Your TV ads - real, or CGI?

[Tab]

(CGI means basically computer-generated image)

You see CGI in movies a lot - a copter flying over downtown L.A. - no such thing. Not to mention Spidey between buildings or whatever.

For static ad shoots, like a glass of vodka with ice, photographers have long used faux ice - acrylic really. Not so much because of melting, but real ice is seldom clear enough to photograph well. And, of course, melting.

For burgers and food, there'd be fake burgers and food - made of whatever - but it looks real! Yet it's not real as in edible, but it's still real as in you can take it home and it looks real until someone tries to eat it.

I wasn't aware they had taken CGI to the level of food commercials, though. Check this out:

http://vimeo.com/5614632

The wonkier you are, the more you'd probably appreciate it, but a lot of work went into this. And I was surprised - it looks like a real Big Mac, unlike those fake pictures with the oh-so-leafy lettuce you see in the store. This looks real, drabby, and crap lettuce falling out. Oddly enough, that's what makes it all the more real.

[RandomThoughts]

1. A few years ago, they had everything but facial expression and hair

down to almost perfect, unnoticeable. The TV show sanctuary used all CGI for backgrounds for instance.

The thing about anything on TV is it could be cgi, leading to a whole new scope of propaganda.

It also leads to people saying they never said something then saying it was actually faked.

You can still tell with people cgi, another reason TV is a joke. In most cases its still easier and more accurate to fake a news story by perspective and false narrative then creating an entire background, but the trend leads to things that really make credibility an issue on many things.

[Tab]

4. We're wired to evaluate people

and people move, as opposed to inanimate objects like burgers and fries, and even if you did well, the in-betweening (using the computer to do the in-between animation frames) will get you every time, so CGI'ing people from scratch is a bitch. Duping their video, not so much (a la Matrix) but pure CGI is a real PITA on people. We're getting pretty good at small movements, though, like mouths (on those ads with the talking babies and the movies with the talking animals), but a fool-everyone from-scratch CGI of a person is something I've yet to see.

My other question, aside from the empty moving fry box which, IMO, you could have layered in differently, is why they bothered to CGI the whole thing? It's a more consistent shot, but shit - that must have been a lot of work. They must have big plans for that burger - just wait and see...

[RandomThoughts]

6. I seen some discussions on motion

And the difficulty of getting real good movement.

If you watch LOTR, you can see many CGI scenes. Legolas has lots of them in the movie. And much of the actual movement is done really well. Smeagol was all CGI, and done pretty well, but non human forms are easier since pattern matching of movement is less in peoples brains on non normal forms. Also the movement capture suits make a big difference on that.

As far as plans for McDonald's burger, It doesn't matter to me, I don't eat there for other reasons.

[RandomThoughts]

7. I read a scifi story a few decades ago.

The story was about how all actors were being replaced by holograms on stage. And one actor loved acting and wanted to continue acting. So he shorted out the hologram that had been programmed with his image, and replaced him on stage.

kind of funny twist on it, especially for being written in the 1950s-60s. Instead of people trying to make hologram people, a person was trying to fool the audience a person was a hologram.

It was a sad story though.

[baldguy]

8. In Ian McDonald's "River Of Gods" one of the major plot points is a soap opera

populated entirely by AI actors.

[RandomThoughts]

9. There is a false doctrine about that.

But it would pop too many brains for no need or purpose, the counter that proves it a false doctrine is more complicated then what gets some people to believe it. So those that believe it go into despair and their brains pop, so I don't discuss that topic much.

[baldguy]

2. Serkis folk are used more and more in advertising & entertainmant.

Even if it's just a happy meal.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

3. Serkis folk? Love it!

An excellent play on the name!

[baldguy]

5. Not mine; I stole it.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SerkisFolk

[Geoff R. Casavant]

10. Thanks for the site.

Another time-sucker to put in the rotation.