Why Computer Generated Effects Seem So Cheap To Us?

As someone who covers a lot of photoshop action (no pun intended) it was quite interesting for me to see this talk about the equivalent of what photoshop is to stills on cinema. CG (Computer Generated) effects. Pixel peepers and sharped eyed viewers are fast to catch on #failed photoshop disasters, but all and all I think it is fair to say that we are satisfied with how photoshop plays a role in our industry.

CG effects are a complete opposite though. If you watched any big summer blockbuster, you probably have some complaints on how poorly the CG effects are. Heck, Star Wars VII has taken into practical effects because fans were so deeply disappointed with the amount of CG in the 1-3 prequel.

RocketJump Film School has another theory to offer, they speculate that we think CG is crap because we are only seeing bad CG. The good computerized effects remain unnoticed:

We believe that the reason we think all CG looks bad, is because we only see “bad” CG. Fantastic, beautiful, and wonderfully executed CG is everywhere – you just don’t know it. Truly great visual effects serve story and character – and in doing so are, by their very definition, invisible

If we take a look at the photographic equivalent, I think that we are dealing with the same subject matter. ‘good’ photoshop should be unnoticed. I mean, once you are willing to accept that fairies exist. But the mere use of photoshop is not something you see.

I think, the movie ends with one of the best thoughts about visual effects: Back in the early days visual effects were not as good but we also did nto care much. Why? maybe because we were focused on story and character.

Did you ever wonder why you almost never see a great movie with awful visual effects? I mean even classics with practical effects that might look dated  to our modern sensibilities, We don’t really seem to mind though. Audiences certainly didn’t at the time.

Maybe it is because we don’t have much to complain about when it comes to great movies. The craft and storytelling so enchanted us, that we’re not in the back of our heads looking for an easy scapegoat, and when we think about a great movie… we think about story, character. And when the visual effects aren’t perfect we forgive it. Maybe the reason why people seem to think visual effects are ruining movies isn’t really a problem with the visual effects may be it’s just a problem with the movies themselves

[Why CG Sucks (Except It Doesn’t) | RocketJump Film School]