Re: Star Wars Anthology (Young Han Solo)
I think they have a ways to go before the tech is fully ready-for-prime-time, so to speak. I suspect it will get there eventually, but it's not there yet.
The issues with CGI in these cases:
- Animation looks unnatural. The movements just don't look..."real." Whether it's how the lip curls, or how eyebrows respond, or whathaveyou, there's still a quality to it that just seems artificial.
- Eyes still look too glassy. There's a tendency to overemphasize the reflective quality of eyes. I mean, yeah, eyes show reflective lights and such, but they aren't made of glass. Eyes in a lot of this stuff look like CGI-water, not...you know....like eyes. At least when this is done poorly, it's a tell.
- Hands. As tough as animation is, any artist will tell you that hands are probably one of the most complicated, pain-in-the-ass things to get right. They either end up looking like spiders or like clubs. It's rare that the animation really looks like a normal hand would.
- Lighting. Playing off of the eyes issue, how CGI stuff is "lit" in general always seems to be a problem. It just never seems to capture/catch the light properly. It always seems just a teensy bit too "bright" or not nuanced enough, etc. I don't know how to describe it, but the surface just doesn't look...right.
To be clear, I think this stuff will get there eventually. Tarkin is one of the most stunning achievements I've seen in CGI in recent years. And what's more, he was used in a pretty subtle way. There seemed to be a lot less of the tendency to "lampshade" just how cool and impressive the CGI is. I think it's probably just a matter of time.