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Why did they do CG?

urluckyday

By urluckyday
in Prequel Trilogy

What "trooper" is better  

44 members have voted

  1. 1. What "trooper" is better

    • Stormtrooper
      17
    • Clonetrooper
      4
    • The "new" clone trooper (Ep. 3)
      22
    • They all stink!
      1

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Shok_Tinoktin Newbie

Shok_Tinoktin

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by Chase Windu

Yeah. He thinks better CG means better story telling which is complete crap if you ask me.

 

I don't think he believes that. He wants to put certain things in his movies, and back in the day, he would have to come up with a creative way of doing them. Now, he can just do it on computers, and spare the hassle. What he doesn't seem to realize, is that it tends to look like crap.

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Kurgan Newbie

Kurgan

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I dunno, in the prequels I was quite impressed with the CGI. Only a few times did I say to myself "oh man that looks fake." Examples include Anakin "surfing" on top of that bulbuous cow type creature in AOTC, Padme's a little TOO perfect "action figure riding vehicle" posture on top of that animal in AOTC's arena scene, and that pan over of the Clonetrooper helmets at the end of the movie (that screamed "video game cutscene"). It was in that scene that I thought the clones must have been CGI, but I didn't realize they ALL were until I read about it later on the 'net.

 

The Special Editions weren't too bad, except for Jabba (obviously CG) and the Stormtrooper that was riding the Dewback in ANH (c'mon, he flopped around like a fuzzy plastic doll). The 2004 DVD's brought to light how fake looking the "Rontos" were in ANH (practically with big fuzzy lense flares on them), though I didn't notice it on the big screen.

 

Also on the big screen (the IMAX EXPERIENCE), the first pan over of Kamino's platform in AOTC looked fake (I could see clipping between the object and the background that wouldn't be there in real life), though I didn't notice this on the DVD or the regular theater.

 

Those were moments that "took me out of it." Sure, a couple of the close ups of Jar Jar in TPM where Obi-Wan and Qui Gon are first talking to him it seemed like they were looking above him or past him, but that was about it. The rest felt pretty seemless.

 

I actually think the lightsabers in TPM look better than the ones in AOTC. Compare clips. The ones in TPM look bright and "solid" like we're used to from the better shots from the OT, but suddenly in AOTC they look a little too colorful like they were pasted in with a computer (as SURPRISE! they were, but anyway). That said, the effect looks cool, but when you compare the difference it takes you a bit out of the moment.

 

The effects added to the SE's weren't bad, but the ones that worked best were the ship effects or scenes added where the whole thing was CG, rather than pasting in some character that wasn't there before (like Jabba). Sure the 2004 Jabba was much improved, but since we all know the puppet so well, he just didn't quite cut it.

 

Yoda in AOTC took some getting used to, I'll grant that. He moved a little too slowly and carefully at times, that made you think he must be a computer construct and they're taking their time to show off his every bone structure and angle. While you accepted him as "real" after awhile, certain shots make his head look really round and blob-like (ditto for some shots in the ROTS trailers) that he didn't seem to have in the OT or TPM (with the puppets). The puppet in ESB at times looks pretty fake but again you accept him most of the time as some old alien.

 

We aren't to the point yet where "humans" that are CGI look completely lifelike, but space ships, aliens we've never seen before that don't interact too much with real humans, and robots look pretty convincing these days.

 

And LOTR has shown how crowd scenes and large "ground battles" can be done convincingly with a mixture of CG and real or completely CG. I think we've come a long way.

 

I'm not of the mind that replacing puppets and models with CGI is automatically better, but also I agree that we're to the point where CGI isn't automatically "more fake."

 

Still, for established characters (like Yoda) we're used to seeing them "more real" (like the puppet in TPM) so some of that is lost with the CGI. But it's far easier to have a cgi Yoda jumping around in a saber battle than a puppet and make it convincing, so I give him that.

 

Momentary lapses in the film like I've described aren't just CG either. Every time I see an obvious "matte box" around a ship or something, that yells to me "hey! you're watching a made up movie!" I can overlook it, it's just a little distracting.

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TK-8252 Newbie

TK-8252

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I hope you realize that since they're clones, they all have to be the exact same height? Finding hundreds of men with identical heights (and I'd imagine weight too since they all got fed about the same) is impossible. Not to mention the thousands of dollars that would go into mass-producing the costumes and paying the actors... it's not needed. CG is fine and the only efficient way to do it.

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coupes. Newbie

coupes.

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Originally posted by legowar

If you look at starwars.com and behind the scenes, that's exactly what they do with the wookies, get a few real ones and then copy them over and over again, just in different spots.

There are still a lot of CG wookies in there though, besides we're not talking about wookiees here. He was asking why the clonetroopers were CG.
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  • 5 months later...
idle Newbie

idle

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Posted

If this was a movie about an actual war I could see gripes about using this much CG but it is infact about a galaxy far, far away. It's based on Saturday matinee scifi serials, I love how it looks completely different from all other films and is miles above ones that use too much CG (Captain Whatever and the World of Tomorrow, anyone?). CG suites Star Wars and creates an amazing world that would be impossible to make anywhere else.

 

<3 CG

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Kurgan Newbie

Kurgan

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I think he mostly did it "because he can."

 

He probably thought "hey wouldn't it be awesome if I could show the movie and then say to the collectors who wanted to buy a Clone uniform.. 'but there was no clone uniform costume, they were all made in a computer!' and have their jaw drop to the floor."

 

Lucas probably lives for such moments. ;)

 

Actually in ROTS I thought "these guys look so REAL" until I watched ANH on DVD again barely 24 hours after my first viewing. And then I saw what REAL stormtroopers looked like and realized how fake the ROTS troopers had been. It was just because I hadn't seen the originals in awhile that I didn't have a fresh, crisp picture of them in my mind to compare.

 

They were a little too fuzzy and plastic, vs. the shiney, gritty, grimy, clanking outfits.

 

He could have just gotten a bunch of guys of similar heights and used shoe lifts and camera angles to produce the rest. Even crowd scenes can be done without CG, ever hear of blue screen techniques? Those weren't exactly a novel phenomena even back in the late 70's, early 80's. ;) Like somebody said, film a bunch of guys and then composite the rest in.

 

Actually in the OT there are several crowd scenes where they just used cardboard cutouts (or mattes) which appear to be giant photographs of crowds. They look totally real until you take a still frame and look carefully, then it looks like crap. And none of them were fixed in the Special Editions (except for the ending of ANH).

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Kurgan Newbie

Kurgan

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Like I said, there were only a few moments when I thought "Hey those look like CG!" in AOTC.

 

In ROTS I agree, they looked "real enough."

 

The only scene that was a little odd was the one when "Commander Cody" takes off his helmet. There's this really loud sound effect of the helmet coming off and it looks kind of cartoony for like a split second. Hard to explain, but it made me think ("did they CGI the armor on, or did they CGI his head onto a CG body?"). But overall there were fewer "Ah ha, CG!" moments in ROTS than in the other two prequels, or the special editions.

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  • 1 month later...
SirLancelot Newbie

SirLancelot

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The reason he used CG is because he wanted the uniformity, since the Clone Army were exact genetic duplicates. Just my theory. While he could have used live actors, there was a chance of them not being exactly alike, so he did CG. I had no probelm with it.

 

And for those saying he's a ****ty director, it's ironic that you have taken the time to see all of his movies. LOL!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
boinga1 Newbie

boinga1

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I see I'm the only one who voted for clone trooper. I assume the question means which one is the best choice visually, and I feel that the clone troopers fit the bill as the galaxy's most elite troops. Stormies do look slightly more "real" in some sense, but (especially in ANH) they're just some extras in suits and don't act (or necessarily look) like elite shock troops. I also prefer the AOTC troops for the slightly more unique look and obvious Mandalorian resemblances. I felt the ROTS troops were, ultimately, CG stormies with new visors. And colors. Ooh, pretty colors. :rolleyes::p

 

EDIT: And I know that the ROTS trooper are in my sig. ;)

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