Something ironic

I realized something ironic today: In my field I’m known largely for developing techniques that make it easier to create computer graphic images that look realistic. Yet I never set out to make computer graphic images look realistic, and in fact that’s not something I particularly value.

What I want is to help make computer graphic images look beautiful and compelling. It just happens that realism is one way to do that — among many others.

Yes, my techniques can be used to create things that look real. But they can also be used to create a lot of other kinds of visual results.

I think what’s going on here is that the movie and games special effects industries (where the big money is) are really in love with realism — presumably because audiences are. So that’s how my techniques tend to be used, which means that’s what I’ve become known for.

Personally, I’ll take the look of Fantasia over the look of a Transformers movie any day. But to be fair, I’m not in the business of making movies that are supposed to earn millions of dollars for their creators, so I can have the luxury of an iconoclastic opinion.

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