Does CGI bother you?

Though I do admit to liking models more in most cases, and I think since the PT takes place before ANH it would have been better to make the FX more old school to make the movies seem older then the OT.

"These movies couldn't be made without it."

Huh? WHat about ANH, ESB and ROTJ??

They could of made the prequels back in 1983, they would be different, but they would of been good in other ways.

Well, looking at ANH, ESB and ROTJ-I've noticed that a lot of the Storm troopers...loook like they got really cheap plastic outfits on.

And after seeing LEX, I must say-I really didn't like the laytext look at all.

And as far as making the OT look OLDER than Star Wars. That would go against Star Wars policy to make each movie better special effect wise than the last. Plus in this day and age, no one would stand for it.

 

Not particularly. Bad CGI (which does exist in any film with CGI) bothers me as much as any bad FX shot (ANH sabers, taun tauns, Rancor) does. I simply don't let them bug me the first time. I'm concentrating on the movie as a whole, not the FX. Later, it'll bug me to the point where I'll say 'Gee, that doesn't look right.' and move on with my life.
CGI isn't the perfect tool. But neither are models, puppets, and stop/go-motion.

 

One CGI scene that really bothers me in AOTC is when C3P0 falls off a ledge and is jerked around by that flying robot in the conveyer belt area. It doesn't look real at all. Anakin riding that beast when he's flirting with Padme at her secret location didnt look real either but I guess that's the real actor on a CGI animal? Funny though how Yoda looks so damn real in his fight with Dooku at closeup angles and the far shots are the one that look more unrealistic to me. I think Star Wars did a damn good job with its CGI but there's so much in it, peeps are bound to find something that doesn't look right. Maybe they should have stuck with more puppets or animatronics like the original trilogy, don't know, but I think peeps try so hard to figure out what doesn't look real that they ignore the obvious CGI (like background, windows, etc.) that is going undetected.

 

I'm guessing it's knowing something is CG spoils the magic for some. If we didn't know exactly what is CG, how could we tell? I'm wondering if we could guess every FX shot in the CT. Much in the same way I can't tell how many FX shots are in Citizen Kane.

Anyway, CGI doesn't bother me, I like to smile at the bad stuff and automatically forget what it is when it's good. The Clonetroopers were so good, but something confused me when I first watched them.

`He's got alot of extras here. I wonder why he didn't use CGI for them? I'm sure he could do it.'

 

Does CGI bother you?

What bothers me is all the nagging about it.
Ever since TPM came out, i´ve heard so much complaining about it that it has affected me in a very bad way. When watching epI or II, i sometimes find myself trying to spot what´s cgi and what´s not.
I certainly didn´t do it when i first saw the trailers for TPM, or on opening night.
It is something that has come since then.
I´m trying to get rid of it.

 

I totally agree with you MOSEP.

 

Yeah, I agree that it's hard to not think of the CGI after hearing everyone complain and whine about it. It's hard to just shut your mind off and worry about your own opinion of both the effects and the movie.

Personally, the CGI doesn't bother me. If it's done properly, I don't have a problem with it. There are times, however, when I think models would be more acceptable...but like someone mentioned further up the page, neither one of these methods can be considered completely full-proof and beautiful all the time.

Gotta admit, though--I miss the Yoda puppet. *sigh*

 

Nope, I don't mind CGI. The Clone Wars battle would have been impossible without it.

 

Some scenes really bother me, some don't. I don't like the CGI Yoda. They NEVER should have changed from a puppet to CGI. The only part of the movie with Yoda that should have been CGI was Yoda vs. Dooku. The Kaminoans are okay, not great, but okay. For the Separatists, I really like Wat Tambor from the Techno Union. I thought he was a costumed actor. I did not like the fact that they used 2 different alien heads for Senator Rogwa Wodrata in the sequence replacing Toonbuck Toora, and I don't like the other CGI separatists. Jedi Masters Coleman Trebor and Oppo Rancisis were really good CGI characters, maybe only because we hardly ever saw them. The Acklay beast from the arena battle was very believeable, but the Nexu and Reek were not. I didn't care for Dexter Jettster either. Star Wars should be like Star Wars in the 70's and 80's. No CGI, little special effects, and all aliens puppets. If I wasn't such a big fan of the OT, I might not have even seen TPM and AOTC.

 

"Well, looking at ANH, ESB and ROTJ-I've noticed that a lot of the Storm troopers...loook like they got really cheap plastic outfits on."

Yeah, but thats how they are suppose to look. If GL had wanted them to look metalic then they would been designed that way. ANd I'll take real plastic (its actually fiberglass I believe) over animated plastic

"And as far as making the OT look OLDER than Star Wars. That would go against Star Wars policy to make each movie better special effect wise than the last. Plus in this day and age, no one would stand for it."

Yes but these are prequels, they aren't the next SW movies, they are suppose to be before.

 

Im just glad they made Yoda CG cuz he sure as hell looked bad as a puppet in TPM...

Besides the difference between puppets and CG are simple. Puppets look more photorelistic because they are, but they cannot move nowhere near as realistic as a CG character. So whatever you prefer...

 

I'm fine with CG (although there are some places in some movies it bothers me a little, but not very much). I didn't mind the fact that Yoda was CG--the thing that bothered me was that his lips actually moved to form the words he was saying, unlike the muppet.

 

kinda. sometimes. it depends.

 

They NEVER should have changed from a puppet to CGI.

Well all they had was the TPM puppet. Which looks nothing like the ESB one. Which was what they want for AOTC. But because the ESB/ROTJ one was lost they had to CGI him.


So it was use the CGI Yoda or the so called TPM puppet Yoda.

 

or they could of made a new muppet, that looked like the one from ESB

 

or they could of made a new muppet, that looked like the one from ESB

Yeah but they could not why do you think we had the TPM Yoda?

 

CGI characters are okay. It never bothered me. The first CGI character I saw was The cursed Scorpion King in the Mummy II. There have been others since then, including such characters in StarWars, Lord of the Rings, and a few other movies. I've never had problems with it.

 

"Yeah but they could not why do you think we had the TPM Yoda?"

Because they tried to improve on the original design and make it look more life like, but people didn't like the 'improved' version, they wanted Yoda to look the way he did in ESB and ROTJ. Lucas said exactly that in "from puppets to pixels". He considers the TPM puppet to be superior to the OT one, and an arguement could be made that technically it is. But its not consistent, and that proved more important to people.

 

"No CGI, little special effects, and all aliens puppets. If I wasn't such a big fan of the OT, I might not have even seen TPM and AOTC."

I'm surprised nobody has jumped on this yet.

Cometgreen, too tired to rant

 

CGI doesnt bother me at all if it is done well, and it is done well in AOTC. If HD doesnt bother you, then CGI shouldn't bother you at all if it is on an HD movie. One of the great things about HD is that it keeps the cgi elements from standing out. If you make the real elements digital (as the cgi is), then the cgi doesnt stand out because the whole movie is basically digital.

 

I'm surprised nobody has jumped on this yet.

Shhhhh, don't draw attention to it!

 

"CGI doesnt bother me at all if it is done well, and it is done well in AOTC. If HD doesnt bother you, then CGI shouldn't bother you at all if it is on an HD movie. One of the great things about HD is that it keeps the cgi elements from standing out. If you make the real elements digital (as the cgi is), then the cgi doesnt stand out because the whole movie is basically digital."

I agree, however I think the trade off is that real elements, and practical FX end up having a digital look to them, which is why many of the models look CGI in AOTC to many people

 

the only thing I hate about CGI is that it gives bashers who have nothing better to complain about, something to b itch with. It's like the last ditch excuse to hate the prequels. People give a lot of valid reasons to hate the prequels on this board (which I disagree with), but saying you hate it BECAUSE of all the CG is simply inane and revolting. Why then, for crying outloud, is the CG the reason some people LIKE it?!

CG is a tool. GL needs it. We need it. If we had less CG in Star Wars we'd have more rubber and more terrestrial landscapes...it wouldn't keep up with the level of entertainment we require these days.

People just DONT'T buy rubber costumes, and stop motion. It doesn't work anymore! It works for the OT because we don't see the bad stop motion of the taun-taun or the stiff rubber mask of Jabba's guards, we see what we thought we saw when we saw it when we were younger. We made it out to be better than it was..thats why Colemon realized that when animating Yoda, he couldn't JUST animate it to look like the puppet, he had to add the extra element of what we all thought we saw. To please the bashers who complain about CG, SW PT would need a lot more animatronics (hard as hell and expensive), miniatures, stop motion, rubber and latex...and THEN those bashers would COMPLAIN about the cheesiness of the effects....proving ONCE more that people simply have it out for George Lucas and the Star Wars franchise.

thank you very much

 

but I'll bet I know what the future of CG characters is....and it's all centered in the laboratory....an intricate fusion of science and art....and DNA....we'll be able to take earthly species and genetically modify them enough to transform them into whatever creature we want. If there was going to be a Star Wars: Episode 97, the hook wouldn't be a digital yoda (ok, so they resurrect him in Episode 58) but A REAL LIFE YODA...in the FLESH...a mutated human-frog with the acting genes of Ian McDiarmid....booya! The Lucasfilms archives, then would need cages! LOL..or if you're the humanitarian type, luxurious wings to house chewie, yoda, and Dex's great grandchildren.

 

I think that CGI is great, but only when done well like AOTC. AOTC is so much above other CGI movies like Matrix(I noticed the animation right away) When details like the ones shown in the characters like Jar-Jar(I don't like him but animation is good) and Yoda, it makes CGI bearable and I appreciate the effort. I think that CGI Hulk wasn't easy but they pulled it off "OK".

AOTC was amazing though. I only had a problem with shots indoors that were CGI(such as the chancellors office and certain Jedi Temple shots). But overall, the CGI was great in AOTC.