Recently we have seen an increased use of CGI animation in entertainment media. So, what is CGI? Computer animation (or CGI animation) is the art of creating moving images with the use of computers (Wikipedia). The movie industry was revolutionized when CGI brought dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park in 1993. A year later the technology was used again in Forest Gump. CGI had been seen previously in such films as Star Wars, Tron, and Terminator 2. The first full length studio film to utilize CGI was ‘Toy Story’ in 1995.
Currently, the hugely successful film Avatar certainly presents a real world example of the continued trend. James Cameron’s film uses CGI animation to bring us the world of Pandora and its people; the Navi. It is rumored that Cameron spent upwards of 15 years and 300 million dollars to bring his computer world to life. Considering the film has now grossed 1.8 billion and is still going strong I would suggest it was a good investment of time and money.
The technology behind rendering of the CGI animation is amazing. 3D CGI animation requires specific software programs to render the image. In years past, only deep pocketed Studios could get their hands on such software. Because of technological advances (faster computers etc) we can all get access to cutting edge software programs like Pixar’s ‘Renderman’ and build our own 3D CGI animation. This is the same software that was used in Avatar, and also appears in such films as Friday the 13th, UP, Transformers and hundreds of others. They have literally made the exact same software available to the public to purchase.
Video Game companies have also enjoyed the rapid advancement in this technology. Realistic, live action games like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and multiple sports platforms have all taken advantage of the technology to make their stories and characters come to life in a way never seen before. Many in the industry predict that by the year 2020, we will be unable to discern the CGI character from a real live human/animal characters.
