The images and animations created with software for cartoons, video games, movies and commercials. Dating back to the 1970s, the special effects in today's movies, which mix real actors with aliens and monsters, are generated in the computer. There is no limit to the fantasy world that can be created with computer-generated imagery (CGI) techniques. There is also no limit to being able to alter an existing video to make people appear to say things they never said (see
deepfake). See
motion capture.
To learn the basics of computer images, see
graphics. See
3D graphics and
3D visualization. Contrast with
stop-motion animation.
CGI and AI
AI is increasingly capable of generating images and videos in minutes instead of weeks of traditional CGI programming and tweaking. Entire movies are made in days instead of months. Thus far, the combination of using AI along with traditional CGI skills is common. Whether AI will obsolete CGI in the future remains to be seen. However, human skills will likely always be required no matter what acronym we use. Stay tuned!!!