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Ten Landmark Moments in CGI

doubleviking.com — Like it or not, computer-generated imagery is the wave of the future. It has single-handedly changed the way we create special effects, and, in a close second, the way we tell stories. It is with this in mind that we compiled a chronologically-ordered list counting ten important moments in the advancement's history.

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  • JAVandiver, on 01/10/2008, -4/+43No "Last Starfighter"? Denied!
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 01/10/2008, -1/+3That was the first movie that popped to mind when I saw the headline. I haven't even read the article yet.
    • jeliel, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2First thing I was looking for. I thought TRON then Last Starfighter. Cant ignore that one.
    • Elranzer, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Is it just me or did CGI in movies look better in the late 1980s and 90s? Stuff like Beowolf doesn't look realistic at all, just looks like I'm watching a 2 hour FMV in a video game.
    • TheSexyGeek, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2I must admit guilt in not remembering The Last Star Fighter, but I agree 100% I remember being totally and completely awe-struck by the CGI in that movie. That movie is still one of my all time favorites.
    • bobbyi, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2It's forgotten now, but the Michal Jackson video with face morphing (Black or White) was pretty amazing when it was new.
  • jogleby, on 01/10/2008, -4/+105Lord of the Rings should have been included. Gollum was the first CGI character that could hold its own against live action actors. He was amazingly rendered and wonderfully voiced. Jar-Jar Binks, on the other hand, not so much.
    • orangefly, on 01/10/2008, -29/+2lord of the rings looked about as good as blues clues....
    • whiterabbitobj, on 01/10/2008, -1/+20Speaking as a CG artist... this list was written by someone who has no real clue what the major steps in CG have been. Gollum was definitely a huge advance. Sky Captain, Final Fantasy, and Beowulf most certainly were not. There were a number of early steps much more important than any of those three films, including the 3D effects used in Star Wars (death star plans, rudimentary but important), and Young Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
      • funkytaco, on 01/10/2008, -0/+8Alot of older members might catch that Star Wars was omitted, but I don't think alot of the younger crowd don't realize what Industrial Light & Magic brought to the big screen in the 70's with Star War's special effects.
        • tyzent, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1ILM was extremely important, not just for what they accomplished in these specific movies, but John Lasseter, a legend of cgi worked there until he decided to start pixar.
      • LoopyChew, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1In terms of CG technology, you may be right. This list was obviously written from a viewer's perspective, however, and commenting on landmark moments in CGI for moviegoing acceptance.
    • fenris6644, on 01/10/2008, -0/+4+1 for LotR, both for Gollum and for most of the third movie as well. Pelennor Fields is still mind-boggling.
    • Thumper13, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2He never gets much mention, but Watto was an amazing piece of CG.
      Even better in Sith.

      Return of the King was also great.
    • DagMX, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Totally agree. Gollum set a new standard in motion capture and subsurface scattering in renders. Andrew Serkis(?) should also be mentioned for his wonderful acting as both gollum and king kong
  • hydroplane, on 01/10/2008, -9/+24Opening scene of Episode 3.
    • Tomchei, on 01/10/2008, -2/+8I really though it was going to be cringe worthy as the battle in Episode 1 was but it was great on a big screen.
    • soulpiercer7, on 01/10/2008, -2/+1seriously? plot wise it was stupid as hell. hey look! there's robots on your ship! stupid. should have been a spacefight. slapping pretty effects on crappy writing doesn't make it a good piece of cinema.
  • jjustice, on 01/10/2008, -3/+18Hahaha the first thing I thought when I read that title was, release of mod_cgi for apache
    • Browzer, on 01/10/2008, -0/+4Would have been more interesting.

      I'm sick of these stupid Top 10 lists that do nothing but catalogue pop culture references that we are all well aware of.
  • dnitimuljo, on 01/10/2008, -6/+3Toy Story rulezzz
  • PhilThePhenom, on 01/10/2008, -6/+16Final Fantasy was an amazing film and does not get the credit it deserves. Awesome page, dugg for brilliance and simplicity.
    • directive0, on 01/10/2008, -3/+7Finally someone who agree's with me. I still like that flick.
    • arbulus, on 01/10/2008, -5/+18Spirits Within was a decent film.

      Advent Children, however, was ***** amazing.
    • SSCrow, on 01/10/2008, -0/+8The Spirits Within is a great Movie, The characters are deep and interesting on a level beyond the visuals. In the forum of Story.

      However, Advent Children, although it had good action. Was terribly directed mess of crazy Camera moves and a blan story.
      • tyzent, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1what odd sentence structure you. Have, also can't spell
    • superdoofus, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2that was all done in maya, no new technology was developed.
    • mabhatter, on 01/10/2008, -2/+3it had nothing do do with "final fantasy" as US consumers know it. It was a cool movie, the plot was too far out for theaters. Had they released Advents Children, with more traditional "final fantasy" characters, instead they'd have made a mint.
    • Blandyman, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3i still love the spirits within. always have, always will. i even have it in 720p.

      the characters were great. i loved alec baldwin's character, but my favorite was steve buscemi's.

      the way that characters "die" is fantastic. i think if final fantasy had explored the futuristic human civ in one of the games, the movie wouldnt have gotten such poor reception. it was looked on as bad because it didnt tie into the final fantasy game series because they were all swords and magic... while spirits was guns, ghosts, and gaia.

      im sorry, but it took my 10-year-old mind to set aside my biases and really enjoy the film.
    • Elranzer, on 01/10/2008, -1/+1Final Fantasy is way too niche to have made any real money as a movie. Only the FF fans went to see it, and that's all they should have expected. Its fanbase is dwarfed by those of LotR (the books) and Star Wars... enough for those movies to be successful. Video game movies NEVER are successful, Final Fantasy is not special. Their punishment was bankruptcy, enough for Enix to buy them right out.

      Was that for the best or not? I still don't know...
  • AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -0/+24Robert Patrick as the T-1000 can still scare the piss out of me if the mood is right.

    Shows just how awesome that movie is.
  • monkeyrun, on 01/10/2008, -3/+42I am pretty sure Matrix is not a landmark in CGI, "Bullet Time" is a camera technique.
    • AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -6/+11It's both, it used green screens with a camera, and you can't use green screens without a digital feed.
      • WhiteRaven, on 01/10/2008, -3/+12"can't use green screens without a digital feed."

        False.
      • kyouteki, on 01/10/2008, -1/+8How do you think they did chroma key in the days before computers? Because they've been doing it for a long time.
    • techiemac, on 01/10/2008, -0/+10Actually there was CG involved in the Bullet Time for the Matrix. Typically when you do a bullet time shot (no pun intended), everything is green screened and in the case of the Matrix, they decided to use CG for the backgrounds simply because it was the easier option at the time.
      In addition, the composting required to "get things right" with the cameras from Bullet Time requires CG composting.
    • dunezone, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2One overlooked fact is that the movie "Blade" used similar effects of bullet time but the "Matrix" just did it better.
    • jgtg32a, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1I seem to remember Bullet time in the movie "Wing Commander" during the jump to hyperspace.
    • barc0de, on 01/10/2008, -0/+0The array of cameras used to create the bullet time effect produced motion that was too jerky and odd looking. Computer software was developed that interpolated frames inbetween the camera shots producing much better slow motion effects.
  • whiteknives, on 01/10/2008, -1/+16I want a list of the "10 Crappiest moments in CGI."
  • p0ss, on 01/10/2008, -22/+2#1!! Beowulf is AWESOME! Beowulf is way more hardcore than even Leonidas. Beowulf macks Angelina Jolie and their kid is so hardcore that is a freaking DRAGON! Beowulf even chops off his own arm so he can punch through the throat of said fire breathing dragon and rip its freakin heart out! Beowulf is THE MAN!
    • herrshuster, on 01/10/2008, -2/+7are you 12?
      • p0ss, on 01/10/2008, -6/+2are you saying that Beowulf is infact NOT the man?

        I'm not twelve, I remember seeing Jurrasic park at the movies and jumping like everyone else at the roof vent scene, the graphics were great. the same goes for the other movies (except Tron), but for all of their graphics, I honestly believe Beowulf deserves the number one spot on this list.
        Beowulf the movie has the greatest CGI I have ever seen, It is possibly the greatest story ever told and it features an amazing cast of excelent actors. Do you blame me for being a fan?
        • Darph.Bobo, on 01/10/2008, -1/+6I'm sure he meant no disrespect Mr. Zemeckis.
      • johnnick, on 01/10/2008, -1/+1No, we blame you for acting like a fanboi.
        • shmatt, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1I dunno, I think your comment was way more annoying... with those avril levigne spelling skillz
          • johnnick, on 01/11/2008, -0/+1It's just a measure of extremes. First there's fanboy, then the next level of silliness is "fanboi."
    • p0ss, on 01/10/2008, -0/+5Digg, you changed man. You used to be cool. Now we don't even like the same movies...
      • herrshuster, on 01/10/2008, -1/+1hey i liked the movie, you just had a rather immature response
      • YoctoYotta, on 01/10/2008, -2/+1Hey, look at that, I was just handed this:

        Dearest p0ss, I had a great time at the movies with you, but you just couldn't keep your hands off of me. I found that very disrespectful. May your future endeavors take you far, creep.

        Sincerely,
        Digg
  • ut2k4king, on 01/10/2008, -2/+2I'd have had Star Wars Episode 2 on the list, not because it was really the best, but because it offered a great comparison, just by looking at Yoda, of what we could do with non-human characters 20 years ago versus today.
    • norman619, on 01/10/2008, -1/+7Episodes 1 - 3 were very long demo reels for the FX house nothing more.
      • fridenstrom, on 01/10/2008, -0/+6And they already begin to look dated.
  • alfal99, on 01/10/2008, -0/+16where the hell is king kong/ gollum?
    • skellener, on 01/10/2008, -0/+13Gollum deserves one of those spots instead of what's listed in #3, #2 or #1.
      • SolidSnake24, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1the top 3 movies do not deserve to be there!
  • bazwilliams, on 01/10/2008, -0/+18No Genesis Effect? Inaccurate article - Star Trek Wrath of Khan was the first milestone in CG film by the then spin off from Lucasfilm, Pixar!

    Much better history:
    http://www.beanblossom.in.us/larryy/cgi.html
    • kyouteki, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3That was the first thing I thought of, too. The Genesis proposal film was a really big deal.
  • samanathon, on 01/10/2008, -2/+1This list leaves much to be desired (First CGI character: "Jason and the Argonauts"), it is a decent list for those who are unaware of any CGI "milestones".
    • Herbie555, on 01/10/2008, -0/+13Umm, the first CGI character on-screen was the Stained-glass knight from "Young Sherlock Holmes", courtesy of ILM. I don't know what version of "Jason and the Argonauts" you are referring to, but if its the Ray Harryhausen version from 1963, that was stop-motion animation, not computers...

      And any list that DOESN'T include the first-on-screen CGI character, is a non-list.
      • BassHead, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1"Bit" from Tron predates Young Sherlock Holmes...
  • skellener, on 01/10/2008, -1/+11#3, #2, #1 are not landmarks.
  • AndrewDS, on 01/10/2008, -1/+20What about ReBoot? Wasn't that the first completely CGI TV show?
    • Elranzer, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Pirates XXX: First CGI in porn?
    • soulpiercer7, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3Beast wars was pretty early. 12 years ago.
      • bobbyi, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Reboot was before Toy Story. At that point, most people didn't believe that you could have a tv show that was just CGI so Reboot was mindblowing. By the time Beast Wars started, Toy Story had really shifted everyone's mindset about what you could do with CGI so CGI tv show didn't seem that amazing.
    • 1ofMany, on 01/10/2008, -0/+5When I saw Toy Story after hearing everyone go on about how ground breaking it was I was a bit disappointed. Reboot was dong pretty much the same thing (with perhaps a little less polish) on a weekly basis.
  • brjndr, on 01/10/2008, -1/+6T2 should have been #1. It was a landmark moment in CGI.
    • imightbewrong, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2i think the order was chronilogical
      • imightbewrong, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2 chronological , missed the edit :P
  • kaffein, on 01/10/2008, -1/+3Spy Captain, but no Casshern...? Denied!
    • Porch, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3Dang. I found one other person on the web that has seen Casshern. I didn't think they exist. Speaks English too.
      • kaffein, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Movie is 9/10. -1 for being a little too drawn out at the end.
  • daniel1113, on 01/10/2008, -0/+12I'm glad to see that he recognized Forrest Gump as a VFX masterpiece. Unlike most VFX films, few people are able to recognize the majority of VFX scenes in Forrest Gump, which is why it is so good. Mad props to Robert Zemeckis and crew.
    • gudnbluts, on 01/10/2008, -0/+8What amazed me about that movie was the scene where he's carrying Gary Sinese around, and he has no legs. It's not flashy, but it was incredibly well done.
  • kaffein, on 01/10/2008, -6/+3Casshern (Japan 2004) – Shot on celluloid. A few practical set pieces used.
  • kaffein, on 01/10/2008, -0/+8 * Casshern (Japan 2004) – Shot on celluloid. A few practical set pieces used. (First, not skycaptain...)
    * Able Edwards (United States 2004) – Shot digitally on Canon XL1 cameras.
    * Immortel (Ad Vitam) (France 2004) – Shot on celluloid. Also showed CGI characters interacting with live actors.
    * Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (United States 2004) – Shot digitally on Sony CineAlta cameras.
    * Sin City (United States 2005) – Shot digitally on CineAlta cameras. Three practical sets used.
    * MirrorMask (United States/England 2005) – Shot on celluloid. 80% of film uses digital backlot. Some practical set pieces used.
    * The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (United States 2005) – Shot digitally.
    * 300 (United States 2007) – Shot on celluloid. Two practical sets were used.

    Forgive the dupes, digg is sucking right now.
    • Serris, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2In other words, this article not only made some poor points, but also incudes blatantly false information. Wikipedia alone will tell you that at least three films were made before Sky Captain using the Digital Backlot technique.
    • Trav3133, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1your list sucks more than the original.
  • imightbewrong, on 01/10/2008, -1/+6300?
  • patrickloggins, on 01/10/2008, -0/+5What about Money for Nothing?
    • soulpiercer7, on 01/10/2008, -1/+1...and chicks for free?
      if you got that joke, I officially love you.
  • stepnet, on 01/10/2008, -1/+4Pretty sure the pseudopod from the Abyss was a puppet... I'm sure I saw the puppet in the making of documentary.

    The water tentacle on the other hand, that was CG.
  • Rikushix, on 01/10/2008, -1/+9Maybe I'll get dugg down for this...but what about Reboot? All of these things mentioned were movies. Maybe I'm just biased, being from Vancouver and hence well versed about Mainframe Entertainment...but that was a sweet show I watched as a kid.
  • ptsd, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2***** Luxo Jr. should have been #1

    if you dont know what Luxo Jr is then you shouldnt even be discussing this topic
    ...and mother ***** superpaint http://www.rgshoup.com/prof/SuperPaint/ should have been mentioned somewhere.
  • bigbill780, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2What about Independence Day with that huge dogfight scene... pretty big step. "I gots to get me one of these!!!"
  • superdoofus, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3doubleviking does not do its homework and still posts articles that read like they were written by my little brother's uninformed and annoying friend (the one that still thinks that "american pie" will be proven as a seminal work in the history of cinema).
    ahem...the makers of the movie "willow" created the algorithm for "morphing", which had tremendous effects on not only cgi, but image processing in general. a cool movie does not equal pioneering achievements in the application or development of cgi.
  • p_o_b, on 01/10/2008, -0/+5To me the best CGI in Forrest Gump wasn't the "Meeting famous people" scenes, those alterations were mainly obvious. The ones that impressed me were the small things like Lt. Dan's legs, the crowd of hippies at the mall, carrying the soldiers out of the jungle and, of course Bubba's lip. I didn't wonder how they made Lennon talk to Forrest, I wanted to know how they made a guy without lower legs walk so normally.
  • iamscottevil, on 01/10/2008, -1/+1I'm still amazed how little CG is actually in those movies, most of it is either physical effects or hand animation. Tron was mostly done with backlit animation techniques (the solar sailer and light cycles I think are CG). Jurassic park was almost all real robots, and in T2 CG was only used to morph between dozens of slightly different sculptures they made of each thing like the bullet holes reforming and coming up from the floor. Most of the CG craze was a PR move by Lucasfilm's ILM mainly Dennis Muren, the he ate humble pie after HULK was a disaster promising so much to Ang Lee and making it look like a bad bouncing cartoon.
    Remember, if it's on TV or in a movie, it's not real and they didn't do it the way you think they did. Movie Magic!
  • PurpleSfinx, on 01/10/2008, -1/+4"Final Fantasy singlehandedly bankrupted Square Pictures. Not because it was awful, of course, but because it was so incredibly meh. The story was uninspired, the characters bland, and, most notable of all, the animation stiff and creepy."
    I'm not against him simply for disagreeing, but it really seems to me this person didn't even watch the movie. The animation was smooth and beautiful, the story was well thought out and strong, and the characters were far from bland.
    If you didn't like the movie, fine, (even though I loved it), but those are really bad reasons not to like it.
  • Acecrow, on 01/10/2008, -0/+4ٍٍDoesn't Smeagol belong in that list or am I missing something?
  • daleksarewimps, on 01/10/2008, -1/+7This list really does suck. Come on, The Matrix? Now, I haven't seen Beowulf, but its not revolutionary CGI. It's an improvement over an old idea. Where's the stain glass knight from Young Sherlock Holmes? The Genesis scene from Star Trek 2? John Lasseter's The Adventures of Andre and Wally B?

    Someone at Double Viking needs to take a Film class.
    • tyzent, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1honestly, any of lasseter's work was revolutionary at the time, and almost the entire list was work done by Industrial Light and Magic.
  • fenris6644, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1I definitely don't like the "numbering" system since it seems to imply rank but is actually chronological. T-2 and JP both need to be way up near the "top", and I would definitely give honorable mention for "Matrix Reloaded" considering the humans in the Burly Brawl actually looked pretty damn realistic.
  • Kronos6948, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2No lawnmower man?
  • amercer, on 01/10/2008, -0/+4I don't care if the list is chronological, it just doesn't look right without Jurassic Park at number 1. The scene where the T-rex comes through the fence is still one of the impressive shows of CGI in film history. I don't care what anyone says, it will never look dated, that ***** looks REAL.
  • TheNik, on 01/10/2008, -1/+2Wait - was that Final Fantasy scene actually in the movie? :/
  • nighthawk8713, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2Why isn't Avatar on the list? Oh, wait...
  • jbmcb, on 01/10/2008, -0/+4Incredibly lame list, missing -

    Young Sherlock Holmes - first CG character, and first use of CG compositing I believe

    The Little Mermaid - First use of CG tweening in traditional animation (used on pretty much ALL 2d animation since)

    The Last Starfighter - First completely CG scenes (as someone else posted above)

    And as for the inclusions - "Bullet Time" is just some fancy compositing/tweening with a specialized camera rig. It's a neat effect, but it hasn't been used beyond basic action movie eye candy.
    • Elranzer, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Actually, Disney's The Great Mouse Detective (1986) pre-dates Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989). There was CGI tweening in the clock tower scene towards the end.
  • Spoomeister, on 01/10/2008, -0/+2Here, let's stop giving doubleviking further hits and ad revenue: 10. Tron 9. The Abyss 8. Terminator 2 7. Jurassic Park 6. Forrest Gump 5. Toy Story 4. The Matrix 3. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 2. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 1. Beowulf
  • andritchie, on 01/10/2008, -0/+6To think that Jurassic Park came out almost 15 years ago is absolutely insane. For the most part the CG work is a masterpiece and way ahead of its time. It still holds its own to this day.
    • DonCarcharo, on 01/10/2008, -0/+4I agree. I can't believe that film is so old and yet looks so good. It's even more amazing that many contemporary films, such as the latest Star Wars flicks, don't look appreciably better. Yes there's more CG, but the quality of the shots is not always better.
  • kermithefrogand, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1umm... how about vanilla sky?
  • DNABeast, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1I really surprised that Jumanji wasn't on the list. It was a tragic film but it was the first film to portray recognisable creatures in major roles. Because we don't know how dinosaurs moved that could fake it but the animals in Jumanji had to match our memories, plus they had hair.
  • manofaction, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1I would like to throw this into the hat...
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=2W4EBoQmWPs
    (Not a movie, but definitely a landmark moment!)
  • palmerized, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1I think they key is what set the bar at the time. Movies like T2 and Jurassic Park did. Not so sure about the top 3 at all. I'd def. put 300 on that list. And, like them or not, StarWars was a big influence on CG films. Also -- Lord of the Rings. It's not only character CG work, but digital mattes and compositing.
  • 10GunSalute, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Wow was I thinking of something completely different, I need to spend less time with Perl...
  • shadowspawn, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1Blade Runner (Lightwave STILL rocks)
    The Last Star Fighter
    Beauty and the Beast (dance scene in the great hall)
    Toy Story
    Monsters, Inc.
    • prcpaul, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3um, blade runner didn't use any CG. it was all compositing.
  • Dys>, on 01/10/2008, -0/+3No mention of Dire Straits - Money for Nothing music video eh?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNaKWXqXkhw
  • TheSexyGeek, on 01/10/2008, -0/+1At the time, The CG in The Lawnmower Man was the greatest visual experience of my movie going life. Maybe not revolutionary, but I think it deserves honorable mention.
  • soulpiercer7, on 01/10/2008, -1/+3BEAST WARS!
    no Emmy winning completely cgi sci-fi show based on action figures on your list? you = failure
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