COMPUTERS IN THE MOVIES




Since the beginning of the 1990's the use of computer graphics in the 
movie industry has come to the public's eye.
More and more movie's being made today are starting to rely on the 
use of computers for their special effects. Primarily for there 
saving in cost as compared to using expensive models, secondly for 
the time that can be saved, as using models is a very time consuming 
process. Thirdly, camera angles that would be impossible to achieve 
with normal equipment are easily created with the use of computer 
equipment. I think I would be write in thinking that many of you out 
there probably didn't realise that computer graphics were in fact 
used substantially in the movie business as far back as 1983.


I thought it would be informative to anyone interested in animation 
and the use of computers in movies, if I brought to light some of the 
movies that have made use of computer animation and effects, some you 
may heard of, some perhaps you may not. Not all of them use the Amiga 
Video-Toaster, but most do and the list is growing every day.


The earliest movie I can remember is 'TRON', the Walt Disney Classic 
that introduced computer animation to the public and proved that it 
was possible to build a movie around computer special effects.
'The Last Starfighter' was much publicised in that it used a CRAY 
computer, this incredibly powerful (At the time) computer was used to 
create some dazzling effects, that even by today's standards are 
something special. The only problem was they did not look 'real' they 
looked as if they had been created on a computer. So the problem has 
been since then how to make computer graphics more life like. 
'Starchaser-The Legend of Orin' got around this problem, as the 
entire film was cartoon based. The first time I watched it I didn't 
realise computers had been used, but if you ever get a chance to 
see it, some of the animation is just to good, watch the spaceships 
taking off and some of the battles and you will see what I mean.
Remember all the hype 'Terminator II' received because of the use of 
'morphing' throughout the film. Do you think that was the first time 
morphing had been used in a film? If you thought it was, you would be 
wrong.
Does 'Flight of the Navigator' ring a bell. I can recall watching in 
awe as the walnut shaped space craft morphed into the streamlined 
dart shaped ship, the reflections of the outside world on the hull of 
the ship, the shadow on the ground as it skimmed the earth below. 
Fabulous stuff.
The effects in 'Terminator II' are actually refined effects that the 
director 'James Cameron' first used in the far superior 'The Abyss', 
which incidently is now available with an extra 22 minutes of unseen 
footage.
Joe Dante's 'The Explorers' used large amounts of computer animation 
for the dream sequences, showing the stars of the film flying over a 
computer circuit board.
I could go into detail and tell you about every film, but as that 
would take pages and pages I'll just list them. If you get the chance 
to watch any of them see if you can spot were the computer animation 
has been used, all the following films have computer animation 
sequences in them, but some are very difficult to notice. How good 
are you at distinguishing the difference between what is real and 
what is not?


Ferngully-The Last Rainforest, An American Tale-Fivel Goes West 
,D.A.R.Y.L, Blue Thunder, RoboCop 2, Jetsons-The Movie, StarTrek VI, 
Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 
Jurassic Park, CliffHanger, Lawnmower Man (Very Hard!), Sleepwalkers.


Where does it leave us, the home computer user? You have probably 
watched a film with computer animation in it and thought to yourself, 
"Wow, I wish I was talented enough to create work like that."
Well to be honest, there are thousands of you out there that could 
produce stunning effects,to rival those seen in movies. The problem 
is you have one disadvantage, MONEY. The equipment used to create 
such effects cost's thousands of pounds, that's fine for the lucky 
people who have access to such equipment, but for those who are on a 
tight budget, well, forget it.


Now I know it is not in the same league as big budget movie's but 
look at Tobias Richter's 'SPACE WARS' Video. A fantastic achievement 
(Even though the sound effects are out of sync with the graphic's), 
yes, but have a look at the hardware he used to create it. Half a 
dozen A3000's, yes Tobias, you were really strapped for equipment 
weren't you. I know of people who could produce work of twice that 
quality if given the opportunity to use the equipment you had at 
hand. 
Don't think because Tobias Richter, James Robinson (Automated Light) 
and Craig Collins (Mean Machine) produce massive animation's that 
they are any more talented than you and I, they are not! It is just 
they have the money to purchase expensive modelling and Animation 
Packages. Put them on a tight budget, then see what kind of 
productions they would produce.
Eric Swartz of the other hand has genuine talent. What I mean is that 
I have done 3D Solid Modelling and Animation, and it is a lot easier 
to produce than cartoon animation, as with 3D, the computer does most 
of the colouring and shading for you. You are just left with the 
movement to worry about( and if the rumours about him working for 
Disney are true, we are in for a treat!).


Well what would an article about the use of computer's in movie's be 
without mentioning Babylon 5 or Seaquest DSV. Although they are not 
'MOVIE'S' they will hopefully reach a much wider audience being 
screened on TV. If there was ever a better demonstration of the 
potential of both the Amiga and Videotoaster Hardware, Babylon 5 and 
Seaquest DSV are it.
I must admit though, watching the first series of Seaquest, it seemed 
to me that all the effects outside the sub all seemed a bit to DARK. 
Maybe it was just me. Let's just hope the stories improve enough to 
match the effects, as many of you will probably agree some of the 
stories from the first series leave a lot to be desired.
Babylon 5 has been one of the most eagerly awaited series for Amiga 
Owners, and by the time you read this, it will have been on a good 
few weeks. Those of you who watched the first episode, probably found 
yourselves a bit lost, well the simple fact is, Channel 4, did not 
screen the pilot episode first, a pretty stupid thing to do, instead 
they have gone ahead and just screened the series. Never mind, you 
should soon catch up.
As for the effects, well, the words, stunning, fabulous, jaw 
dropping, come to mind. Although some of the shots of the outside 
look to 'Sharp', there is still a lot of room for improvement, but 
then again, I'm very picky.
Remember all the SFX were created with Amiga's, there was not a 
glimpse of the pre 80's technology PC. As I mentioned earlier in this 
article, look at some of the camera angles achieved in Babylon 5, 
they would be impossible to achieve with conventional camera 
equipment.


Not all SI-FI series have used computer animation to good effect. I 
recently watched two episodes from series 7 of The Next Generation. 
It showed a pathetically rendered Enterprise flying in front of a 
Borg ship, very, very shoddy, and very jerky, Babylon 5 quality, it 
was not!


With 'RoboCop-The Series' which uses the Video-Toaster for it's 
special effects now being screened in America and receiving rave 
reviews, the future of the Amiga Video-Toaster has never looked so 
bright.


Perhaps the time will come in the future when we will watch a film 
and find it impossible to distinguish between what is real and what 
is computer generated, that time may be far in the future, but it's 
getting closer every day.......


Article (C) of Paul Horton for Channel Z 1994.