Jurassic Park's completely new depiction of dinosaurs and the amazing CG revolution

Dramatic establishment of digital characters

Visual effects that are one step more advanced than current models have made possible the creation of such a realistic dinosaur statue. In particular, the advent of CG dinosaurs, which made full use of the latest technology, brought photorealistic appearances and ecology to the depiction of creatures in movies, and it can be said to have laid the foundation for the current mainstream digital production.

However, ``Jurassic Park'' was not produced with the aim of digital revolution, but rather focused on reality, and used materials such as life-size ``animatronics'' (hydraulic mechanically driven dinosaur models) and ``go-motion''. A basic shooting plan had been drawn up. By the way, go-motion is a special effects technique that involves attaching rods to miniature models and moving them using a motion control system to create motion blur. Instead of the jerky movements typical of stop motion, the model can be made to look smooth and lifelike, like a real creature. This technique was actually used to create the pterosaur Vermythrax in Dragon Slayer (1981), the flying scene of the boys riding bicycles in E.T. (1982), and the scene in Howard the Duck. Examples include the Monster Dark Overlord from " The Devil's Conspiracy " (1986) and the two-headed creature that appears in " Willow " (1988). Personally, I think it would be a shame to dismiss these techniques as a transitional technique from analog to digital, but if you have the chance, I highly recommend seeing them.

"ET" preview

However, up until now, Go-Motion has only been used to move single creature models (with the exception of ET), and moving a large number of dinosaurs requires a huge amount of time, effort, and expense. The introduction of CG was considered to help solve these problems.

However, at the time, the same method was used to create inorganic CG characters, such as the Alien -controlled water tentacles in `` The Abyss '' (1989) and the cyborg T-1000 with a variable metallic body in `` The Terminator 2'' (1991). That was the limit. ILM's Dennis Mullen, who had worked on Jurassic Park as a visual effects supervisor, created prototype CG dinosaurs for the demo, including a walking Tyrannosaurus rex and a Gallimimus that ran in packs. Seeing this, Spielberg was convinced of the high quality and decided to replace go-motion with CG work, prompting the creation of CG characters with animal-like skin.

   "Jurassic Park" (C)1993 Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainmant, Inc. All Rights Reserved

As a result, many viewers could not hide their dismay at the achievement of CG's ability to express biological sensations, which had been considered difficult. Furthermore, the strict confidentiality system added to the impact of this CG dinosaur. In the trailer, the CG dinosaur was only shown in a distant shot of Gallimimus running, and the process of revealing the entire image for the first time in the main movie had an even greater impact and penetrated the audience's vision.

Evolution brought to Spielberg