Do you remember the first time you saw a truly breathtaking effect in film? For me, it was seeing the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. I remember as a kid there was a big deal made about the fact that Steven Spielberg and his production crew were using CGI effects. While many of the dinosaurs in that film were practical effects, that was just the start of the CGI dominance we’re seeing in films today.
However, where did it all start? Let’s get to the bottom of that question.
The First Film to Use CGI
If you ask film buffs which movie was the first to feature CGI, you’ll get answers like Tron and Young Sherlock Holmes. However, that simply isn’t the case. The 1973 film Westworld featured a groundbreaking use of CGI, well before the advent of microcomputers and the like in the office and homes.
It wasn’t anything out there, compared to the likes of Jurassic Park or Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but it was a start. One of the earliest uses of CGI was to make a convincing display of a robot’s vision for the viewer to take in.
The 1970s would continue to see CGI start to gain ground in films like Star Wars, Alien, and The Black Hole. The 1980s would continue forward with this trend, with the ever-famous Tron really pushing the boundaries of what the technology could do. However, this was mere baby steps compared to what came next.
Breaking Ground
The 1990s were the last hurrah of filmstock being used, but perhaps the biggest champion in showing the promise of CGI in the production of movies. 1995’s Toy Story would be the first fully CG animated feature film, moving past high-tech replacements for practical effects and completely into the realm of pioneering the art form.
Perhaps one of the biggest indicators of the shape of things to come would be the visually lush and evocative CGI used in 1999’s The Matrix. The Wachowskis’ breakout hit featured CGI quite heavily throughout the many action sequences, along with a smattering of practical effects.
Scenes in the dystopian reality of the setting heavily leaned on computer-generated graphics, creating a visual nightmare that hadn’t been seen before.
Peter Jackson
The 2000s would see CGI gain more and more prominence, but few examples stand up to the test of time like The Lord of the Rings film trilogy by director Peter Jackson. While there was a heaping helping of CGI featured throughout the runtime of the film, that doesn’t compare to having a fully computer-generated character interacting with your leads.
Gollum holds the record for being the first fully CGI character to interact with live actors, paving the way of modern films like Avengers: Endgame and Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Modern Era
These days, it’s harder to name films that don’t use CGI. Visual effects are primarily computer-generated, especially when considering the funding given to the crews behind the likes of Disney’s MCU franchise and other major blockbusters.
Further, CGI ushered in the end of conventional animation, at least as far as the mainstream is concerned. Disney’s traditional animation department closed for good in the early 2010s, marking the end of an era.
CGI is here to stay, but it took quite a while to get where it is now.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com.