March 5, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lately, it seems that CGI, or computer-generated imagery, has steadily weakened since the days of \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d and the infamous Michael Bay \u201cTransformers\u201d movies. These lapses often leave moviegoers and critics alike disgruntled, which leads to the question: why has CGI declined in the last decade?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Bay\u2019s movie series was lackluster, the \u201cTransformers\u201d universe that he created showed fans that CGI was ever advancing. After all, it looked like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee would walk off the screen before our eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rassoul Edji, a visual effects \u2014 VFX \u2014 artist who worked on \u201cTransformers: Rise of the Beasts,\u201d explained in an interview that there\u2019s just more work for the VFX teams and less time to do the amount that\u2019s expected of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClients continually change the brief. Shot design and planning are no longer a priority, and we have a lot more work to get through in a shorter amount of time,\u201d he said. \u201cThis means new work gets added to our plate and work we\u2019ve already started (and sometimes even finished) gets scrapped. The \u2018fix it in post\u2019 mentality also doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the fingers shouldn\u2019t be pointed at the VFX artists, but, rather, the studio and movie leadership team. Rushed filming and production schedules force artists to limit what their work is capable of, leaving CGI messy and unfinished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Edji also pointed out the lack of practical effects as another reason. \u201cVFX is often used as a crutch to fix issues which should be fixed on set. If (a movie) is planned well, changes aren\u2019t constantly made and the VFX teams have enough time to create and refine it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the best examples of Edji\u2019s points has to be James Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar\u201d series. Between \u201cAvatar\u201d and \u201cAvatar: The Way of Water\u201d are 13 years that Cameron and his team spent on perfecting the sequel, ensuring that their film was just how they wanted it. And in a series that is heavily dependent on CGI, this time paid off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, not all movie series can wait 13 years between movies. Even Cameron has shortened the period between movies to just three years, with \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d releasing this December. But even Michael Bay spread his movies out in two to three year increments, polishing and perfecting each movie so they were lifelike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main issue is studios pushing for their movies to be churned out at a rate so fast that it feels like both VFX artists and viewers can\u2019t keep up. After all, in the last five years alone Marvel has released 12 movies and 17 TV series, many of which already have multiple seasons, and is currently the biggest shoddy CGI offender that fans have complained about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the time being, it doesn\u2019t seem like CGI is on track to improve, especially if studios keep pushing for a fast rollout of content; however, there are still studios and directors dedicated to providing the perfection that many have come to expect of big name studios. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
March 5, 2025 Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor Lately, it seems that CGI, or computer-generated imagery, has steadily weakened since the days of \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d and the infamous Michael Bay \u201cTransformers\u201d movies. These lapses often leave moviegoers and critics alike disgruntled, which leads to the question: why has CGI declined in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2721,6288,6280,6289,6277,4583,6284,6285,6286,6287,6282,6279,6283,6278,6281],"class_list":["post-22424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-avatar","tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","tag-avatar-the-way-of-water","tag-bumblebee","tag-cgi","tag-hollywood","tag-james-cameron","tag-marvel","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-michael-bay","tag-optimus-prime","tag-pirates-of-the-caribbean","tag-transformers","tag-vfx","tag-visual-effects"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22426,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22424\/revisions\/22426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}