Um…Spiderman is the very definition of a “CGI movie”, in that it is a movie that would have been impossible to do without CGI and is probably on most folks’ Top Ten list of “Movies That Employ Extensive Amounts of CGI”.
I was surprised at the extent to which Brokeback Mountain made use of CGI. Cool clip of some examples.
The critics on At the Movies were listing their top films of the decade and they mentioned that Zodiac uses a lot of cgi in the background to set the period.
can’t comment on most of these because i haven’t seen them yet…
ya i agree that Spiderman and Titanic are “CGI movies” because they can’t be done without it.
Brokeback Mountain is interesting. the sheep i get, but mountains and night scenes? is nothing real anymore? are we reaching, or have we already reached the point with pictures nowadays, where you can’t look one without first wondering if it is photoshopped?
The more I think about this, the more convinced there were more effects. Clearly, I just need to watch again. But I’m thinking of a scene in a library or bookstore where the titles of books are slowly fading away in the background as he’s forgetting that particular memory. Is that the right movie?
Yes, and that’s the same scene I think of, as well.
Yeah, the special edition DVD has this featurette that shows how much CGI was used. Quite a lot considering how little I noticed it in the film.
It was never real. It was always just images on celluloid.
Besides obvious CGI sequences, I was a little amused to read that, in The Dark Knight, they digitally changed all the cars’ license plates in the outdoor shots from Illinois to “Gotham City” (who knew Gotham got its own plates?). That and removing obvious Chicago landmark buildings in the city shots. Mostly I just liked the bit about the cars.
I looked very closely at that scene the second time I saw that in the theater, and the books changing color was a mechanical effect. It was accomplished using spring loaded flaps (think of the mechanical alarm clock in Groundhog Day).
World Trade Center. Certainly the shots of the towers themselves were going to be CGI, but watching some of the extras I was amazed at how many of the “regular” exterior shots on the streets were on a soundstage with CG backgrounds. It was very well done.
I disagree about Titanic. It could have been made without CGI. Models, green screen, etc. It wouldn’t have looked as good, but it could have been done. Think of the original Star Wars. All models, cameras on rails, green screen and clever editing - no CGI.
Ok well I knew about that stuff.
I was thinking of the OPs intent of backround things, sets, and “regular” looking scenes that actually had a lot of CGI.
Think of it like how “Ghost Town” was set in NY, but wasn’t ever shot there and all of it is green screen.