15 years ago tonight

David Jimerson

David Jimerson

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t-rex.gif
 
It's 15 years later, but how come the CGI T-Rex in that first, nighttime attack (and in the rest of the film for that matter) looks far more convincing than any of the shots I've seen of the new CGI Incredible Hulk?
 
Batutta said:
It's 15 years later, but how come the CGI T-Rex in that first, nighttime attack (and in the rest of the film for that matter) looks far more convincing than any of the shots I've seen of the new CGI Incredible Hulk?
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Its true!! Why does George Lucas orgasm when he talks about the advances in CGI whilst Jurassic Park looked better than Episodes 1-3 all together?
 
I agree. When looking at that picture you would never guess it was made with the technology available 15 years ago unless you recognize the film, which hopefully most people would anyway.
 
Yea, it's been a while since I saw that film, but I don't remember at all thinking "These dino's are CGI" like I do alot of newer films. BTW this film made me scared to go out at night for quite a long time. When it came out my parent's house was a 2 story house right next to a big tree and I was scared to look out the window at night in fear of a T-Rex on the loose.
 
Because really fine art direction and hands-on craft with limited resources, is usually better than marginal art direction and hands-on craft with really fine resources.
 
Wow, I can't believe it's been 15 years... time flies!

shawneous said:
Its true!! Why does George Lucas orgasm when he talks about the advances in CGI whilst Jurassic Park looked better than Episodes 1-3 all together?
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Heh... even Episodes IV-VI looked better than I-III in the special effects department.
 
There is some dodgy work. The gallimimus herd had that blurry, visually elusive quality found in a lot of early CGI work. This shot, however, was perfection--

800px-Jurassic_Park_screenshot_4.jpg
 
Part of the reason why it looked so good was the practical work of Stan Winston for the close ups. It really sold the effect. :beer:
 
Sad Max said:
Because really fine art direction and hands-on craft with limited resources, is usually better than marginal art direction and hands-on craft with really fine resources.
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True. I'll take ingenuity and craft over technology and resources any day.

Besides, I never thought about the technology in JP because the STORY and PERFORMANCES suspended my disbelief. 5 minutes into Ep 1-3 and I was looking for the technology because the former were not apparent

EDIT: Oh yeah Horse. Winston's close ups helped a lot. I'm not sure how effective it would have been without that, because it not only sold the wider shots, but made some of the scenes more intimate.
 
Some of the dinos are animatronic-models. So matching CGI to them was a nice incentive to get it right.


You're right, it's time to watch it again...with popcorn!
 
An interesting irony here is that Jeff Goldblum's character of Dr. Ian Malcolm says:

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"

And the same could be said for the current pre-occupation with over-doing CGI.
 
I've always believed this is one of those few "perfect films". It doesn't miss a single beat, moment, emotion, anything. I could not imagine ANYTHING in that film done differently. Perfectly written, shot, cast, etc., And OMG YES about the CGI T-Rex at night! I still have yet to see a computer generated character that looks that real. FIFTEEN freaking years, and it's still the best looking cg character I've ever seen hand down. I never even question it's really there, because my god, THERE IT IS! Goldblum was REALLY RUNNING FROM A T-REX!


Now, why is this?
I honestly believe that because of the advances in the technology, not as much obsessive time and care is taken with it all as there was with that film. I think people are too comfortable being dependent on CG. If the same amount of time, care, and effort were put into a cg character as there was with the JP1 rex, with todays technologies, I really believe it would blow our minds. We WOULDN'T know it were fake. Just my opinion of course.
 
Jim Brennan said:
An interesting irony here is that Jeff Goldblum's character of Dr. Ian Malcolm says:

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"

And the same could be said for the current pre-occupation with over-doing CGI.
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Yeah, no one talks about it much, but there were some good lines in that movie. And Goldblum stole a lot of scenes too.
 
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