Cinematography technique · used in 8 films
Making images entirely by computer and tuning the surfaces, lighting and focus to look like live-action photography. At its best, you can't tell what was filmed and what was rendered.
Examples
Robert Zemeckis · 1992
The film used early computer-generated skin textures to make the effects look real. The result let the camera stay on damage without cutting away. It was seen as a landmark for visual effects.
Where to see it: The neck reset: The shot where Madeline puts her head back into place was one of the first to use computer-made skin.
Steven Spielberg · 1993
Industrial Light & Magic built some of the dinosaurs entirely inside a computer and lit them to match the real footage around them. Combined, those computer-made dinosaurs are on screen for only about 6 minutes. Spielberg uses them sparingly, so each one feels like an event.
Where to see it: The first dinosaur. Grant and Sattler stand up in their jeep as a Brachiosaurus walks across a field and rears up to eat from a tree.
John Lasseter · 1995
Pixar's RenderMan software simulated light bouncing off plastic, fabric and wood more accurately than anything before it. The lighting in Andy's room changes with the time of day, shadows fall correctly and textures seem to have real weight. This set the visual standard that every CGI film since has either followed or pushed against.
Where to see it: The opening in Andy's bedroom. The carpet texture, the window light and the toy surfaces look photographed, with nothing of a drawing about them.
Peter Jackson · 1996
The ghosts and the hooded figure were made with computer effects, in a film that needed more digital shots than almost any movie before it. The studio doing them was young and had mostly worked with physical effects. The result is a first look at how far digital creatures could be made to feel present.
Where to see it: Reaper attack: The hooded figure kills a man marked with a number, and Frank watches it happen.
Steven Spielberg · 1997
Herds of dinosaurs run across open ground in daylight, mixed with real actors and jeeps. The animals cast shadows and kick up dust, so the scene reads as filmed. It shows a sequel pushing the digital creatures from single animals to crowds.
Where to see it: The camp stampede: Nick and Sarah release the captured dinosaurs, and the animals charge through the hunters' camp.
John Lasseter · 2006
The cars have glossy paint, chrome and windshields that reflect the sky and the desert. The detail makes them feel like real machines you could touch, even with cartoon eyes.
Where to see it: The final race: sunlight and the crowd glide over the cars' paint and glass as they speed around the track.
Ang Lee · 2012
Richard Parker is almost entirely CGI, meaning computer-generated imagery. What impresses is how specific the tiger's behavior, weight, fur and breath are. In any scene that matters, you forget to ask whether it is real.
Where to see it: Richard Parker jumping into the sea to hunt fish and swimming back toward the lifeboat. The CGI water and the CGI tiger are blended with the live-action Suraj Sharma so realistically that you believe in the bond between boy and tiger.
Barry Jenkins · 2024
Everything is made by computer and tuned to look like nature photography. Moving Picture Company handled the effects for the film's animals and landscapes.
Where to see it: The flood: young Mufasa is swept into a wetland by a flood, a scene built to look filmed.
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