ST CGI in The Force Awakens

I thought the CG looked pretty bad in this movie. Part of it could be that Maz and Snooke have such simplistic designs they looked like something out of a mid 90s movie and some of the other CG was kind of distracting particularly the assault on Starkiller base and the way the X-Wings moved.

 

Nice blu ray is the way to watch star wars.

 

Sigh. Sarcasm don't travel well ont'internet. Apologies.

 

"Originality, pacing, their place within the overall story, music"... otherwise known as IMPLEMENTATION. I can't believe implementation has a different meaning to you? Please stop trying to find posts, or words, to try and hang a false sense of being offended off. It's getting incredibly tiresome. My post was in reference to a critisism of the effects in ROTJ, as compared to the effects of TFA. So it's entirely relevant to refute that claim and state that the effects of ROTJ, and their IMPLEMENTATION (you know... how they were conceived, shot, edited, scored etc.) are, relatively, superior... I'd already stated that, in terms of visual effects, TFA had a good blend. But they were used in an incredibly uncreative way (IMO). You don't have to agree, but get over yourself. If you don't agree, put forward a contrary position, but stop it with this false sense of being insulted by my position on it.

 

You were blatantly baiting and I pointed out why in my post. If you want to pretend otherwise that's fine.

 

No I wasn't. I was refuting the claim that the effects in ROTJ were deficient... and I stated that they are, relatively, superior to anything in TFA (IMO), from concept to implementation. It wasn't me who brought up ROTJ, I was but responding. I think it's more that you can't disagree, so you took unbridge at it being a critisism of TFA... If you want to challenge that opinion, then please do so or move on...

 

This is where we agree. That is always the case.

Now personally I don't have any "real" problem with any of the matte paintings in the saga. As ever this idea of what is tangible and intangible when and what exactly creates a level of cartoonishness I just can't get a handle on.

Just grabbing a few shots here and there to illustrate. I think these are all mattes but maybe I'm wrong and some are miniatures (whether physical built or CGI models)













Of those I find the most "cartoonish" (if one must use the word) to be the last 2 from the catwalk scene. They also look great.

 

Two things I *thought* were CGI but weren't (after watching the BTS stuff):

- The red robot guy walking away from Maz's castle as Han, Finn, and Rey walk in. He was a giant marionette.
- The resistance transport landing on Takodana was practical and lowered from a crane.

As for effects in ROTJ:

Watch the scene where the droids are picked up from the sand and where Jabba's barge blows up. The transition from "sand" to the obvious backdrop is really really obvious, and it looks like a theater stage setup.

 

Was it really? I thought it was a guy on stilts this whole time.

 

Think so! They had cables visible going up from him, perhaps it was a guy with wire support?

 

Interesting. Love finding out how these characters are put together & brought to life. There's been a few times where it ends up being completely different to what I'd imagined.

 

I loved the whole movie, but after many theater viewings I was not so excited for the CGI on Snoke. It was ok for a hologram, I guess.

After watching in my Bluray at home, I quite like this CGI as well. I think that in the theaters his face was too dark, we could barely see his left side, which is the most damaged.

Maz is obvious CGI (even if it is a good quality one), but her motion capture is so great, that I forget about this in a few seconds. It helps that she is an interesting character who knows the force and is older than Yoda.

 

Man, those shots of ROTS are just astounding.

 

The CGI was pretty spot on I thought throughout the movie. The only example of CGI that took me out was Snoke, looked horrendous.

 

CGI is at a place now where, if it's not a leviathan jelly monster or a zero gravity fight atop a giant mushroom, it's pretty difficult to distinguish it from the 'real'. There's a few dodgy shots that stick out, and I don't particularly like much of the conceptual elements, but the technology itself is great. For example, at a conceptual/direction level, I really didn't appreciate the X-Wing attack on SKB. But from a pure effects perspective, it was pretty much photorealistic. Same with Maz.

 

Those are some of the better shots from ROTS. Also great shots from TFA, though my favorite visual moments are from Skellig, the SKB forest and Jakku.

 

Let's always remember that Snoke was a hologram in TFA. With that said, in the Bluray he looks very cool.

What I love about Maz was not the CGI itself, but the brilliant motion capture.

 

Those screenshots all look great. Coruscant always looked fantastic in the PT films. The only one I don't think looks convincing is Mustafar. The lighting on his cloak looks off from the rest of the picture, so he looks pasted on.

 

I'm not sure Snoke being a hologram has any relevance to the overall perception of the effect. Snoke was obviously a digital character. And whilst it was a perfectly reasonable effort, one would have to be brave to state that Snoke sets the digital character world on fire.

 

Yeah, I don't get the 'he's a hologram, he can look iffy' argument. The holograms in previous films looked better, even though they were blue monochrome.

Palpatine's holograms in TPM always surprise me by how 3D they look, with the camera panning around him in the Naboo council room being particularly memorable

 

I thought the effects in TFA were great, but special effects in movies never make me angry.

 

He was easy to identify as a CGI character mainly because he was projected as a huge hologram. If he was presented in a human scale (he is about 7 feet tall), in his real body color (not that bluish projection color), in a more well lit room, then we could do a proper analysis.

Since nobody really saw Snoke in person, we may save our final conclusions for when this happens in EP VIII. Then we will have enough material to see if he looks good or not.

 

Are you trying to argue that they purposely made him look like a digital character? That's beyond silly.

 

To me this brings up a bigger issue with Snoke. He was supposed to be a hologram, but he didn't look like a hologram. Holograms in Star Wars have a certain look to them, and they didn't even try to follow that look.

 

It's a more advanced hologram. Things have progressed in 30 years.