VFX AND CGI The New Age of Cinema 📽️

 ROLE OF AI IN ENHANCING CGI.

Role of AI in enhancing CGI.

CGI (computer generated imagery) as explained above is an extension of VFX (visual effects). CGI is almost constantly incorporated into movies and tv shows at present. One might wonder about the future of CGI. Where could CGI go after this? Like many other industries, CGI has also been influenced by AI, making the lives of CGI creators easier, possibly replacing them altogether.

 CGI typically follows a few techniques to complete a project. Modeling (creating 3D digital objects using software), Texturing (adding details to make the 3D models look realistic), Rigging (adding joints to emote the creations), Animation (feeding life into model), Lighting and finally Rendering. Rendering is the final stage where a singular animated image is transformed into a series of frames under varied lighting to produce the final animation. Rendering is an extremely time-consuming process, which leaves a toll on creators who are expected to deliver in tight deadlines. AI has offered a solution for this headache. AI-powered rendering solutions are revolutionizing the industry by using machine learning algorithms to enhance rendering processes. These AI algorithms can predict and modify rendering parameters in real-time, leading to quicker render times while maintaining high quality.

AI has been adopted in CGI by popular animation producers. Disney has developed an AI tool for denoising which rapidly reduces the time spent on rendering, Weta digital employed AI to animate the famous Lord of the Rings character “Gollum” in order to capture the hyper realistic facial expressions and such and Nvidia's OptiX AI-accelerated denoiser uses machine learning to deliver real-time ray tracing with exceptional visual quality. Likewise, there are countless examples in the film industry where AI is incorporated into CGI. There is enough evidence to conclude that AI is the future of CGI.

 

                                                                                                         

- By Raveen Fernando (2209586)