# CGI Effects = Cartoons, and usually look like it **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437 "2005-08-03T16:51:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/21 "2005-08-03T20:27:07Z")
Well, THAT was stupid of me! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/22 "2005-08-03T20:39:36Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Very impressive. Looked real to me. I spotted it instantly. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/23 "2005-08-03T21:22:38Z")
Bucky tried to do a good job with it but when he used an off the shelf texture map that has been used in dozens of thread moves it was really obvious what he had done. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/24 "2005-08-04T07:24:16Z")
Just the other day, I was watching “The Mask” on TV, and I made a remark about how it was the perfect movie to do with CGI effects, because all of the CGI graphics _did_ look cartoony, but it didn’t matter because that was the point. When you’re trying to take the movie seriously, though, badly done CGI in a live action movie can totally ruin a scene. The musical number in Jabba’s palace in “Return of the Jedi” with its pre-“Toy Story”-quality graphics hurts my eyes to watch. (Although if you ask me, having a mini music video in the middle of that scene completely destroys the pacing of the movie regardless of how it’s done.) ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/25 "2005-08-04T08:38:44Z")
> [@KJ](#): > > When you’re trying to take the movie seriously, though, badly done CGI in a live action movie can totally ruin a scene. The musical number in Jabba’s palace in “Return of the Jedi” with its pre-“Toy Story”-quality graphics hurts my eyes to watch. (Although if you ask me, having a mini music video in the middle of that scene completely destroys the pacing of the movie regardless of how it’s done.) I feel really, really old. There’s no CGI in there. It’s all rubber suits and puppets and stop-motion filming with models. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/26 "2005-08-04T09:36:37Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > I feel really, really old. > > There’s no CGI in there. It’s all rubber suits and puppets and stop-motion filming with models. He’s probably referring to the shitass CGI that was incorporated into the 1997 “Special Edition,” replacing the scene with a Sega Genesis-quality new band, including the new blues singer who screams at the camera. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/27 "2005-08-04T09:44:35Z")
Great. Now I feel even older. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/28 "2005-08-04T09:48:32Z")
The problem with CGI in big blockbuster movies is that it’s still cutting edge, or in other words it’s still experimental. Whenever a particular style of effect is perfected, then that becomes so easy you can give it to the journeymen CGI compositors to do. You give the new challenges to the top guys, who stumble through trying to figure it all out. End result: the bigger effects look kind of dodgy, e.g. digital Spidey in ‘Spider-Man 2’. However, the CG effects that are now second nature, like water, or talking animals, or morphing, are now used extensively in TV and commercials - but with a lower budget and with less experienced CG artists. End result: the standard effects look kind of dodgy, e.g. polar bear in ‘Lost’. Right smack in between, though, are the medium budget movies that have decent CG artists and decent software and no attempts to push the limits of effects spectacle, and you get some really excellent subtle digital effects that most people will be completely unaware of where reality ends and digital begins (apart from the fact that it may involve fantastical imagery): ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘A Very Long Engagement’, ‘Evolution’. Pushing the envelope will always be the de rigueur of the bigger movies; an unfortunate side effect that we cannot avoid. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/29 "2005-08-04T14:17:38Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Right smack in between, though, are the medium budget movies that have decent CG artists and decent software and no attempts to push the limits of effects spectacle, and you get some really excellent subtle digital effects that most people will be completely unaware of where reality ends and digital begins (apart from the fact that it may involve fantastical imagery): ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘A Very Long Engagement’, ‘Evolution’. That’s the good stuff that is the exception I allowed for in the OP. It’s too bad the only people who can afford to work out the kinks are the people making blockbusters. And to prove, if proof were required, that I’m hypocritical, I’ve been teaching myself to use [Blender,](http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Home.2.0.html) an open-source 3D animation program. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/30 "2005-08-07T21:34:03Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > You think that CGI stands out and looks unnatural because generally you only notice the CGI that stands out and looks unnatural. Bingo. A good example of competent CGI effects is _A Beautiful Mind_, which has about a dozen high quality CGI effects shots which are usually taken entirely for granted. CGI effects were used to alter seasons. (In the beginning, the introductions at Princeton were filmed in winter, and the trees were digitally dressed to make it appear as though it was fall. There’s a winter shot where the falling snow is 3D rendered as a nice little particle system.) CGI was used instead of regular set dressing to help various modern campuses stand in for 1940s Princeton. A shot of a baby lying in a dry bathtub was composited with CGI water and simulated lighting and refraction, with motion tracking. A flock of CGI pigeons was used in one scene. I’ve yet to hear anyone complain that _A Beautiful Mind_ suffers from “cartoony” special effects. Like practical or photographic effects, you notice the bad ones, and the good ones slip right past you. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437/31 "2005-08-07T22:05:18Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Like practical or photographic effects, you notice the bad ones, and the good ones slip right past you. That may be so, but I still can’t help feeling like I’m the little kid in The Emperor’s New Clothes when they insist on using digital stunt doubles in the Matrix, Star Wars, Spiderman, Blade 2, etc, etc. It doesn’t look real, it has never looked real, and yet they insist on doing it over and over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cgi-effects-cartoons-and-usually-look-like-it/315437.md?page=1)