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W
e had been using special
effects in movies since forever, from the
transformation of Arnold Schwarzeneg-
ger to a killing machine in “Terminator”,
to the making of a complete wonderful
and exciting new world named Pandora in
“Avatar”, or the simple illusions a magi-
cian use to complete his act of getting a
rabbit out of his hat. All of the above are
tricks and methods to create imaged events
in a story or a virtual world. Now, when
we use computers to give life to a charac-
ter or to make a scene without even real
life actors in it, that’s what is called CGI
stuntmen and cables; like old times. (see
pictures 1 and 2)
Our most beloved spy ever, walked and
fought on a real train. On “Skyfall”, Actor
Daniel Craig (007) chased a bad guy on
top of a moving train attached to wires not
thicker than my pinkie. Good job, Bonds.
(see pictures 3 and 4)
Gandalf and the hobbits. On Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, when
we see the white witch, Gandalf (Ian Mc-
Kellen), and the hobbits there’s a big dif-
ference in size, but we forgot that, Frodo
(actually actor Elijah Wood) and the other
characters were not small at all. How they
did it? Computers? Nope, it would have
been easier that way, but Peter Jackson
or Computer-generated Imagery.
The blooming decade for the use of CGI
was the 90’s, with movies like Jurassic
Park and its dinosaurs; Will Smith and
aliens in Independence Day, and who’ll
forget the scenes of Robert Patrick as
cyborg T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment
Day? Yes, I know…nobody will. Since
then, computer-
generated imagery
has been on the
vanguard of special
effects on almost
everywhere, even
television commer-
cials or theater.
Now, with all that,
briefly introduc-
tion to the special
effects world, been
said; let me show
you some scenes
that, I bet you
though a computer
have something to
do with it.
In the recently
sequel of Batman,
or as he’s been
called now, The
Dark Knight, when
Bane and his crew
kidnap the nuclear
physicist that helps him create the bomb
and they jump out of half a plane, exiting
from the back of it hanging from a cable…
remember? No computer at all. Direc-
tor Christopher Nolan needed just the
fuselage of a plane, Scotland’s landscape,