Category: Thesis

In these two weeks I finished the final thesis structure so I could focus on researching further sources that were more specific to answer the questions and sub-questions of my topic. I also started writing and structuring my draft literature review with the sources I currently have.

Final thesis chapters structure with sources to be used to answer questions/sub-questions

I did some digging through my sources to take the parts that I could potentially use to answer my topic’s questions. Then, I also created an Excel spreadsheet to make notes of the most important points of my sources and to start structuring my literature review too.

Draft Literature Review

According to Studio Binder (Kench, 2022), Britannica (Wainwright, 2019), and Tate (2023) official websites, Photorealism is an art movement that started on 1960s in America, that shows artworks that look photographic. This form of art is defined by being complex, extremely clear, and emotionally neutral. Since this type of art was considered unoriginal and boring, this led to the pop art movement. However, in the beginnings of 1990s, the interest in photorealism resurged again as effect of the development of digital cameras which could offer a more precise image. These sources will contribute to explain the concept of Photorealism before diving into a more specific analysis of this movement into film making.

Photorealism can be used in filmmaking in many scenarios. For example, to add CG elements (characters, objects, environments) or visual effects that would be impossible or dangerous to shot during live action. Wadmare examines in his essay the importance of photorealistic VFX in filmmaking industry as a tool to avoid shooting dangerous or impossible live action scenes, which techniques are being currently followed to achieve this, and which new trends are arising to make the process easier. In addition to this, Maio (2021), also reflects in her article What is VFX? Defining the Term and Creating Impossible Worlds about how VFX industries use photorealistic digital assets to create impossible and dangerous scenes such as the scene in The Matrix when the main character dodges bullets shot against him.

Eran Dinur, visual effects supervisor, believes that Photorealism is an aspect that is important across all disciplines as it helps simulating a real character, object, environment, or phenomenon that would have been impossible, dangerous, or highly costly to be filmed or photographed in live action. Delving into Eran Dinur’s bibliography, and more specifically in his book The Complete guide to Photorealism for Visual Effects, Visualization and Games, he analyses how to implement the physics that apply to the world around us to the visual effects in filmmaking and make them look as photorealistic as possible. Since most of the scenery in filmmaking are not even real like alien planets, fantastic creatures, or impossible environments for our understanding of physics, visual effects artists important job is to observe and study the world around us and try to implement it to these fictional shots. These imaginary worlds have also some Earth like aspects that are kept so the audience can empathise with them. Sometimes these familiar aspects can help make the shots more ‘believable’ and, therefore, more photorealistic for the viewer. It is important to keep a balance between what is real and unreal, otherwise, the shot could end being an overly fantastic scene that could throw the audience out of the story. 

Dinur also mentions that the quality of photorealism does not depend entirely on the quality digital capturer and display. While high dynamic range and bit depth are important for a successful photorealistic recreation, there are independent aspects such as light and surface, the sense of depth, richness of textures, characteristics of optical lenses, and many other characteristics that make a shot look as photorealistic in high definition as well as in low definition. These characteristics are more linked to the physics of the world around us and the interaction of surfaces, materials, lights, and other aspects with it.

In the beginning of the 21^st century, Manovich (2002) explains in his book The Language of New Media, the origins of photorealism and how it has been developing throughout the years. He also analyses how it is a common opinion that CGI will never be as realistic as images gathered by camera lenses. However, he also counter argues that these opinions are mistaken, explaining why he thinks this and how these CGI is in fact becoming more realistic than traditional photographs (hyperrealism). He also mentions that photorealism is often mistaken with realism, as people has the tendency that this movement depicts the reality as we see it through our eyes, when what photorealism has always tried to achieve is the look of the reality seen through a camera lens.

Going back to Erin Dinur, in an interview he had with the journalist Ian Failes (2021), he defends that if a digital asset does not look like it was shot live in front of a camera and like it is part of the rest of the composition, it will look fake and will not work. This is why, in his opinion, photorealism is so important for visual effects artists and why there is also a lot of pressure on the visual effects artists’ shoulders regarding the so called ‘uncanny valley’ where the audience’s opinion will be stuck in feedbacks such as ‘this looks fake’ or ‘it looks too CG’. Also, he affirms that it is difficult to point out which part of the CG shot needs to be improved to make it look more photoreal, since the work pipeline when creating a CG shot is made by a chain of people, in most of the cases, like a modeler, a texture artist, a shading/lighting artist, a compositor, and a matte painter. Moreover, when we are talking about photoreal, we do not say ‘real’, as we are referring to the way we see through the lens of a camera not through our eyes. Therefore, so many things such as defocus, dynamic range, or exposure are processed differently through our eyes and brain than through a lens and a camera sensor. If we show CG shots as we would see it through our eyes, we will find it strange.

Dinur also has a previous book, The Filmmaker’s Guide to Visual Effects: The Arts and Techniques of VFX for Directors, Producers, Editors, and Cinematographers, where he speaks about the fact that a convincing photorealistic work is possible as soon as there is a ‘respect for the real-world physics and optics’. However, it is also very easy for VFX artists to fall for the desire to use every single VFX available and overload the film with an excess of digital effects that takes off the audience from the story.

Taking in consideration the amount of work, focus, and knowledge a good photorealistic shot requires, Jeng (2023) explain in their research paper, Sidelining Photorealism: ‘Speed Racer’ and Articulation of Digital Effects Labour, how photorealism has always been the leader in the film industry and how some movies like ‘Speed Racer’ have opted to sideline this style to help foreground the work of digital visual effects artists.

Furthermore, Agrawal and Auryn (2009), and Cooper (1999) also explain the challenges and techniques that artists have faced with photorealism (and its issues with the so called ‘uncanny valley’). They also explain how some artists have opted for NPR (non-photorealistic rendering) instead, to create a simpler and cartoony style (animation) that gives more creative freedom and more room to use the artist’s imagination.

Nowadays, photorealism’s quality has become so high and polished that it is difficult to differentiate it from real photographs or live action scenes. This could be beneficial and useful when used with good intentions, but it could also be used with malicious intentions. Meena and Tyagi (2019) argue in their paper, A Novel Method to Distinguish Photorealistic Computer Generated Images from Photographic Images, how photorealism, despite revolutionising the filmmake and game industry, how it has also been used with malicious intentions and how important it is to learn how to distinguish real assets from computer generated ones.

To understand photorealism practices amongst practitioners in the industry, Melki (2019), in his dissertation called An Investigation Into The Creative Processes In Generating Believable Photorealistic Film Characters, focuses on the process to create photorealistic film characters that are credible, as well as its benefits and challenges. The research also extends to interviews made with several industry expert practitioners with the purpose of comparing of all the statements acquired from the participants.

Indicative bibliography

Agrawal, A., and Auryn (2009).Non-photorealistic Rendering: Unleashing the Artist’s Imagination(online). Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5167490 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Cooper, D. (1999). Personal Thoughts on Non-Photorealistic Rendering (online). Available at:  https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/563666.563690 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Dinur, E (2017). The Filmmaker’s Guide to Visual Effects: The Arts and Techniques of VFX for Directors, Producers, Editors, and Cinematograrphers. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Dinur, E. (2022). The Complete Guide to Photorealism for Visual Effects, Visualization and Games. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Failes, I. (2020). EPIC’S GOAL WITH NEXT-GEN UNREAL ENGINE IS PHOTOREALISM (online). Available at: https://beforesandafters.com/2020/05/14/epics-goal-with-next-gen-unreal-engine-is-photorealism/ [Accessed 4 June 2023]

Failes, I. (2021). WHAT IS PHOTOREALISM? WELL, SOMEONE LITERALLY JUST WROTE THE BOOK ON IT (online). Available at: https://beforesandafters.com/2021/11/30/what-is-photorealism-well-someone-literally-just-wrote-the-book-on-it/ [Accessed 4 June 2023]

Jeng, J. (2023). Sidelining Photorealism: ‘Speed Racer’ and Articulation of Digital Effects Labour (online). Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KLOqEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA153&dq=photorealism+in+film&ots=r8349MlY8s&sig=aEhMvSbwORZ1C0leMCKO8dpnEns&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=photorealism%20in%20film&f=false[Accessed 25 April 2023]

Kench, S. (2022). What is Photorealism – The Art of the Real Explained (online). Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-photorealism-definition/ [Accessed 23 April 2023]

Maio, A. (2021). What is VFX? Defining the Term and Creating Impossible Worlds (online). Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-vfx/ [Accessed 30 May 2023]

Manovich, Lev (2002). The Language of New Media. First paperback edn. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Meena, K. B., and Tyagi, V. (2019).  A Novel Method to Distinguish Photorealistic Computer Generatd Images from Photographic Images (online). Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8985711 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Melki, H. (2019). An Investigation Into The Creative Processes In Generating Believable Photorealistic Film Characters (online). Available at: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/78290411/Henry_Melki_Thesis.pdf [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Tate (2023). Photorealism (online). Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/photorealism [Accessed 30 May 2023]

Wadmare, S. (2021). Recent Trends Visitation in VFX and SFX in the Animation World (online). Available at: http://ilkogretim-online.org/fulltext/218-1617213160.pdf?1682423818 [Accessed 25 April 2023]

Wainwright, L. S. (2019). Photo-realism. Encyclopedia Britannica (online). Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/Photo-realism[Accessed 30 May 2023]