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Monday, 6 January 2020

14 groundbreaking movies that took special effects to new levels

20th Century Fox

Numerous movies have made use of groundbreaking visual effects.
The first use of CGI in a movie came in 1973 during a scene in "Westworld."
"Cats" has been ridiculed for its strange use of CGI, but that doesn't mean it isn't innovative.
Other poorly received movies have been important for the development of CGI techniques.
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The first movie to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) was "Westworld." The process, which involves rendering special effects on a computer rather than physically, has only become more prevalent since then.

Some critically acclaimed films, such as "Titanic" and "The Matrix" changed the face of moviemaking with CGI. Others — "Tron" and "Young Sherlock Holmes" — are less fondly remembered, but were groundbreaking nonetheless.

"Cats," the 2019 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name, has come under fire for its weird, fiendish use of CGI, but the technique, which digitally grafted fur onto the actors, is still innovative.

Read on for a list of the 14 most groundbreaking CGI movies ever.

14. "Cats" used digital fur technology to make the human actors appear like felines.

Universal Pictures

Though largely reviled by audiences and critics alike, "Cats'" creation and implementation of "digital fur technology" is groundbreaking, and may be put to better use in the future.

To achieve the creepy effect of putting fur, ears, and whiskers on actors, artists combined CGI with motion capture technology.

13. "The Irishman" is not the first movie to de-age actors, but it is the best.

Netflix

This three-and-a-half-hour epic used de-aging technology to make Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci look younger. Many others have attempted the process, and to some extent succeeded — notably on Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" — but never on this scale.

12. "Star Wars" has hardly any CGI, but it laid the foundation for more bold applications in the future.

Lucasfilm Ltd.

Though most of the effects were created with matte paintings and models — the rest were added in the following years — the original "Star Wars" did have a couple of small computer generated effects, namely the Death Star diagram that was displayed in the briefing scene.

The largest contribution that came out of the movie, however, was the creation of George Lucas' company Industrial Light and Magic, which is still an industry pioneer.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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