Waltz mentioning of “CGI is for Losers” likely is a provocative comment towards the recent movies implementing/overusing VFX in films. A lot of films from studios such as Marvel or Disney have recently focused more on implementing a story to show how good their VFX are instead of using VFX to show how good their storytelling skills are.
I believe that the increase of filmmakers and directors marketing their movie as “no CGI” is to market and stand apart from these movies like Marvel and Disney who overuse VFX.
This ties to what the director was saying that VFX should be used when it’s needed not because you can implement it. This is where the difference between the use of VFX in movies like Doctor Strange compared to a movie like Gravity differ.
Both of these movies and shots have extensive VFX but one seems excessive and made to show VFX skills whereas the other is still using VFX heavily but in a way that it pushes the story forward. It is that overreliance in VFX that can damage the publics view of CGI & VFX in such a way that can make someone say “VFX is for losers”. At the end of the day CGI is a tool and if used properly it can be incredible and help push a movie to new heights. These comments give an impression to the audience that CGI is bad whereas it isn’t about whether it is bad or not it is about if the use of the tool is proper.
This ends up damaging peoples view of CGI and VFX since people tend to not notice how often it’s used as most of the CGI is used for invisible VFX which means that the audience doesn’t notice when it is used. With movies like Mission Impossible it has heavy use of CGI and VFX yet it is marketed as if it was all practical.
The essay will be a research project, and it will involve: •A question •Aims and objectives •Literature Review •Research plan (methodology) •Both practical and contextual (theory/reading) research •Reflection on findings, written analysis in the essay •Documenting findings as you go, as visual and written evidence on digital sketchbook
You will need to: 1.Identify an aspect of visual effects which for your research area 2.Develop a short–written proposal and relevant question 3.Write an initial chapter–a literature review or methodology 4.Create a method for the research 5.Do the practical and/or literary (reading) research 6.Write up the essay with findings and conclusions
Possible Topics:
– The democratisation of High End VFX as a result of AI (AI VFX Filmmaking – Runway, Midjourney, Veo 3, Seedance, ComfyUI-like softwares) Generative VFX Pipelines, Wonderstudio
– AI for rendering (ComfyUI, StableDiffusion, Blender)
– Intellectual Property and Copyright’s of artists when training AI software
– The Ethical and legal ramifications of creating and using digital doubles
– Financial and professional impact of AI in the VFX industry
– AI Generated Videogames (Google Genie)
– Procedural VFX Generation
Deepfake technology uses a large image base of a person generally a persons face to map their face onto a person so that they appear to be a different person, in the example we see above they used deep learning technology to map the Queens face onto the face of an actor. This sort of technology can also be used on a virtual double/3D model.
It is important to note that this technology can be implemented for movies, comedy, drama, etc. Often used to de-age actors or resurrect actors who have passed. If not careful people can be fooled by this deepfake technology from footage created with malicious intent to harm a persons reputation or make them look like they have said something which they haven’t.
Is it okay to replace actors’ faces using deepfake technology?
Deepfake technology is a very advance form of VFX. Harnessing a persons likeness can be a delicate task and requires a lot of responsibility to ensure you don’t harness a persons reputation. I believe that to do it properly especially if it is going to be posted online it’s always best to get permission from the person before hand, explain what you are trying to do, what’s the goal, and if they allow you to experiment with their likelihood.
What happens when you can’t get in touch with the person? I would expect that a company like Framestore & Channel 4 responsible for the Queens deepfake would be able to explain their goal with the advert and get permission but for a group like Corridor Crew it is unlikely they got Keanu Reeves’ permission in which case I believe that it is curtial to make it clear for the audience that it is a deepfake and it isn’t actually Keanu Reeves. Something that both Channel 4 and The Corridor Crew did.
Finally, in some cases when the person might have passed and their face is needed such as in Fast and Furious when Paul Walker passed in the middle of the production I believe it is important to ask and explain what you are going to attempt to do with the persons family and friends to ensure that anyone who could possibly be affected by the use of deepfake technology are aware and have given permission.
In conclusion I believe that meanwhile a certain level of respect and caution for how the deepfake could affect the person is thought out and a specific procedure to ensure there aren’t any issues or reprecutions towards the real person is carried there shouldn’t be a reason why this technology can’t be used.
The Cognitive Trade-off in Creative Practice: To what extent does the integration of Generative AI tools into the VFX and creative pipelines accelerate the Cognitive Erosion of professional artists?
This dissertation is a further exploration on the findings from MIT’s research , “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for an Essay writing task. ” (Paper draft) (https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/). This research found extensive evidence of the effect that over or improper use of Generative AI can affect a persons critical thinking, skill retention, and Creative Ownership over their work.
Specifically exploring the Cognitive Trade-off between the financial savings, efficiency, and speed that AI tools are able to harness and the accumulation of cognitive debt on the artist, specifically their critical thinking, skill retention, and Creative Ownership.
To what extent do Generative AI tools like Sora 2 or Runway democratise High-level VFX to allow independent artists to compete with major studio output? (designing a VFX pipeline that combines AI + VFX)
This image was made by Boris Eldagsen who used Generative AI to create the image. He submitted the image into a german photography competition and ended up winning after which he refused the Sony World Photography Award. He mentioned that the goal was to spark conversation about if a fake image can win a competition and to see if AI would not only be accepted but also win.
He ended up concluding that the photography world isn’t ready for AI, yet it sparked debate on whether AI should compete against photography which Eldagsen concluded that fundamentally they are different things.
Award Refusal: the photographerdeclined a Sony World Photography Award
Broader AI Concerns: The incident highlights ongoing debates about AI’s impact on various industries and ethical concerns.
– The democratisation of High End VFX as a result of AI (AI VFX Filmmaking – Runway, Midjourney, Veo 3, Seedance, ComfyUI-like softwares) Generative VFX Pipelines, Wonderstudio
