How Software Works

4Movie CGI

Some of software’s most impressive work can be seen in movie theaters. Images that in earlier eras were painstakingly produced with models, matte paintings, elaborate costumes, and trick photography are now created by computers. More than merely simplifying the filmmaking process, computer-generated imagery (CGI) produces images that would have been impossible before. For many filmgoers, movies changed forever when they saw Jurassic Park. When Steven Spielberg was developing the movie, he expected to create his dinosaurs using old-school effects like automated puppets and animated miniatures, but once he saw some computer-animated test ...