CGI is great, but do you ever find yourself missing the stop action work of people like Ray Harryhausen in films?
by 
Merfish
ANSWERS: 10
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In regards to CGI in films, I think films like Lord of the Rings got it right - Actors and amazing costumes for the up-close bits, CGI for the long distance / massed people sort of scenes. Films like Spiderman, that have pretty much 'all' of the action parts done in CGI just loose their realism... I don't really know what you mean by "the stop action work of people like Ray Harryhausen", but I agree that CGI can only go so far. (lol, and I'm doing a degree in CGI work)
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Ray Harryhausen's work.
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I can not resist Harryhausen's stop motion creatures. But if anyone is going to revive that in modern cinema, they have to be absolutely dedicated. CGI has become so popular now, even Aardman have used it for Flushed away. Still, I'd choose Jason and the Argonaughts over Pirates of the Carribean any day.
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Harryhausen's stop-action had personality....not like the last CG I saw: I am Legend. It was a great film, but the CG was down-right pitiful.
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The topic is very different but the claymation work of Nick Parks in the Wallice and Grommit series is just too fun not to like. He also did work in Chicken Run. Much better than Pixar Stuff IMO. It old Harryhausen stuff was OK, but it was a bit hokey. I do agree that overuse is the worst side of CGI. What about the promice of new movues with dead actors? It has been said they will soon digitize them from old films and then create new movies with them as stars. Creapy or what?
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nothing is better than gloriously rendered CG. Silicon Graphics being the former best(Starwars,Shrek,Jurassic Park,toy story, etc)Beowulf being the latest beautiful CG movie thanks to nVidia. Im all for CG.
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Funny you should mention that. I just rented "Clash of the Titans" from Netflix a couple of weeks ago for that exact reason. It really took me back. I'm not going to get into the whole CGI vs old-school effects argument, because I don't have the energy to write a 5-page essay about it. I will just say, I have seen a TON of movies, and my favorite special effects of all time was Rob Bottin's ingenious work in "The Thing".
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You can definitely get some CG personality. For me, Davie Jones in Pirates 2 & 3 had spunk and charisma, plus looked amazingly lifelike.
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I just saw some of Harryhausen's work the other day, and it did make me smile. There really is something special about it, I must admit.
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I personally like the stop motion better. I think CGI has a cartoonish aspect to it that takes away from any sense of realism. Just look at the final battle in The Phantom Menace. It looks more like something out of a Pixar movie than a Star Wars movie. One of the best examples of stop motion I remember seeing at the theater is the dragon in Dragonslayer. I was blown away by how life-like it was.
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