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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 12
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    Special effects were kinda crappy till 1996 or so. Just randomly caught a bit of original Independence Day and big blow ups scenes in the first part are kinda bad. I think Jurassic Park was the turning point. Before that you had to get artsy to cover up FX limitations.

    8:09 PM - 12 Jan 2020
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    10 replies 0 retweets 18 likes
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      2. Sadeq Ali‏ @sahilz79 Jan 12
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        Replying to @vgr

        I always thought Terminator 2 was the turning point, which pre-dates both movies, not sure how’s it aged though - it could be that the 90s were a transitionary decade for vfx and didn’t get consistently good until the late 90s/Matrix timeframe

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 12
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        Replying to @sahilz79

        T2 was good due to good art direction despite the tech I’d say, like most 80s classics

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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      2. J. Brian Byrd, MD, MS  🐦‏ @thebyrdlab Jan 12
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        Replying to @vgr

        But cf 2001: A Space Odyssey & Star Wars.... It took many years to get back to that level of solid realism in CGI special effects, and arguably we're still not there

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 12
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        Replying to @thebyrdlab

        Though realism is not as much the point as artistic vision rather than tech being the bottleneck. Now bad effects can’t be blamed on tech. Like Michael Bay Transfornwes are just bad, but not because of unrealism because it’s not realist intent. It’s artistically I’ll-conceived

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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      2. Visakan Veerasamy‏ @visakanv Jan 13
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        Replying to @vgr

        Jurassic Park also was masterful in using contextual tricks to cover up its limitations. Eg making this scene rainy + night time with lights makes the CGI much less obviouspic.twitter.com/Fi39pmYFQO

        3 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
      3. Visakan Veerasamy‏ @visakanv Jan 13
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        Replying to @visakanv @vgr

        Visakan Veerasamy Retweeted foone

        Also check out this thread about Contact, which also uses Independence Day as a negative example. They came out within a year of each other https://twitter.com/foone/status/1031272972227555328?s=21 …https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1031272972227555328 …

        Visakan Veerasamy added,

        foone @Foone
        So Contact is one of my favorite sci-fi movies, and part of why is about how "real" it feels. It's far less fantastic-feeling than most sci-fi. Part of that is the contemporary setting, sure, but the visual direction plays a big part of it. pic.twitter.com/ov2CY8JAxJ
        Show this thread
        0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Dorian Taylor‏ @doriantaylor Jan 12
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        Replying to @vgr

        jurassic park predated independence day but yeah digital vfx sucked as a rule until the late 90s if you think about it, rendering would have been $$$$ and moreover take a long time on the calendar (just think toy story)

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Dorian Taylor‏ @doriantaylor Jan 12
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        Replying to @doriantaylor @vgr

        but like the there-is-no-spoon spoon in the matrix (1999) looks janky af there is also a wrench floating in zero-g in event horizon (1997) which ruined the whole movie for me

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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      1. Michael F. Martin‏ @riemannzeta Jan 12
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        Replying to @vgr

        The old bad fx are sometimes still good. Evil Dead 2 and John Carpenter's The Thing are good examples. Also Ghostbusters.

        0 replies 1 retweet 1 like
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      1. Nils Gilman‏ @nils_gilman Jan 13
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        Replying to @vgr

        I always considered T2 and especially Titanic to be the turning points.

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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