Computer-Generated Images

“Photoshopping,” Motion Pictures, and Virtual Worlds

Programmers have developed graphics software for computer-generated images, many of which are relatively inexpensive for the production of artwork, games, and other works on personal computers. For individuals and graphic design studios, software packages include Photoshop, Art of Illusion, Blender, POV Ray, Clamix Modeler, Genesis 3D editor, and Z Modeler. Changes made to photographs are called “photoshopping” or, in earlier times, “airbrushing.” Graphic images are altered in order to deceptively create the illusion that what is seen is the actual original photograph. When viewed on the Internet, these images are difficult for most people to detect as alterations.

More complex packages are expensive and are used to produce full-length animated or special-effects motion pictures. For example, graphic special-effects imagery studios such as Pixar use complex programs and professional “plug-ins” to create animated movies. The 3D imagery generated by these computers are in some ways similar [Page 186]to the imagery produced by the traditional methods of Walt Disney Studios and other firms that produced cartoon films. Disney and other studios had armies of artists who drew picture after picture to produce the numerous frames that moved so rapidly that to the human eye, the pictures seemed to move.

Computer-generated images can be static or move dynamically. They can be be flat, two-dimensional works, or generated in three-dimensional formats. Some motion picture releases, such as Turbo (2013), have been created in 3D format. These graphically animated films are a development from the first anaglyphic production in 1915 and later, the “golden era” of 3D movies of the 1950s, such as Fort Ticonderoga (1953). However, they have usually been treated as a novelty. Modern computer-generated images have advanced into new frontiers of visualization through special effects.

Commercial animated films are produced on rapidly advancing digital imaging products that are used from storyboard to shooting and editing films. There are two basic ways in which digital imaging is used. First, it can remove unwanted elements from each frame of a motion picture. The second use of CGI is to build images. For example, the feather in Forrest Gump (1994) that flutters by the steeple of the Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia, or the creation of herds of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (1993). Today's filmmakers no longer need vast collections of miniature models for filming battle scenes or other events.

Computer-generated animations may also create virtual worlds. Like motion pictures in general, they are the makers of illusions, such as creating the illusion that the viewer is seeing motion. It also draws the viewer into the imaginary world of the story, even if the story is about historical events.

False stories or trick photography was also used in the motion pictures of the age of film, and new computer-generated images have increased the opportunity for deception. Because people understand that motion pictures are illusions created by the work of filmmakers, the deception is usually socially acceptable. However, one result is that film theory is facing new problems about visual effects and ideas of realism.

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