The Final Frontier of Computer Graphics

Computer animators working in film studios utilise highly advanced CAD, or computer-aided design, and 3D computer graphics to create and animate movie characters from computer-generated imagery (CGI).

Currently, most CGI and computer-animated films portray anthropomorphic machines, fantastic characters, animal characters, and cartoon-like humans. The challenge now is to make convincing photorealistic images and animations of humans. Creating a purely computer animation of a human being must not be confused with motion capture. Motion capture records the movement of a real human then translating that movement onto a digital model.

The problem is that the human body, its motions, and biomechanics are extremely complex. The bodies of real humans can move, distort, and change positions in millions of different ways which present graphics software cannot effectively process. In addition, there is a perceived unpleasant psychological response, called "uncanny valley," when people view near-perfect animations of humans.

The ultimate aim of computer animators and software programmers alike in this field is to make software where the animator can generate an entire movie sequence or a section of it that portrays a photorealistic human character without the aid of expensive and complex motion capture equipment. The generated character must have physically-plausible motion and realistic clothes, skin, hair, and other elements. The character may be able to interact with other simulated human characters. The realism would be so detailed in such a way that the viewer cannot tell if a part or the whole of a movie is computer-generated or not.

As mentioned before, the technology for 100 percent human realism is not yet existent. However, if it does, researches speculate that it will have a major impact on the film industry.