Building a b3ta world

http://www.bit-tech.net/column/28/

 

Interesting to look at the trend in film making, but I offer my opinion that actors are here to stay.

Although, as you mentioned, the world of film is changing with new technology- I feel that the human element will never be replaced. Myself, for example: I dont really care for full CGI movies and doubt I ever will. Its the same for animation (as in Disney).

I also think that people rely upon the famous. I cant imagine a world of people without posters of movie stars on their walls or people magazine or the E! channel. Everyone knows who George Clooney is, and I think somehow they rely upon it. People obviously feed off the popularity, fame and wealth of actors and actresses. Otherwise channels like E! and shows like Cribs or "Fabulous life of..." wouldnt be such a success.

Point is- I think youre correct in that it is a theme that will grow and become a staple. However, the world will always need actors not only for the enjoyment of films, but culturally as well.

Plus, Im speaking out of hope- my girlfriend is a fourth year theatre student at UCSB.

 

There are 2 films which leap out at me that show this move towards less actual actors and more CGI. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Immortel.
Both of which Use a huuuuge amount of CGI!
Sometimes, definately in Immortel, you can't tell if what you are seeing is a real person or not!
-J

 

Actors are here to stay for a long time. But CGI has its place in the industry too.

I dont think any CGI character will get the fan club following like a real life actor would.

 

im pretty sure lara croft now has a pretty large fanbase so it can happen

but yeah actors are here to stay but as with everything it'll evolve with techonology. Its also human nature to kinda mimic and be like other ppl or what societies say are they type of ppl we should strive to be like

 

why does no-one ever mention Final Fantasy when talking about CGI films?!
I thought it was incredible.

 

I thought Final Fantasy was incredible too ... but I would still prefer a good actor rather than CG. Although CG is way better than some of the actors.

 

I was just about to bring it up...

But it's worth bearing in mind that with CGI, one of the main ways to make character movement realistic is to record it using motion capture of real actors. The Matrix did this, Gollum in LOTR was obviously created in this way. Computerised methods may get better and better at simulating humans, but they'll never make it all the way without a little bit of real human essence in there. The actors may be buried behind successively more elaborate layers of CGI, but they'll always be there in some shape or form. In a similar fashion, just ask yourself what's the more exhilarating gaming experience - playing against computer opponents or playing other humans over a network?

 

I was reading that final fantasy was dulled down some to give it the fake feellin to it i thought it was increditble too

 

That's not strictly true. While MoCap can yield great results it requires a huge amount of work 'after the fact' to clean up the motion. Even then, the motion has to be supplemented by work done purely by animators in most cases.
The example of Gollum is a great one since it illustrates this point well. The suspension of disbelief and creation of empathy comes largely from the emotion conveyed through the close shots on 'his' face. What you see there was, for the most part, created by the hand keying done by animators.

Bottom line, you can never really take the human element out of the equation.


And on the point of Lara Croft having a fan following, I'm pretty sure you could classify that as 'special interest' and something that wouldn't spill over into the mainstream any time soon