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Why does it seem like special effects are getting worse?
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:03 pm
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:03 pm
Current events-Jurassic Rebirth - brontosaurus scene. Hard to believe these are slipping through the studios hoping audiences won’t notice.
10
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:08 pm to Revorising
It doesn’t make any sense when you see what someone like Villeneuve or Robert Eggers can do visually on much smaller budgets. It’s probably the same issue big budget studios are having with everything top to bottom, the people they’ve hired are just not talented.
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:11 pm to Revorising
Too much of them. When a movie had 2 minutes of CGI you could be meticulous about it.
These summer blockbusters, maybe 80% of the movie is CGI intensive.
Can't give it the same level of detail.
I think too much of it also strains the brain and eventually you just sorta tap out and realize how fake it all looks.
These summer blockbusters, maybe 80% of the movie is CGI intensive.
Can't give it the same level of detail.
I think too much of it also strains the brain and eventually you just sorta tap out and realize how fake it all looks.
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:18 pm to Revorising
What in particular caught your eye?
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:24 pm to Revorising
quote:
Current events-Jurassic Rebirth - brontosaurus scene. Hard to believe these are slipping through the studios hoping audiences won’t notice.
I haven't seen it yet... is it ALL CGI or does it have some practical effects like the original? THAT'S what made the dang dinosaurs look realistic. Practical effects.
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:39 pm to MemphisGuy
I thought the best scene was with the T. Rex. Looked really good. Clearly some homage to "Prehistoric Planet" by showing the T. Rex swimming... None of those idiots deserved to survive though. IYKYK
Posted on 7/6/25 at 9:59 pm to Madking
They do too much shite at the last minute…people don’t storyboard stuff and plan it out. It’s amazing how Marvel movies look like ragged arse a lot of the time and small budget movies look great. (The catering budget on Secret Invasion was way more than it cost to make Godzilla Minus One)
Posted on 7/6/25 at 10:07 pm to timbo
Good point
Posted on 7/7/25 at 12:04 am to Revorising
For starters, studios rush post prod, severely overuse CGI without grounding it in reality and rely on overworked VFX teams under tight deadlines and shitty budgets.
Also, I can tell you from experience that pushing the saturation in post can completely kill the realism and make entire scenes look fake. We shot some of the Superman scenes entirely on location with practical lighting and all but the final grade made it look like the talent was standing in front of a greenscreen. I'm just baffled at how some of the locations look fake as hell in the trailers.
Jurassic World Afterbirth was heavily oversaturated too which onl amplified the challenge of distinguishing between practical sets and greenscreen elements.
Also, I can tell you from experience that pushing the saturation in post can completely kill the realism and make entire scenes look fake. We shot some of the Superman scenes entirely on location with practical lighting and all but the final grade made it look like the talent was standing in front of a greenscreen. I'm just baffled at how some of the locations look fake as hell in the trailers.
Jurassic World Afterbirth was heavily oversaturated too which onl amplified the challenge of distinguishing between practical sets and greenscreen elements.
This post was edited on 7/7/25 at 12:09 am
Posted on 7/7/25 at 12:33 am to Madking
DEI. They aren't hiring the best. It's not that it can't be done. It's that the people aren't talented enough. And they can't say it's about money. They are spending craploads of money. I just got done watching a doc about the making of Flight of the Navigator. They used real magicians, old studio tricks that got lost to time, early computer graphics. If you want to do something bad enough you will find a way. I think the workers they hire are there for the wrong reasons and have no real talent.
Posted on 7/7/25 at 12:41 am to Revorising
Studios are scared to spend money on these big movies with the current movie climate. Which does feel a little better this year. But the special effects are hopefully catching back up. You can always count on James Cameron to tell a studio to put up the money or shove it up their arse. I know everyone hates him now, but he puts his heart and soul into his effects. They are untouched. We can at least be happy someone cares.
This post was edited on 7/7/25 at 12:44 am
Posted on 7/7/25 at 2:30 am to PuertoRicanBlaze
quote:
We shot some of the Superman scenes entirely on location with practical lighting and all but the final grade made it look like the talent was standing in front of a greenscreen.
What do you do and what all have you worked on?
Posted on 7/7/25 at 8:06 am to Revorising
Because they can make movies look okay/serviceable with minimal effort, so no one wants to work any harder to make their movie look great.
The original JP was made with less technological capability that Rebirth, but Spielberg put in the effort to make it look as good as possible. I still think that original T-rex attacking the jeep scene looks more realistic than anything in any of the subsequent movies. No one wants to try anymore because they don't have to try that hard to sell tickets. It's a shame.
The original JP was made with less technological capability that Rebirth, but Spielberg put in the effort to make it look as good as possible. I still think that original T-rex attacking the jeep scene looks more realistic than anything in any of the subsequent movies. No one wants to try anymore because they don't have to try that hard to sell tickets. It's a shame.
This post was edited on 7/7/25 at 8:07 am
Posted on 7/7/25 at 8:48 am to Revorising
I saw a commercial the other day that was clearly made with cheap AI (iirc it was a dog jumping into a pool; not the olympics one) but damn if it didn't look better than 90% of what Hollywood has put out using CGI. The SFX unions are going to drag Hollywood 10 years behind everyone else for the foreseeable future
Scale models were legitimately better but it requires a lot more talent from the director
Scale models were legitimately better but it requires a lot more talent from the director
Posted on 7/7/25 at 9:04 am to Neutral Underground
Holy shite. You can’t blame DEI for everything. Get serious, man…
Posted on 7/7/25 at 10:22 am to VOR
quote:
Holy shite. You can’t blame DEI for everything. Get serious, man…
Yeah, this is starting to become one of those catch-all scapegoat memes for everything that's going wrong in society. There's no doubt that there are some direct negative consequences that have played in front of the eyes of the world because of DEI policies. But mathematically how many things can you blame on that? By definition, aren't there only so many DEI hires you can realistically make?
At some point, we may just have to accept that some studios are way more interested in pumping out profit/revenue making content, than they are interested in putting out quality content. DEI hires are going to be just as helpless to influence that, either positive or negative, as the non-DEI hires.
Fortunately, there are a few gems that still sneak out here and there.
This post was edited on 7/7/25 at 10:23 am
Posted on 7/7/25 at 10:34 am to Revorising
I finally got around to watching Andor. We're about 1/2 way through season 2.
One thing that caught my attention was how little CGI there is; at least compared to other Star Wars movies/series. And the CGI that is there isn't all up in your face. It makes for an enjoyable viewing experience.
One thing that caught my attention was how little CGI there is; at least compared to other Star Wars movies/series. And the CGI that is there isn't all up in your face. It makes for an enjoyable viewing experience.
Posted on 7/7/25 at 10:46 am to VOR
quote:
Holy shite. You can’t blame DEI for everything. Get serious, man…
I hate to agree with VOR, but he is right. Throwing DEI out as the catch all excuse makes it an eye rolling issue that will cause people to not take seriously anymore.
Since CGI became a thing, special effects have struggled. The only time we see good ones is when truly visionary directors use them to enhance the scene, not to dominate it. Bad CGI is the product of talentless, lazy directors. That poster above nails it when he describes the problem in more detail.
Posted on 7/7/25 at 12:22 pm to Revorising
Because CGI doesn’t just augment practical effects on real sets anymore.
Everything is shot on a blue/green screen and everything is CGI.
Everything is shot on a blue/green screen and everything is CGI.
Posted on 7/7/25 at 4:42 pm to VOR
quote:
You can't blame DEI for everything
I'm not blaming DEI for everything. I am trying to give a reasonable explanation of why movie FX/special effects look worse now then they did in 2009. Isn't it possible that the movie studios were hiring less qualified individuals to do the work because of DEI policies?
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