Video game engines have come a long way over the years. They’ve come so far that movie producers are wanting to use them to completely replace post production techniques. If you’ve see any popular video game trailer, you can see why this technology could be used in movies. Many video games today have such high quality that you can see the pores in a character’s skin.
The graphic engines will be used to create effects such as weather, fire and laser beams that previously took much longer to add. By using the game engines, producers are able to take real time movements with actors in special suits to achieve a more streamlined effect. Kim Liberi, Lucasfilms chief technology strategy officer says, “I’m pretty sure within the next decade, we’re going to see a convergence in terms of traditional visual effects capabilities – [such as] making realistic fire, creatures, and environments – but working completely interactively.”
The technology has already been tested by Lucasfilm on their video game 1313, which was to be released at a later date but was cancelled after Disney shut down the project in April. They learned during the process that it was possible to create real-time graphics during production. This would in essence completely remove the entire post production process completely.
One other amazing feature that this could offer to the public is the ability to interact with movies in a way never done before. It’s believed that in the very near future this technology will be used to allow viewers to customize the way they watch movies. Liberi makes the bold claim that individuals would be able to change the appearances of characters in the movie, backgrounds and even add themselves into the story. How this will play out is still yet to be determined.
