Looking Outwards 05 – Computational Graphics

One computational graphics project that really impressed me is the work of Vincent Pace and James Cameron in the film Avatar. The movie, released in 2009, was critically acclaimed for its advanced usage of CGI and how it advanced CG technologies that set precedent to sci-fi movies later to come. The usage of stereoscopic cameras and rigging actors with gear to mimic human eyes. 60% of the film utilized CGI imagery, as the film integrates CGI with live action recording as well – each second in the film contains about 17 gigabytes of data.

What I especially appreciate about this piece is how natural the integration with technology and graphics was undertaken. It’s always a risk to “overcompute” a creative practice within these types of projects, which undermine the realistic nature of the scenery. However, the project revolutionized how the movie industry can be taken further through CGI.

The Evolution of Animation to CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) and the Impact of James Cameron’s Avatar