In the early 1990s, all major film releases were filmed on celluloid (the material on which the motion picture is recorded), films were edited in the traditional way rather than on computer screens, animation was still an art because it was created by hand, and analog sound was the norm for mixing. as well as for presentation.

By the end of the decade, all of that will change, thanks to one of the biggest technological revolutions since cinema appeared over 60 years ago. The 90s changed the way we design, watch and listen to films like no decade before or since, and its innovations continue to reverberate today. Below we present seven films without which the history of cinema and the landscape of today’s cinema would be very different.

Oscar-winning James Cameron’s visual effects were a major step forward for visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and a leap forward for the industry, with the introduction of the first major film character to be partially computer-generated (CG). ). Under visual effects supervisor (VFX) Dennis Murren, ILM was tasked with creating “liquid metal” for the shape-shifting T-1000 model. Luckily, thanks to Cameron’s previous film, The Abyss, they had a plan with the first photorealistic computer-generated effect to take on a human form – and it would still bring home an Oscar.

Disney’s iconic animated musical, which became the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, made early use of CGI. Using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) developed by Pixar, the studio was able to combine hand-drawn animation with fast camera movements during the iconic dance sequence between the characters Belle and the Beast. The process required that the modeling and rendering software for creating the CG background and the ability to move the camera, a prerequisite for creating an animated background, already existed. In addition, CAPS, previously used to print scene outlines, has been upgraded to provide the necessary 3D rendering, allowing 3D background data to be used as the basis for the final composition. The result paved the way for more digital experimentation at Disney, such as with 1999’s Tarzan, which allowed 2D artists to create 3D paintings that the camera could move freely around.

When director Steven Spielberg began work on Jurassic Park, the original plan was to have four talented special effects specialists work with him, each contributing to the best they had to offer.

Jurassic Park proved that computers can create various breathing creatures to make viewers believe they are alive. “That was the moment when I suddenly realized that everything had to change,” Spielberg tells Lawrence Kasdan and the Light & Magic documentary. “Not only in my film, but the whole world would follow me. This will change everything for all of us and for a global audience, and we will never go back to the old way.”

Pixar officially came of age with the release of the industry’s first computer-animated film, Toy Story, in 1995. Woody, Buzz and a cute gang of anthropomorphic toys changed the animation industry forever. The CGI offered a more three-dimensional, dynamic, and immersive experience than previous handmade designs. By laying the foundation, Pixar has taken its talent and technology to the next level. They built a new animation system, used text modeling, and adopted the then-new PowerAnimator (a 3D animation and effects tool) from the American horror series Alias.

In 1998, the independent and low-budget short film The Last Broadcast was shown digitally in several theaters, but the film, which made its digital debut in the summer of 1999, was to start a revolution. It was Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, a movie that came out of the frustration of its creator, George Lucas. Lucas has long resented the celluloid method, calling it “19th century technology”.

Lucas’ plan to shoot the entire feature film digitally was to be delayed until Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, for which Sony successfully developed 24fps HD cameras. But his dream of digitally showing his films that would be the same quality even after the 100th showing – without scratches or seams – came true in 1999 on four screens in California and New Jersey. The complexity and cost of refurbishing theaters initially made studios wary of the technology, but by Episode II, Lucas’ project had expanded to about 20 US screens, and by Episode III, that number had more than tripled.

Released in the late 2000s, Lana and Lilly Wachkowski’s philosophical odyssey in a computer-dominated dystopian environment paved the way for how films are viewed and perceived by audiences in the 21st century in ways that are both obvious and famous. It was the first DAW movie to use the “ancestors” of today’s Pro Tools and Digital Audio Workspaces (DAW). Part of the Wachowski’s original attempt to break out of an impregnable, oppressive, and artificial reality is how the digital soundscape can dominate the film once the character Neo begins to realize that his consciousness is returning to his sleeping body.

According to IndieWire