Is CGI believable?
That depends… the realism of CGI (or Computer Graphics Imagery) is dependant on a lot of factors. Software – The software used is very important. It can range from the free Blender software that will run on any Linux/Windows machine [see “Big Buck Bunny” (2008)] to the fantastically expensive Silicon Graphics software that will only run on a dedicated Silicon Graphics workstation (“Lord of the Rings” Trilogy). Scaling – The number of elements in the Computer Generated (CG) object. For example, a person made up of six polygons (one for each of the head, body, arms and legs) will look less realistic than a person made up of six million polygons. Computing Power – This is the one that determines realism the most as it is controlled by the budget and not the filmmaker. How much processing time can you afford? The special effects in “The Last Starfighter” (1984) were done on a Cray SuperComputer and took two full days to render at a great portion of the film’s budget. One thing to remembe