>> Speaker 1: Now a days CGI can do pretty much anything and
it's pretty common to hear people complaining about it's over use.
But it wasn't so
long that people marveled at the novelty of even the smallest effect.
These are the top ten in the CGI effects before the year 2000.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 2: The manual ships and may the force be with you.
>> Speaker 1: Starting this off with number 10 STAR WARS : A NEW HOPE.
Yes the spaceship battles were unprecedented and
light sabers were the coolest things since disco music hit was the 70s after all.
But those actually were computer generated but the trans run briefing was.
This 3D model of the Death Star was slowly and
painstakingly made by hand at the University of Illinois for the movie.
And it was the second instance of 3D CGI in a feature film ever.
And if these cutting edge graphics don't immediately knock your socks off,
remember that it's 1977, and people are still drooling over Space Invaders.
And although more recent technology has given the original trilogy a more CGI
makeover, we prefer to stick with the Trinitron.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 3: Run this guys to the arch edge walls.
>> Speaker 4: Copy Bo later. >> Speaker 5: Copy Bo later.
>> Speaker 6: This is Gold 1 to Gold 2 and 3, spiral take on one on one.
>> Speaker 1: Next up at number nine, Tron.
Just five years later CGI had evolved to this.
Tron featured almost 15 minutes of full 3D CGI used not as a futuristic display,
but as the entire story wealth including the now famous, light bike duo.
The 3D cuts inconspicuously with the live action
footage with only a little suspension of disbelief.
Sure it helps that the story logic calls for it to look like a video game and
it lacks the polish of Tron legacy, but
it's surprising how watchable the sequence is today.
Mostly because the makers of Tron worked with their technological limitations,
not against them.
>> Speaker 7: Beyond the darkness, beyond the human evolution, is come.
>> Speaker 1: At number eight, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Almost 30 years before JJ Abrams and his gratuitous lens flares,
the Wrath of Khan premiered a bevy of ground breaking CGI techniques.
Foremost among them were those used to create the genesis effect.
The 60 second continuous sequence that watches a wave of fire consume a moon and
give birth to life was the longest of its kind yet.
They'd also saw a Lucas films computer graphics group pioneer impressive sounding
wizardry like particle systems and
fracto generated landscapes in order to prove themselves.
And what good did that do them?
Just the attention of a rich guy named Steve,
who bought them out and turned them into a little company called Pixar.
But before Pixar became Pixar, they had a few more records to set.
Including number seven, Young Sherlock Holmes.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: [SOUND] Three years
after Wrath of Khan, Lucas Film tackled a short sequence where a stained-glass
knight attacks a priest, with the help of a new hire named John Lasseter,
after he'd been fired from Disney.
It took Lasseter and his six months to create this sequence and
this is it, right here.
What you are seeing right now is the whole thing start to finish but
this was the first fully CG character ever created which is a massive achievement for
such a forgotten movie.
>> [SOUND] >> Speaker 8: Who are you?
>> Speaker 1: Next up at number six, Labyrinth.
Not one year after the first CG character appears do we see the first
photorealistic animal.
Known not one of the muppets, but
the CGI owl at the very beginning during the credits.
Okay, so it's not exactly photorealistic like today's standards,
but compared to the detail in Tron just a few years before, and
it might as well be a photograph.
And speaking of Tron, the owl was made by some of the same
people who animated the Tron light-bike sequence.
Which is going to become a theme here.
The same few innovators driving an entire fledgling industry
towards where it is today.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 9: [INAUDIBLE] I think it likes you.
>> Speaker 1: At number five, the alien water pseudopod from The Abyss.
Long before James Cameron was reinventing cinema technology with Avatar,
he was reinventing cinema technology with The Abyss.
He hired industrial light and magic to create the first ever 3D water effect.
And whereas Sherlock Holmes took six months to create ten seconds of footage,
The Abyss managed 75 whole seconds in the same six months.
It was also the feature debut of Photoshop which has come such a long way from
helping create groundbreaking animation to touching up sorority selfies in
living rooms across America.
But the effect would come in handy when two years later, Cameron and
ILM used the technology developed for the Abyss in number four, Terminator 2.
>> Speaker 10: Hasta la vista, baby.
>> Speaker 1: This time with a running total of five and a half minutes,
and over 100 CGI elements in order to create the liquid metal, T1000.
And it's right here around the 1990s that the bad ass level
really starts to ratchet up.
The realism and creativity with which directors use CGI in this era still
holds up today, which is certainly saying something.
Especially because,
while all the previous films on this list were rendered on gigantic supercomputers,
Terminator 2 marks the first time the effects were done on a PC.
>> [SOUND] >> Speaker 11: Girls,
girls, let's just calm down.
I'm sure we can settle this peacefully and [SOUND]
>> Speaker 1: Next top in number three
Death Becomes Her.
So far we've seen stained glass, owls, water and robots but no humans.
There a bit effects of all shapes and sizes but
what they have in common is a distinct lack of skin.
And that's because skin is damn tricky.
Not only is it an incredibly intricate texture that we're biologically
programmed to have a heightened sensitivity to, but
it doesn't pass light like other normal objects.
It's actually semi-translucent, more like a candle than a baseball.
That's why your face looks funny if you put a flashlight in your mouth.
But Industrial Light and Magic checked that box off with Death Becomes Her,
the dark comedy about immortal rivals, when Goldie Hawn knocks
Meryl Streep's head in, and she pulls it back out, stretching out her neck, and
yet again advancing computer graphics in the process.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 12: [LAUGH] >> Speaker 13: You did it.
You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.
>> Speaker 1: Closing in at number two, Jurassic Park.
It doesn't take much in the way
of deduction to figure out we're talking about the dinosaurs.
And while practical animatronics and puppets were used in some shots,
much of the dinosaurs were entirely computer generated.
Capturing industrial lighting magic their 13th Oscar.
And it's the same wonder that Doctor Grant and
Doctor Sandler feel here that captivated audiences who looked up at the screen and
for the same time ever saw humans walking with dinosaurs.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: And finally, at number 1, the entirety of Toy Story.
Remember that guy John Lasseter from Young Sherlock who spent 6 months on 10 seconds?
Well, he stepped up his game.
He went on to found Pixar and
with them directed Toy Story, the first ever full CGI feature.
And if you think that's cheating, consider that what was once basic 3D geometry had
come so far as to capture the entire spectrum of human emotion in story form.
Paving the way for Pixar's string of CGI hits.
This massive revolution in animation imbues this touching story with so
much energy and visual delight that it's still perfectly watchable today.
It's timeless.
Which is why we think it's the best use of CGI of the last millennium.
So what do you think?
Were there any early VFX that we left out?
Did you find some of these less than extraordinary?
Let us know in the comments below and subscribe to Cinefix for
more Indiewire Movielists.
>> [MUSIC]