After that I changed the Workspace menu from Maya classic to Bifrost fluids giving me easier access to the Bifrost Ocean Simulator System (Boss). Once clicking Boss the spectral wave button was then clicked converting the plane into a fluid showed in Figure 6. 

 

 

 

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When I clicked on the spectral wave button to convert the fluid it automatically opened up the Boss Attribute editor which is shown in Figure 7. This attribute editor is useful because it allows you to create the type of water that you want after editing by simply increasing or decreasing the number of attributes. For example, one attribute shown within Boss is the wind attribute and if you wanted to create stronger waves in the water all you have to do is increase the number of wind speeds.  

 

 

 

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Once finished playing around with the attributes in the Boss editor a sky dome light was brought in and HDR image was applied to it.  This will result in the water to be more visible. This is because the HDR on the sky dome acts as a reflection creating life like water colour making it look more authentic which is presented form the Figure 8 image from the rendered image.  

 

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I then created a square poly cube and applied a white surface to it. The face of cube was then extruded before placing the  water in that particular area. This created a simulated pool effect once properly rendered shown in figure 9 and 10.

 

 

 

 

 

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In comparison to the real life images of pools from Figure 11 and Figure 12 we can see that the water seems to be slightly more transparent as opposed to the rendered images in figure 9 and 10. The reflections also look to be more prominent from Figure 11 and 12. The small waves however in both rendered and real life images look very similar each conveying light bouncing off them. In addition they also both manage to capture great water depth. Ultimately, despite the minimal differences this practical has shown us that the Bifrost water simulation system in Maya can create believable looking water specifically from the small waves and fluid like motion it portrays successfully imitating real life environments.

 

 

Rendered Water simulation Vid 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The integration of Practical effects and CGI

 

As autonomous as practical effects used to be we now see the development of CGI has resulted in an integration of the two. We can also see that using practical effects with CGI has resulted in it to be less visible and even though it is placed within the scene the combination of CGI causes it to be hidden within. A good example of practical effects and CGI integration is from the film ‘The Impossible’ (2012) and due to it being about a tsunami a high amount of water needed to be involved. Bayona however, the director of the film originally didn’t want to use CGI when stating “one of the early decisions was not to use C.G.I. water, because it was very expensive, but also because it didn’t feel real, so we decided to go with real water, which was kind of a crazy thing.” What to watch (Carried away on a Cinematic Tsunami 2012).  This practical approach resulted in them using big tanks to pump out water to create gushes of waves. This amount of practical water wasn’t enough though to properly capture this massive disastrous tsunami scene so simulated water had to be composited in the footage. This computer generated addition increased the waters scale, successfully capturing the disastrous effect of the tsunami. This combination of practical and simulated effects was a great outcome as Bayona still kept his wish of using authentic water for the film with CGI only being an addition to broaden the effect.  

 

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Conclusion 

 

In conclusion of this essay from looking at practical and advantages and disadvantages, its roles in a range of films, its creation process and its achievable impacts in film we can finally answer the question if computer generated simulation has replaced practical effects. Practical effects and computer generated simulation are both vital tools for film and even though we see an expansive use of CGI it has not completely replaced practical effects as it is still being used today. We do see however that this expansion in CGI has instead caused practical effects to integrate with it shaping its look in film when absorbed within the effects of computer generated imagery. This has reinforced practical effects invisibility, making it a less distinguishable form of effect than it once was. Computer generated imagery is still built on the foundation of practical effects causing it not replace it but in fact enhance it.