Video game essay

1973-2006
A look into the industry of CGI
An Essay by J. Haldeman
The year is 1973, and you are suddenly taken by the fact that Goodbye Yellow Brick
road is swarming the airways %u2013 and the Vietnam War continues to rage in the
southeastern end of Asia. One would think to wonder, why in any sort of situation
would a family be sitting in front of their %u2018boob tube%u2019 and be playing a
game like Sword Quest? Well, from the years 1973 to 2006, there has been a
significant change in the way video games are perceived, and valued. Once a simple
4-bit masterpiece with blips across the screen, to a complete moving image wonder
complete with realistic 3d imagery. CGI (Computer Graphics Imagery) from the video
game to the movie screen, we will look at how this industry has evolved over the
years until now.

One would intend to say that the graphics found in an old Atari 2600 game are
undermining the effect of the word %u201CLame%u201D for lack of a better
professional word. However, for it%u2019s time games like SwordQuest, and even for
example Space Invaders, these were the top performing games in the early seventies
made to entertain many households across the world. Speed reflex, was no longer
something you only heard of in the kung-fu movies of yesteryear; it was now known
that your 12 year old child could very well be mastering the game paddle sitting
in front of your family TV.

If we think about it hard enough, we%u2019ll remember the slow progression into
higher quality media that became harder to achieve success within the status quo
in the gaming world. However, this graphical wizard wasn%u2019t all it was cracked
up to be, certain games had to carry a warning issue about flashing colours,
lights %u2013 things that could set off harmful seizures. Whilst to sadly, many a
household this deemed hilariously funny and went about their playing, it was now
becoming a medical issue that probed medical professionals to start viewing the
way these things affected people. Thus not to forget, that video games were
evidently to blame for many teenage massacres, violent behaviour and all around
abnormal character. This hasn%u2019t been fully proved yet, as psychologists and
psychiatrists akin cannot pinpoint a cause to this matter .

Yet, in all that glitters, shiny and pretty in the video game world... Nobody had
any notion that this would spark computer graphics usage as a widespread factor in
movies of today. In fact, not all that glitters was gold: the video game market
took a substantial dive in 1983 and again in 1984 due to the bankruptcy and sudden
end to several companies. (Wikipedia Oct 3rd 2006)

This had however brought in light to gaming on a new form of console: the home
computer. Yet, from around the same year as our friendly video and computer games
gained popularity, we gained the knowledge to put 2D and 3D computer related
imagery into our film and television. From Westworld in 1973, to the Dire Straits
music video %u2018Money is for Nothing%u2019 in 1985; the boiling pot was about to
boil over into mainstream technology and become a breeding ground for new and
exciting adventures.

These new adventures were the advent creation of a new kind of filmmaking, and a
new kind of video-game creation on the side. By the mid 1990s, we were making
movies, which featured 3d animation and effects without a real flesh face to put
them against for comparison. (Toy Story, 1995) Around the same time, the battle
for the console began, as it once had nearly fifteen or so years earlier. Several
companies dipped into the proverbial gene pool, making it much harder to grab hold
of a great niche market.

Consoles of the 32-bit range such as the Panasonic 3DO, Sony Playstation, Sega Cd,
Sega 32 X, Sega Saturn (Dreamcast to follow), Amiga CD32, Philips's CD-I, Atari
Jaguar, NEC%u2019s PC-FX, Bandai Pippin, FM TOWNS MARTY, Pioneer Laser-
interactive. These were ultimately labelled FIFTH GENERATION consoles; yet
ultimately the market could really only stand to hold a few substantial products
on it%u2019s shelves. Whilst these held high aspects of the animation and CGI you
are about to read, they were not brought about popularity wise until the higher
end 32 and 64 bit consoles were brought to life.

Yet %u2013 something else began to stir behind the mastermind of the 3d gaming
market%u2026 Japan%u2019s Sony Playstation managed to burst out in forces nobody
had ever imagined %u2013 games with IN GAME MOVIES. If it wasn%u2019t the
realistic titles of games like Tekken 2, it was the realistically made in game
movies in the RPG series Final Fantasy. Each year behind the belt, and Square
produced several games that blew the Sony%u2019s sales out the window and onto the
charts as nearly the #1 console in the late 90s. Without such titles as Parasite
Eve, Final Fantasy, and XenoGears -- Sony%u2019s market dominance would not be
present today .

From the in-game movies featured in several titles not only created by square
(later to be known as SQUARE ENIX), but titles from other popular game creators
%u2013 to later known VIDEO GAME BASED MOVIES. This was an odd phenomenon, to make
movies based on video games, as it had earlier never worked. [Mortal Kombat,
Street Fighter to name a couple] Thus, somehow releasing opinions that it may
never, in fact work for a general public. Movies like Tomb Raider, Pokemon,
Resident evil %u2013 paved the way for a new generation of movies solely based off
video games.

Pushing the boundaries further than ever before, with graphics were movies like
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The
Polar Express, The Matrix Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and last,
but not least: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. The Matrix trilogy brought about
a new sort of CGI and filming aspect, though some of it isn%u2019t truly computer
generated %u2013 some of it deserves mention for the technology aspect.

As said in The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded: %u201CThe Matrix trilogy both
celebrates and criticises Technological change, an ambivalence which could be
claimed as being at the crux of post modernity, through the medium of hardware,
software and cyberspace.%u201D The matrix trilogy became famous for groundbreaking
technology that served as a door-opening experience for other moviemakers. Matrix:
Reloaded included the first use of "Universal Capture,%u201D the combination of
dense (rather than point-based) motion capture and per-frame texture capture
{http://www.Wikipedia.org keyword: TIMELINE OF CGI IN MOVES}.

Movies like the Matrix Trilogy, went down in history for their trademark martial
arts filming, crossed with 3D CGI effects such as the well noted disambiguation of
the face in Matrix: Revolutions. 360 degree, stop-motion filming became an
industry revelation for many films and games to come in the future. (Final
Fantasy: Dirge of Cerebus, Tomb Raider Series [Movies], Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon, Bujingai Sword Master to name a few.)
Yet, another movie of a different genre put together similar aspects with this new
way of filming. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
(%u30D5%u30A1%u30A4%u30CA%u30EB%u30D5%u30A1%u30F3%u30BF%u30B8%u30FCVII
%u30A2%u30C9%u30D9%u30F3%u30C8%u30C1%u30EB%u30C9%u30EC%u30F3 Fainaru Fantaj%u012B
Sebun Adobento Chirudoren) is a film based on the highly successful PlayStation
One and PC game Final Fantasy VII it combined the likes of the Martial Arts,
realistically rendered 3d animation and 360 degree stop motion filming (Though
animated completely in 3d, the notion of the 360 degree camera was more than
apparent in several parts of the film), and Motion Capture to boot.

A very successful movie indicating the way the 3D animation and CGI industry has
grown over the years. A successful and booming DVD release movie franchise with
several merchandising contracts, spin offs, cell phone games, and products that
were specifically placed in the movie (Panasonic FOMA P900iV mobile phone
unavailable outside Japan). Movies like these stand the test of time: What came
first the chicken or the egg?

Whilst many will tell you the brush before the pen, the pen before the mouse, the
mouse before the tablet; CGI has come along way in over 30 years. From 2D to 3D,
from game to screen %u2013 we%u2019ve seen how games affect our lives, and movies
effect our emotions. Touching upon the grossly overrated video-game generations of
the 1980s, to gracing it%u2019s light upon the CGI first seen in movies like
Futureworld, Tron and Looker.

Yet will we ever truly all believe that 3D is worth all the trouble we go to? We
process frame-by-frame, mesh-by-mesh %u2013 room-by-room. Motion capture the dog,
motion capture this that and the other thing. Are we truly free of technology?
Well, that%u2019s all for another essay I suppose %u2013 because technology rules
the CGI industry. The industry that has successfully made its 30th anniversary
this year, and in style I suppose. There is always one or two or even three new 3D
animated films on the market these days, good or bad %u2013 there%u2019s art in
every single one of them.

REFERENCE LIST:
BOOKS:
THE MATRIX TRILOGY: Cyberpunk Reloaded - Gillis S.
An Introduction to Ray Tracing - Glassner, A. (0122861604 1989/2002 Morgan
Kaufmann Publishing)
The Art of 3d Computer Animation & Effects - Kerlow, I. (0471430366 /006.693KER
John Wiley and Sons)
What Video Games have to teach us about literacy and learning - GEE, J.
(1403965382/794.8019GEE)
First Person - Wardrip-Fruin, N. and Harrigan, P (026223232 794.8FIR)
Handbook of Computer Game Studies - Raessens, J. Goldstein, J.
(0262182408/794.8HAN)/ http://mitpress.mit.edu
WEBSITES :
CGI IN FILM:
Wikipedia Articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_CGI_in_movies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer-animated_films
http://accad.osu.edu/~waynec/history/lesson14.html
http://www.cinemagap.com/visualeffects/
CGI IN VIDEO GAMES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer_game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_game
http://www.playright.info/raretitel.php?id=28617
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/521/521319p1.html
Images used in comparison:
FF7: DIRGE OF CEREBUS NSTC COVER
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/11/Dirgeofcerberususbox.jpg/250p
x-Dirgeofcerberususbox.jpg Oct 7th 2006 8:28 PM)
FF7: ADVENT CHILDREN COVER
(Cover copyright Sony pictures, Square Enix 2006)
SwordQuest in-game images
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordquest)