Why CG Sucks Except it Doesn t Is using computer generate visual effects running movies these days o Cinema 1992 95 when first Jurassic Park came out o Practical effects these days Hear how these are always better and filmmakers are going to use more bc the fact is CG visual effects look bad Nope don t think so believe it looks bad bc we only see bad cg Good cg is everywhere we just don t know it Great visual effects serve story and character o In doing so their very definition invisible and the way you get great images is nothing to do with understanding strengths weaknesses of what the computer can do Playing w those strengths while supplementing the weaknesses w other techs o Now comps are good at rendering things cars tables buildings objects handle it fantastically Used all the time Vehicles any movie in the air and following a car on the street is a CG car Car crashes are using CG cars too bc safer Iron man flying through Manhattan Iron man himself is fully CG He barely wears a suit these days just slaps it on him w comp o Comps are good at complex material Cloth animal fur skin Skin was a challenge at first bc tm final fantasy was bragging they were photo realistic Matrix Movie Ben Button s face is CGI o Humans still super difficult bc so used to what other humans look like so any anomaly sticks out to us Don t hire as many extras anymore bc large crowds can be built an animated inside the comp Animals were pretty good o Simulating our world comps have it down Water waves in 1997 for Titanic explosions fire smoke Eric Barbara in the girl with the dragon tattoo used real fire which is helpful for the effects Neil Blomkamp and image engine simulated reality can look fantastic Physics tough bc while materials might pass the test of looking photo realistic animation betrays the fact that it s cg a common feeling of CG objects is that they seem to or don t seem to have enough weight to try combat Animators will work off some kind of real world reference be at reference footage or actual reference data capture fm an actor Alfonso Cuaron in Frame Source Gravity Freeze frame most of env is CG even Sandra Bullock is CG most the time Mad Max by George Miller Everybody though this movie is an example of how good practical effects could be Behind the scenes Miller was letting cg artists do a lot of stuff in the comp for this movie Michael Bay director who understands how the blend of practical elements of comp imagery can create a whole greater than the sum of its parts o Modern movies are full of visual effects Not seeing the whole pic if you cherry pick bad visual effects and blame industry for making movies how they are Reason you can usually boil down bad quality visual effects to 2 reasons Money Time The whole visual effects industry is in a tough spot Competitive land scape Razor thin margins Studios looking for vendors who promised fast and low price o Visual effects artist combined incredible artisty and tech skill doing shots for hours and if they do job well no one notices it Why you never see a great move w awful visual effects o Bc we don t have much to complain about when it comes to great movies o So into the craft and storytelling that we re in the back of our heads looking for a easy scapegoat o When we think about a great movie Think about story characters and if visual effect isn t good we forgive it Not a prob w visual effects might be just a prob w movie itself o Since beginning of cinema visual effects have been a part of this art form o Cg is a tool for filmmaker o So maybe prob is filmmaker for not using tool correctly Seduced by Perfect Pitch how Auto Tune conquered pop music by Lessley Anderson Jan 2010 Kesha was 1 on Billboard w her album Animal o Much of her voice done by Autotune o Built a persona as a badass wastoid said all male visitors to tour bus must submit being photographed w pants down even bus driver o Promote Warrior authentic her o Important for voice to be heard Guardian called a robo sqawk devoid of all emotion Pitch correction software o Auto tune has become bitchy shorthand for saying someone can t sing but everybody s using it You can even use it live so an artist can sing out of tune in concert As humans we crave connection not perfection They re all zombies o Cher s late 90s comeback and makeover as a gay icon can be attributed to Auto Tune For yrs producers claimed it was a digitech talker vocoder pedal effect In 98 released the single believe created w Autotune o Tech which debuted in 97 as a plug in for pro tools works like this Select key song is in Autotune analyze singer s vocal line moving wrong notes up down to intended pitch Can control time it takes for prog to move pitch For Cher chose zero setting for max pop o Believe was a huge hit but musical nerds didn t like it Albini awful and aghast to see ppl he respected using auto tune o Auto tune effect spread slow through the industry like T pain It s makin me money so I aint about to stop o Glitch auto tune mode seems destined to be remembered as the sound of the 2000s o Auto tune isn t the only robot voice effect to have wormed its way into pop music 70s 80s voice synthesizer effects units became popular w a lot of bands Most famous Vocoder invented in 30s to send encoded Allied msgs during WW2 Proto techno groups embraced it 70s used another effect talk box Easier to rig up than the vocoder o Operate it via rubber mouth tube when applying vocals o Produces amts of slobber o use of showy effects usually have a backlash Jay Z DOA Death of Auto tune Everybody uses it o Much speculation online about who does doesn t use Auto tune Taylor Swift key target when doing a duet w Stevie Nicks suggests she s tone deaf Said earpiece was messed up Poolside saves a ton of time everybody uses it o You can use Auto tune for other instruments too Tweak a note like if guitar is rubbing up against a vocal in a weird way o Btwn those 2 extremes there s a synthetic middle where auto tune is used to correct nearly every note Most pop music prod today has a slick synth y tone o 2009 online petition went around protesting the overuse of Auto Tune on Glee Artists and producers who d talk were conflicted Gitelman for a long time they fought it but have to have a clean modern sound Hanging above a recording studio Don …