Computer Generated Imagery has changed the face of movies, creating everything from fake weather in THE PERFECT STORM to massive crowd scenes in FORREST GUMP- but the biggest transformation has been in generating realistic creatures. Staring in shocked disbelief at the screen and asking “How on earth did they do that?” has become a regular occurrence, while almost anything a director dreams up for a monster can be put on screen via immensely complicated computer graphics.

DIGITAL BIRTH

Just over twenty years ago it was a very different story, and if you wanted a strange and an unearthly creature in your film there were only a handful of options. Putting an actor in a suit was the easiest route, if you didn’t mind that genuine Fifties ‘B-Movie’ look, while using puppets or electrically operated ‘animatronics’ would often result in an unwieldy creation which looked great as long as it didn’t have to move quickly. There was also stop-motion animation, a technique used effectively since the 1920s in films like KING KONG, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Making frame-by-frame adjustments on a small model creature creates the illusion of life- but it’s also a time consuming process with absolutely no room for error.

Compared to the illustrious history of stop-motion, CGI was the cocky new kid on the block, making it’s debut in Disney’s fabulously kitsch 1982 video-game fantasy TRON, and failing to catch on for most of the Eighties. Things have a habit of changing, however, and the blue touch-paper for the CGI revolution was lit by self-appointed “King of the World” James Cameron in 1988.

Hard at work on his troubled underwater epic THE ABYSS, Cameron was keen to break new ground and make life difficult for himself (and everyone else within range), so he devised a sequence involving an intelligent “tentacle” made completely out of water. Only achievable with the risky use of Computer Graphics, the sight of a realistic, translucent CGI Water Tentacle interacting with actors ended up one of the major highlights of the film, netting it an Oscar for Best Special Effects. THE ABYSS may have belly-flopped at the box-office, but the success of the Water Tentacle got Cameron thinking.

Already at work on the script for TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, he junked the idea of Schwarzenegger’s good Terminator fighting an evil exact double. Instead, Cameron decided that the villain of the piece was going to be heavily special effects-driven;- a surreal, mind-blowing entity made of liquid metal that could warp and change it’s shape, impersonating anyone or anything. Many people suspected that he’d finally gone stark raving mad, with some of the production team claiming eighty percent of the effects sequences were impossible to do. Even Cameron himself realised that unlike the ABYSS water tentacle, the T-1000 couldn’t be cut from the film if it didn’t work. “I was pinning the dramatic success of a movie on a technique that was unproven,” said Cameron in 1991, “but I just instinctively knew it could be done.”

As it was, the sight of Robert Patrick’s T-1000 oozing through walls, prison bars and helicopter windows was enough to help the film flatten box-office records across the globe. The effects shots seamlessly melded computer graphics with film in a way that hadn’t been seen before, and the revolutionary “Morphing” technique for transforming one image into another began filtering outwards into other films and music videos. Suddenly, it seemed you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing someone “magically” transform into someone else, and anything seemed possible.

THE JURASSIC AGE

Only two years later, it was time for the next brain-frazzling special effects landmark to hit cinema screens. Smarting from his escapades on messy Peter Pan fantasy HOOK, in 1993 Steven Spielberg opted to adapt Michael Crichton’s bestseller of genetically engineered theme-park dinosaurs running amok.

The main challenge in filming JURASSIC PARK was bringing the dinosaurs to life, and with Spielberg aiming for realistic creatures not “movie monsters”, the original plan was for a mixture of animatronics provided by SFX giant Stan Winston, and stop-motion animation for the larger full-body shots. However, when a test for a flock of digitally animated dinosaurs proved incredibly successful, Spielberg decided to take the plunge, junking the idea of Stop- Motion and getting all the full-body dinosaur shots produced with CGI.

With the effects shots kept heavily under wraps and eye-watering levels of hype, the film was unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Cinema fans expecting a vaguely convincing dino-adventure stared in slack-jawed astonishment;- suddenly, movie monsters weren’t rubbery and slightly unconvincing. They were fast, furious and extremely good at gobbling down annoying lawers, as proven by the gobsmacking T-Rex attack sequence. Updating all the monster-movie clichés with an unbelievable sense of reality, it sent weak-willed audience members staggering from the cinema in stunned disbelief at what they’d just seen.

Even Spielberg himself was awe-struck by the final result; “It’s as if I’d gone back sixty five million years with a movie camera, hid behind a tree and filmed a Brachiosaur walking by,” he said in 1993, “It’s extraordinary, and it’s also frightening.” Combining the revolutionary effects with genuine brown-trouser shocks, the film was such a brilliantly thrilling rollercoaster ride that audiences barely noticed the gaping plot holes, and JURASSIC PARK quickly stomped to the top of the all-time box-office chart. CGI was Hollywood’s latest toy, and a new type of blockbuster was born- suddenly cheaper ‘lower division’ stars would find themselves playing second fiddle to the latest eye-popping special effects.

TALKING ‘BOUT A REVOLUTION…

While Hollywood was keen to play with it’s new discovery, it soon found out CGI wasn’t quite the lucrative all-purpose goldmine it appeared to be. Imaginatively used in THE MASK to turn a green-faced Jim Carrey into a living Tex Avery cartoon, complete with eyes on stalks and carpet-length tongue, CGI was less successful generating creatures for horror movies like SPECIES. Sex-crazed alien Sil was a mixture of animatronics, digital effects and the foxy Natasha Henstridge, but the jumps between the two SFX techniques were glaring enough to scupper any potential scare factor.

There were also plenty of things CGI took a long time to perfect, like creating realistic hair or cloth- but it’s main advantage was displayed to full staggering effect by Paul Verhoeven’s satirical sci-fi epic STARSHIP TROOPERS. With digital creatures built inside a computer, there’s little difference between animating one creature and 1,000- and for the story of square-jawed future American fascists going up against millions of fearsome alien Arachnids, this meant previously impossible battle sequences featuring armies of marauding alien insects could now be displayed in all their stunning, gore-splattered detail.

Despite this, none of the initial rush of digital effects films could match the success of JURASSIC PARK, with even the CGI version of GODZILLA (1997) making the fatal mistake of redesigning the monster, losing all the original’s rubber-suited charm by going for a characterless velociraptor rip-off with a Bruce Forsyth chin. FX boffins weren’t going to be distracted by these setbacks, however, as they had a new quest;- now that photo-realistic effects were possible, the next target was a “digital character.” It was all very well building something like the T-Rex that could stalk and roar, but the big challenge was making a CGI creation who’d give a convincing performance and win over cinema audiences.

Unfortunately, the first attempt fell flat on it’s face- the 1996 fantasy adventure DRAGONHEART was a muted failure, not helped by a deeply uninspired “Dragonslayer teams up with last Dragon on Earth” storyline packed with boring medieval cliches. The scaly computer-generated Dragon looked impressive, but couldn’t convince as a realistic creature and would have been a personality-free zone without the sexy Scottish burr of Sean Connery providing it’s vocal cords.

Ironically, the breakthrough success was a film trying to have as little to do with reality as possible. Set in a candy-coloured world where Toys come to life when their owners aren’t watching, TOY STORY may have been the first ever computer animated feature film, but it was the razor-sharp characterisation that gained it worldwide success. Woody and Buzz Lightyear were fully-fledged characters, loved by cinema audiences across the globe- and suddenly, there was proof that fully CGI creations could be accepted by the general public. All it would take now was someone to blend computer generated characters with live action, and Box Office cash registers across the globe would surely start ringing…

JAR JAR STINKS!

The ideal man for the job appeared to be George Lucas. Finally returning to filmmaking after a long sabbatical, he’d already experimented with CGI creatures on the 1997 STAR WARS special edition, pasting a computer-generated Jabba the Hutt into an uncompleted scene with a 1977-era Harrison Ford. This was enough to convince him that technology had advanced enough for his dream to be possible- saying before the release of Episode I, “I’ve finally reached a point where I can move alien characters freely on a set, and I can get better, more dramatic performances out of them.” No more mucking around with rubber masks or puppets for him, because Lucas was going to create the first photo-realistic fully digital movie character for the new STAR WARS prequel trilogy

Unfortunately, once THE PHANTOM MENACE arrived in 1999, it’s hard to imagine how his ambitions could have backfired more spectacularly. Looking like a refugee from a Blaxploitation Disney film with his googly eyes and bell-bottom trousers, Jar Jar Binks may have been a technically brilliant piece of animation, but his squeaky voice and pratfalls soon won him the utter loathing of STAR WARS fans across the world.

Accusations of racial stereotyping flew thick and fast, while shop shelves creaked under mounds of unsold Jar Jar merchandise, and the outcry was so great that despite claiming that it was what he planned all along, Lucas pointedly reduced Binks’ screen time in ATTACK OF THE CLONES to a virtual cameo. The experience of animating Jar Jar did help with the realisation of a fully digital Yoda for Episode II, although the animators involved had the weird experience of having to duplicate quirks of the original puppet so that the new all-fighting version of the diminutive Jedi Master would “look consistent”.

The resulting energetic fight with Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku was one of ATTACK OF THE CLONES’ highlights, but despite Lucas’ efforts, little in Episode II came close to the quantum leap forward in special effects perpetrated by crazed Kiwi director Peter Jackson and his insane quest to film THE LORD OF THE RINGS. After dipping his toe in the CGI ocean with his 1994 drama HEAVENLY CREATURES and showcasing a fully digital “Grim Reaper” villain in the brilliantly imaginative 1996 horror comedy THE FRIGHTENERS, Jackson unleashed some of the most impressive CGI ever seen during THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, as the heroes faced off against a highly irritable Cave Troll and a fiery Balrog deep inside the Mines of Moria.

Both shockingly realistic monsters that gave genuine performances, the contrast between the FELLOWSHIP creatures and the ridiculously cartoony Troll featured in the first HARRY POTTER movie (released only a month previously to FELLOWSHIP) couldn’t have been bigger;- proving yet again that CGI’s only convincing when filmmakers take the time and the effort to get it exactly right. Continuing this trend with his second Tolkien extravaganza THE TWO TOWERS, Jackson has not only visualised the tree-like Ents and thousands of computer-generated Orc Warriors, but he’s also raised the bar on character animation with the skeletal ex-Ring bearer Gollum. An astounding mixture of techniques that combines hugely detailed graphics with the performance of Brit actor Andy Serkis, Gollum is a powerful, chilling prescence and an amazing creation, setting a standard for future fantasy films in a manner Mr G. Lucas can only dream of.

WALKING WITH CGI

Infiltrating almost every aspect of big-budget filmmaking, from the skull-faced Martians of MARS ATTACKS! to Edward Norton’s baffling vision of a penguin in FIGHT CLUB, it’s now difficult to avoid witnessing digital effects in blockbuster movies. They’ve allowed Paul Verhoeven to show Kevin Bacon’s insides in the invisibility romp HOLLOW MAN, and Spielberg to create menacing Robot Spiders for MINORTY REPORT, while most major directors out to create creatures now forsake the traditional methods for the funky freedom of all-digital characters.

The blockbuster may have changed forever, but the technological revolution has also had a major effect lower down the financial food-chain. Thanks to technology prices tumbling, spectacular computer generated creatures aren’t the sole property of Hollywood anymore;- now they can appear in anything from fantasy action shows like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, to music videos, adverts- and even BBC documentaries.

Searching for a way to make palaeontology more interesting back in 1997, the team behind WALKING WITH DINOSAURS melded the traditional nature documentary with a combination of CGI special effects and animatronic models. The standard may not have been as convincing as it’s Hollywood predecessors, but the end result was still a colossal worldwide hit, leading to the sequel WALKING WITH BEASTS, a host of copycat documentaries and even an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD produced by the same team.

In movies, the cheaper technology means riskier and more adventurous “B-Movie” productions can now afford hugely impressive creatures at a fraction of the cost, with everything from Vin Diesel’s first major starring role in PITCH BLACK and Robert Rodriguez’s hyperactive espionage-spoof SPY KIDS benefiting from a piece of the CGI action. Even giant-spider movie EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS managed to be made for only $30 million- amazingly low for a film crammed to bursting with complicated computer effects. With prices lowering, the potential is almost infinite, and Hollywood seems determined to continually baffle and bewilder us with ever more brain-expanding creations.

In the next few months we’ll be seeing more funky insectoid robots in THE MATRIX RELOADED, Victorian action from Dr Jekyll’s evil alter ego Edward Hyde in THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, and at the end of the year Peter Jackson will be blowing our minds one final time with THE RETURN OF THE KING, the final slice of his Tolkien trilogy. However, the most eagerly awaited CGI event of the year arrives in July, with the unmasking of acclaimed director Ang Lee’s take on classic Marvel superhero THE HULK.

Only time will tell whether the cinematic debut of the angry green behemoth will be a roaring success, or a disappointment of GODZILLA proportions… but technology will keep racing forward and many Hollywood filmmakers will keep forgetting CGI isn’t the ultimate solution. It’s only a tool to aid the storytelling, and it’s amazing how quickly the initial impact and novelty of digital effects wears off.

Morphing is now officially ‘old hat’, and it only took eight years after the sheer amazement of the original JURASSIC PARK to get to the muted “Oh look, it’s another velociraptor” reaction which greeted the less-than-stellar JURASSIC PARK III. Even the upcoming sequels to THE MATRIX are going to have to pull off something a darn sight more remarkable than the now slavishly imitated “Bullet Time” shots, and it’s increasingly the quality of the characters that’s important rather than photo-realistic special effects.

Imagine- a Hollywood star who doesn’t demand a ridiculous salary, argue with the director or sulk in his trailer… because he’s generated inside a computer. Digital Actors or “Synthespians” have been the dream of Film Studios and the nightmare of major stars since the CGI revolution began. If you believe the hype, Digital Actors will be soon be flooding the screen along with computer recreations of dead Film Stars like Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe, while everyday actors will be forming an orderly dole queue.

In reality, it’ll be a while before Hollywood’s A-List are replaced with CGI duplicates. Manipulating film of John Lennon or Richard Nixon to make it appear they’re standing next to Tom Hanks in FORREST GUMP may now be easy, but building a convincing digital human from scratch is a different story. So many aspects go into body language and physical behaviour, it’s infinitely more complicated than animating a hungry dinosaur. Many have tried and failed, with even James Cameron attempting to develop a system for a project called AVATAR before abandoning it, claiming the technology “isn’t there yet.”

The closest Hollywood has come to achieving this dream has been the 2001 CGI animation FINAL FANTASY. After massive progress with photo-realistic skin and hair, the digitally created actors in this hugely expensive sci-fi epic looked tremendously convincing, but had the emotional range of a THUNDERBIRDS puppet. Combined with an inscrutable plot, FINAL FANTASY bombed so massively that the animation studio responsible shut down, and it’s unlikely anyone will be trying to duplicate the experiment anytime soon.

While actors can relax, stuntmen might need to get a little nervous. One increasingly successful area is creating digital stunt doubles for otherwise unfilmable sequences. Once again pioneered by James Cameron on the impressive sinking sequences in TITANIC, they’ve also been recently used in films like BLADE 2, SPIDER-MAN and the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. It may be easy to claim that they’ll never replace the magic of real stunts, but with even James Bond leaping on the CGI stunt bandwagon with DIE ANOTHER DAY, you can never be too certain…