Introduction

The commercial world of feature film computer graphics exists on the frontiers of new technology. In an industry that can make or lose tens of millions of dollars in an afternoon (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows took US$91,071,119 on its opening day) the quality and implementation of its cutting-edge visual technology matters. Since the inception of computer graphics in the movie industry, with films such as Tron and the Last Star Fighter, Hollywood, particularly with the summer blockbuster, has come to rely on the emerging technology of computer graphics as a way to make ever more visually extravagant eye candy, keeping the public hooked on escaping to places that were once the preserve of the avid bookworm.

These graphical toys give the director the ability to create previously unseen worlds. It was only possible, for example, to undertake a complete film adaptation of the epic Lord of The Rings once graphical technology had advanced to the level where it could try to match the imagined visual richness of the books, creating a creature like Gollum, fully realized with all his mannerisms, or giant winged serpents battling with mythical armies on a scale not even Cecil B. DeMille would have contemplated.

The profit motive

In modern movie-making, profit margins drive everything. This gives rise to immense pressure to produce the best, most visually stunning graphics. Visual effects studios are in a constant cycle, bidding against one another to secure work, promising higher and higher quality for shorter and shorter production periods, while trying to balance out the age-old struggles between time, quality and expense. At the forefront of this is the graphical tools and software innovations that give visual effects companies and the films they serve the visual and financial edge at the box office. Where it was once enough to have the presence of Liz Taylor or Fred Astaire sell your film, now, in what might reasonably be thought of as an infantilized post-Star Wars film market, films also need all the bells and whistles of a fully realized fantastical world; Transformers without any skyscraping robots or Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic 2012 without a collapsing Manhattan would have been left with little more than a predictable plot held together with merchandizing tie-ins, a string of stereotypes and a collection of unmemorable one-liners.