Just Plain Ol' Regular CGI

there's a BIZARRE CGI shot in one of the S2 episodes... when the garbage gets dumped on the deli owner's parking lot and he's calling to complain about it and the garbage is in the foreground and it's clearly a static plate that's been pasted in... so weird

― s1ocki, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:52 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

In all these other threads, everyone talks about Spiderman and Jar Jar Binks. What notable examples are there of just ordinary hum-drum CGI, good or bad, where later on you think, "What they couldn't get a real pile of trash?"

One example I can think of is the bee that stings Matthew Broderick in Election. That's a movie where you're not expecting digital wizardry.

I've mentioned this example before but in Catwoman there's a bunch of inexplicably CGI cats.

If you've ever tried to train a cat, those CGI cats become a lot more explicable.

One example I can think of is the bee that stings Matthew Broderick in Election. That's a movie where you're not expecting digital wizardry.

to be fair pretty hard to get a bee to sting on cue

x-post

i taught my cat to say "chock full of nuts!" dude

If you've ever tried to train a cat, those CGI cats become a lot more explicable.

― Ca-hoot na na na oh oh (HI DERE), Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:40 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hiring a wrangler seems cheaper than CGI-ing but what do i know

i think in one of the tomb raider movies there was cgi water that flowed into some sort of mystical device, it looked so dumb

i want to hear more about this:

i taught my cat to say "chock full of nuts!" dude

― Q: Why was the mushroom so popular? A: He was a fungi (latebloomer), Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:49 PM (2 minutes ago)

The CGI groundhog gopher things in the latest Indiana Jones. Why???

hiring a wrangler seems cheaper than CGI-ing but what do i know

that's it. I've had an epiphany. I will hence drop all other career pursuits and answer my true calling as a cat-wrangler.

Was thinking this was about CGI vs. AS techs.

There's a scene in Forrest Gump where Lt. Dan is sitting on the floor with no legs, next to one of those wire-spool thingys used as endtables. I knew that they hadn't really cut off Gary Sinise's legs, but was surprised to see that the table hadn't really been in the room when the scene was shot either.

Only time I know that i've been really fooled by CGI was in Jurassic Park where the T Rex knocks over a plain ol' regular jeep with its head - for some reason I assumed the jeep was real and rigged to flip etc, then matted in with the T-Rex.

i want to hear more about this:

i taught my cat to say "chock full of nuts!" dude

My cat Skittles (since deceased, RIP) was very vocal and we trained him to "talk" in exchange for food and treats. I honestly think there was a rudimentary form of imitation involved (obviously reinforced by the food and treats), as he didn't meow in distinct syllables before we started "talking" back to him. One time I was in the kitchen with a friend and Skittles walked in, doing his usual "ma-ma" meow that we taught him. Glancing at a bag of Chock Full of Nuts coffee nearby I decided to throw him a curveball. I said "Skittles, say 'chock full of nuts!'"

And I'll be damned, he let out a multisyllabic meow that sounded EXACTLY like he was saying 'chock full of nuts!' We immediately rewarded him with some treats.

try to CGI that shit, Hollywood

Only time I know that i've been really fooled by CGI was in Jurassic Park where the T Rex knocks over a plain ol' regular jeep with its head - for some reason I assumed the jeep was real and rigged to flip etc, then matted in with the T-Rex.

― ledge, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:21 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

oh no shit, i just saw this on the TV a few days ago and thought the same thing about that jeep

The investigation of the cab driver crime scene, at the intersection of Washington and Cherry in SF, in David Fincher's "Zodiac" -- they couldn't get permission to film parts of the street or houses, so they CGI'ed it.

The lions in I Am Legend

wolves in the day after tomorrow

lions and wolves are hum-drum?

I could say a lot of things re: 'Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow' but they took that shit and RAN with it so I have to grant them some kind of diplomatic immunity.

Much as I love "Let the right one in", I have to say that it does feature totally unconvincing CGI cats. The old Hammer technique of chucking placid stage moggies at a writhing, ketchup-smeared actor would have worked far better.

The CGI groundhog gopher things in the latest Indiana Jones. Why???

Y, those thing made me really angry. When Indy opened the fridge door to realize he'd escaped nuclear annihalation (concluding an opening which I thought boded very well for the film) only to have that little scamp of a prarie dog be all like "aw shucks, who'dathunkit," I knew the jig was up. This was confirmed later by the monkeys and ants (the real insects in Temple of Doom were about 1000 times more awesome than those lame ants).

Would anyone watch a horror movie about evil CGI monkeys that turn out to be robots... and then a character says "they are robots! No wonder they looked like CGI."
Just out of curiosity, because that;'s the movie I'm currently writing.

It's supposed to be a comedy horror movie. It might have zombies dancing to thriller.

"It might have zombies dancing to thriller."

Suggest Zombies dancing to almost anything else.

crumping zombies

zombies that turn into monkeys

Oh, duh. Best example of what I'm talking about is in Eyes Wide Shut.

There are zombies turning into monkeys in Eyes Wide Shut? WHY WASN'T I TOLD?

you didn't know the password.

During that fight scene in the corridor in Oldboy, the knife that gets stuck in his back is CGI the entire time.

If yr being serious, that must've been a post-production addition merely to avoid the expense of a re-shoot b/c, really, how hard would it be to come up with a convincing knife prop? A++++ scene, tho, regardless.

That is weird.

Imagine what they could have done to Willem Defoe's squibs in post-production had they had CGI back in 1986 (ff to 2:00.)

Also, the David Letterman scene in "Man on the Moon" where Dave apparently only agreed to do one take while Jim Carrey and Jerry Lawler did the rest of their takes talking to a blue screen.

at must've been a post-production addition merely to avoid the expense of a re-shoot b/c, really, how hard would it be to come up with a convincing knife prop?

One that you could guarantee wouldn't get pulled or knocked off, or otherwise made to look awry, in a long, single-take highly choreographed fight scene? Probably pretty hard.

lions and wolves are hum-drum?

On 300 million dollar action movies? Yeah. They couldn't find an animal trainer for a minute of lion footage?

No!

I am kind of bothered by how they have switched back and forth from real to animatronic to CGI polar bears in LOST.

btw am i supposed to read yr name to the tune of i like to move it move it, because that's what i'm doing and it's funny

zatoichi

Unlike that Oldboy scene, there's only one very minor piece of CGI here:

o i see, cuz the googenheim don't got carpets like that

Is it at 2:14?

yeah, that's what I figured it probably was for real.

No, at ~1:04! The video's description reads:

On the 2nd floor, Tony Jaa slams a door into the head of a stuntman and the small glass window on the door was supposed to break. It failed to do so, so they used CGI to fix this.

ok I posted this on ILF but I meant to ask the broader group here:
Are there any instances of CGI being intentionally disturbing/unsettling? I'm not talking about uncanny valley stuff unless it's on purpose. I was thinking about this with regard to the trailer for the Thing remake--there have been plenty of practical effects that have been scary/disturbing/creepy but I couldn't think of any CG examples off the top of my head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZPQdZLyHYE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CknLD0B4LpA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtxyfQtZlKQ

from this week's fargo:
http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q686/tinyservants/fargogun_zps8650dcae.gif