Let’s start off with some screenshots of the latest cutting-edge game Crysis. You know our technology is really pretty advanced when you see this kind of graphics in a computer video game:
The fact that it is the captured from within a computer game means that the computer can render about 30 images like this per second! That’s a pretty shocking number if you asked me.
The not so obvious revelation is probably that computer graphics are going to replace traditional cinematography. Take the 2nd screenshot above as an example. To produce a flaming scene with wreckages lying around on a sinking ship deck requires probably millions of dollars, which multiplies if there are some unfortunate NGs. I didn’t even bother to mention the impracticality (impossibility?) to produce the robotic spider in the middle of the screen without the aid of CG technology. The final product is probably several minutes on screen of a movie that is not guaranteed to have a positive return.
Now, compare that with the computer graphics version, which is what is seen in the above screenshot. It would take a team of talented computer graphic designers a week or two to produce, bundled with infinite number of free NGs, fine-tunable details such as how the smokes should behave, cameras at impossible angles, etc. All better with a lower cost.
This is not necessarily the end for the movie industry as the title suggested, as the current technology for characters’ actual acting such as facial expressions, little body languages still can’t quite match their human counterparts. Nevertheless, I cannot see a single reason why the so called big-production shouldn’t get real and embrace computer graphics for their totally unnecessary spending on those extravagant seconds-long shots.
That may be very harsh and probably downright insult to people who’ve contributed their lives to the arts of cinematography. But then again, this is a very real fact and the technology is probably going to blow today’s in the coming years. How will you guys in the movie industry cope with this? I can only say “let’s see what happens”.
