Just a quick rant....

From ROGZILLA on the tfw2005.com boards. This was a discussion about what actually constitutes a "CGI" image. My stance on the matter is this: artist input + computer output = CGI image. Be it 2D or 3D, digital images are the result of a computer following a person's instructions. In the case of a 2D drawing, the computer is manipulating pixels based on the input of the person. The computer is NOT CREATING anything - it is changing the appearance of pixels to represent the intended image. In the case of 3D, the computer is NOT CREATING anything - it is RENDERING what is already there... that which was set up by the person.

The final product is a COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGE - generated by a computer, but CREATED BY A PERSON.

I have bolded the more inane parts....

"No, the analogy does work. It is so freaking brilliant, I wish I thought of it myself! I don't understand how you don't get it!

I set up the statue, I set up the lighting, I get the environment just right. Then I bring in an artist (the computer software) and then tell it to create an image based on what I set up. Did I generate the image? No, the artist, or in this case, the computer did. I just set the peices in motion.

Also, to your first part...um...yes, pixels ARE manipulated by human hands...that is how digital painting actually works. I mean, we don't physically TOUCH a pixel...well, unless we use a Wacom Cintique then maybe you are. But the artist is DIRECTLY altering the image. The artist is doing the rendering.

By your understanding, oil painting should be could OGI. Because we don't actually make the image, the paint does. Sure, we use it, we tell it what to do, we can manipulate it within the confines of certain restrictions and freedoms, but the paint is what makes the image.

In digital painting, the computer is the TOOL. In CGI, the computer does the WORK.

TOOL

WORK

TOOL

WORK

A computer doesn't melt when making a digital painting. It DID when rendering Devestator. Why? Cause it is doing the work! I can't explain it any simpler than that. Sorry man, I tried to see your perspective but at the end of the day, you are wrong.

Also, to avoid any confusion, I am ALSO not saying that the people who create CGI are not artists and do not deserve credit for the work they do. Many do incredible work and deserve all the credit but even they would admit that the final image that you see on the screen is created by the computer. Created BY the computer, not created WITH the computer."


So just to clarify, ROGZILLA is saying that computers are actually artists, and that all the kickass Transformers we will see in Revenge of the Fallen were created BY computers, not WITH computers. Let me repeat that: up to the point where the sequences were rendered, no computers were used in the design or creation of the Transformers.

Also, people can physically touch pixels.

I think in every situation, ROGZILLA is the tool.