Computers have infiltrated in almost every part of our lives. The business of making movies is no exception. Movies cost and then make millions of dollars, from the largest blockbuster to the smallest independent film computers are used in various ways during development, pre- production, production and post-production. Computers have become integral to the timely creation movies.
Computer animation or CGI animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer-generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images while computer animation only refers to moving images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics , although 2D computer graphics are still used for stylist, low bandwidth, and faster real- time renderings, sometimes the target of the animation is the computer itself, but other times is another medium , such as film.
Computer animation or CGI short films have been produced as independence animation since 1976, although the popularity of computer animation, especially in the field of special effects, skyrocketed during the modern era of American animation. The first computer animated TV series was ReBoot in 1994, and the first completely computer animated movie was Toy Story in 1995. Computer animation helped to create blockbuster films, such as Toy story 3 in 2010, Avatar in 2009, Shrek 2 in 2004, Cars 2 in 2011, Life of Pi in 2012, and Frozen in 2013. All of these are incredible movies that were created thanks to computers.
Computers also help in the creation of special effects and music. There is an entire division of special effects called computer generated imagery (CGI) that uses computers to place creatures, backgrounds and more into movies that cannot be created in real life. Computers are also record and capture the motion of the actors for computer graphics to be added later in post-production. The soundtrack of a movie helps create suspense, energy and tension during key points. The music is often created in a studio by real musicians and orchestras and recorded by computers so it can be modified and fine-tuned using computer programming. This way the music is the perfect fit for the required scene.
Other necessities of computer in movies are in screenwriting and editing. The days of writing the screenplay for a movie on a typewriter are over, and most screenwriters today use a variety of computer programs that will automatically format text into a screenplay. This saves the screenwriter substantial time by not having press space, tab and other buttons over and over again for more than 100 pages of movie script. About editing, I can say that in days before computers, editors would spend hour looking through frames of film and literally cutting the film to edit it. Today, modern editors use computers to go through a movie frame by frame and scene by scene and can cut and move very precisely with the click of the mouse.
Today thanks to computers, amateur people can create their own movies. The popularity of some websites allow members to upload their own movies for others to view has created a growing community of amateur computer animators. With utilities and programs often included free with modern operating systems, many users can make their own animated movies and shorts. A popular amateur approach to animation is via the animated GIF format, which can be uploaded and see on the web easily. In summary, computers are essential in the creation of movies.