Virtual Against the Real

Computer Graphics in Today's Entertainment

Joseph Cheng

  Two men stand on the rooftop. One man, dressed in a black suit and black tie, shoots a penetrating look at the other through his dark sunglasses. With a quick flick of his wrists, the man in the suit fires a handful of lethal bullets. Time slows down as the projectiles float towards their victim. The camera angle changes as the man acrobatically bends back to dodge the rippling bullets. Whoosh! The bullets fly by in normal speed as the man quickly gets back up. Neo, the man who almost tasted lead, straightens himself out before continuing to battle the agents of the virtual world.

  I sat back comfortably on my couch watching The Matrix (1999), thinking of the virtual versus the real. All the movies I saw recently, all the advertisements that covered the media, and almost anywhere I went, I noticed the use of computer graphics. Even the movie I was watching, The Matrix, was enhanced and completed with the aid of computerized special effects. In order to make a blockbuster hit, it seems as if computer graphics are essential. However, with computers readily available at their fingertips, a portion of the producers, artists, designers are beginning to use computer graphics not so much to enhance as to replace the real. Whenever computer technology is used to replace what is real, I fear there is a danger of losing aspects of a vital humanity.

  Nowadays, any top science fiction or action/adventure movie uses at least some bit of computerized special effects. I still remember being amazed at how real the tyrannosaurus rex looked in the blockbuster hit, Jurassic Park. I was amazed at the power and realism of the virtual dinosaur. Computer graphics, in some respect, are a necessity in today’s films. For example, in Tom Hank’s Cast Away (2000), all the island scenes were filmed on a mud-pile overlooking a parking lot. Michael A Hiltzik in “Digital Cinema Take 2” describes how almost all the shots with a sky or ocean were done with special effects. There are numerous examples where computer graphics enhanced the film, including the creation of fantasy worlds in Lord of the Rings (2001). What made these computer-enhanced movies so effective was that they relied almost entirely on live human actors. They had the beautifully depicted scenery, from the snowy mountains to the cozy village of the Hobbits, that were all generated by computer, but there is nothing better to portray human stories, stories that we can imagine ourselves in, than live actors. But there comes a point when enough is enough, where graphics come at some loss. When I saw Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones (2002), I was a bit disappointed at the vast amount of computer graphics. What made the Star Wars saga so famous was partly the realism; the worlds that George Lucas created seemed so real, so much like Earth, but were not. It was a story of people just like you and me. With the addition of battles that were entirely computer generated, the realism was lost. Instead of having people in armor battling each other, the newer movies had aliens and robots you would find in a computer game or in a cartoon. The Star Wars world became more farfetched, almost cartoon-like.

  On the extreme side of computer graphics are movies entirely digitally animated. Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within attempted to revolutionize movie-making by using digitalized fictional actors. At first glance, the film seems so realistic, so life-like that you may be fooled into thinking this is a live action film. However, as you watch the film play out, the characters that were once so real look drained of humanity; they are emotionless. Mark Caro in “Imitation of Life” described how many of the characters lack warmth, lack emotions. Computer-animation technology is better at reproducing textures and patterns rather than the complex muscle movements of facial expressions. Caro describes these computer-animated people as “unfortunate folks who have succumbed to one too many face lifts and now are almost immobile above their mouths.” What makes hand sketched animation so effective is the ability to exaggerate human features. But these computer-animated heroes are limited in their features, making them less human. Computer-animated cartoons are much more effective with their emotions expressed through exaggeration. Shrek (2001) is a very good example, since it did not try to portray realistic people but made everything as far-fetched as possible, such as the abnormally short king. Other computer-animated movies are successful because of the use of exaggeration. Examples include the Toy Story (1995) and A Bug's Life (1998), where toys and bugs were given human emotions that were highly magnified through the use of exaggerated facial expressions and movements.

  I have often heard that the best actors are the most expressive ones, for those are the ones that are able to strike the chords of our humanity. However, with realistic computer-representation of humans, the animators of Final Fantasy drop exaggerated expressions to make them more realistic. Instead, the animators strive for perfection to make the people look like people, often through the use of confined emotions to keep these figures from looking like cartoons. Ironically, trying to make them more like people makes them more unrealistic, without emotions. There were plans to use the female protagonist in Final Fantasy as a computer-generated actress, where she could be used for additional films. This seems like the most logical step in today’s society, where everything is going more and more digital. However, in using computer-generated actresses and actors, the human aspect of the story is lost. The reason live actors are granted awards such as the Oscars is because of their ability to be emotional, be human, be like one of us, but also be someone powerfully moving. However, no computer-represented human can be comparable to one of those Oscar-winning film stars.

  To a degree less extreme than computer-animated based films, Playboy models are often digitally enhanced. When the model has some sort of unusual body shape, the image is altered through computer and made perfect to our society’s standards. People become so bombarded with “perfect” women figures that those ideal images become part of our society and what we look for in actual people. The digitally enhanced images become a virtual reality that people wish they had - for women what they want to be like, and for men what they want to see in women. With images of women all over the billboards, all over movie posters, and the television, focus is drawn towards the superficial, since beauty is being exploited without a real woman to back up the image.

  On a cruder side, people have created entirely virtual interactive porn. One of these interactive games is Virtual Valerie created by Mike Saenz. In his interview with an online magazine, Speed 1.2, he talks about how consumers were not satisfied with the results. They wanted more options, more freedom within the game. In fact, as repulsive as it may sound, these consumers are using the game as a source of pleasure. Digital porn would just be digital porn, nothing more, because digital porn and porn, in general, can never substitute for the actual thing. I think there is a sense of degradation when people find pleasure in digitalized porn, with virtual protagonists that do not even exist in real life. Making sex into a game exploits people’s desire for pleasure, using a fantasy world to act as a substitute for natural human behaviors.

  The ideal of replacing the virtual with the real has long been an analyzed and speculated-about concept. Various films and books have been written exploring that idea. Some of these films include The Matrix and Artificial Intelligence (2001). In the Matrix, a computer hacker, Neo, discovers that he has been living in a computer simulated world throughout his whole life. He chooses to experience the truth, actual reality. In doing so, he gains knowledge and power over those that are caught up in their virtual lives. Neo fights for freedom from the unreal, freedom from the machines, and the truth of the real; it is the truth and freedom that people have that shape their humanity and create it. For without this truth and freedom, they live an unreal life, ignorant of the real problems.

  Artificial Intelligence takes the same concept and puts a different spin on it. In the film, a robot was created to replace a lost son. No matter how hard the computerized child tries to fit into the lives of actual humans, the more he is rejected, because of his lack of understanding; his understanding is limited to the ideal things that are supposed to happen when certain conditions are met, like a computer. He cannot accept the fuzziness, the uncertainties of being a real human, and real humans can never accept his ideality without sacrificing their humanity built by uncertainties. These two films represent people exploring the possibility of a real world integrated with the virtual. Today, with the advancement of technology, these dreams and ideas are no longer just speculation, for we face the virtual world all the time through the media.

  The virtual, computerized counterparts of today’s media could never fully portray the full and complex nature of the human soul. The full sentimental effect is lost when computer animations try to express real people’s emotions, real people’s problems. The animation lacks the full expression, full range of emotion that each living individual has. Computer graphics may provide a good supplement to today’s media; however, graphics cannot replace the human soul.

  I see, on my television screen, Neo running across the deserted subway station. One quick glance through his dark sunglasses reveals bright green code running up and down the walls, revealing the truth about the computerized world. He takes a leap into the agent of the matrix and comes out victorious. He may have defeated the computerized world, but a question still exists: do people favor living in a superficial, virtual, ideal world or do they want actual reality? It is for us to decide.

  Works Cited: ARTICLES: Mark Caro’s “Imitation of Life” of Chicago: Metromix, Michael Goldman’s “Ridley Scott makes war” of Millimeter Jan 2002, Michael A. Hiltzik’s “Digital cinema take 2” of Technology Review Sept 2002, “Sex on a Silver Platter: A Conversation with Mike” of Speed: Science and Re-Enchantment, Alvy Ray Smith’s “The reality of simulated actors” of Association for Computing Machinery, Communications of the ACM; MOVIES: Matrix (1999), Jurassic Park (1993), Cast Away (2000), Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones (2002), Shrek (2001), Final Fantasy" The Spirit Within (2001), Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Vitual Valerie, Artificial Intelligence.