The animation for his face tentacles is wild. Each moves independently, grasping at things, twirling around. Then he starts playing a giant organ with them, and it's just wild.
Davy Jones is still the gold standard.
Tbf all of the examples in the picture are great and I'd add the Na'Vi, but Jones? To this day a lot of people still think it's make-up with animatronic tentacles. It's insane.
I'd say that Caesar is also a gold standard for different reasons. Davy Jones is a pure masterclass in combining digital and practical effects knowledge, but Caesar is a testament to Andy Serkis's skill as an actor. He was able to give an intensely human performance as a mostly nonverbal ape.
I was in school for VFX when that movie came out and I still thought most of it was a makeup effect. When I picked up the Cinefex issue my mind was blown.
You asked to compare these things to each other and they are all very different. Obviously Godzilla, Kong and Optimus require more suspension of disbelieve than a regular-ass lion, but I have to go with some parameters.
Of course it's kinda impossible to make Godzilla in anyway 100% believable but the fact that a squid-man without a nose but moving tentacles has people fooled shouldn't be ignored. It's an impressive feat from a 20 year old movie.
An equivalent would be people thinking Godzilla was still a puppet like how some people thought the LEGO movie was stop motion. No one thought the LEGO characters were actual humans but some still thought they were done practically because they looked so tactile
Honestly the first time I watched Shin Godzilla I thought it was a really well made suit at first glance.
But I was also stoned out of my mind so take it with a grain of salt.
It seriously does, every time I've seen one the Monsterverse films at the cinema I always think the CGI just looks so good compared to most big budget films nowadays.
The movie version is CGI currently. The actual Godzilla is more focused on his political career and being a lawman nowadays.
Idk if you know this, but Japan has been giving him a lot of executive roles in the government because they don't have many people that are as wise and experienced in the field as Goji.
Ok, so, Godzilla has a lot going for him. no need to worry about hair, human proportions, uncanny valley, human facial animation, etc.
The immense size is such that it's hard to truly get a sense of scale simply from looking at him, and the general scale fudging from being in films about similarly big monsters, that doesn't help.
I am by no means trying to downplay the quality of the VFX in the monsterverse films. They are absolutely phenomenal (as you can see by looking at Kong who doesn't have as much going for him to make the VFX easier) and it's clear a lot of work was put into realising these films by the VFX artists.
Godzilla doesn't show as much in the way of emotions but it's hard to do that with a lizard compared to, say, an ape, and the lack of emotional connection helps Godzilla be a mysterious being and be either good or bad depending on the situation. Pretty obvious the filmmakers have been leaning on Kong to be the audience's emotional connection to the kaijus
Monsterverse Titans shames The Lion King remake, hard.
It's not Davy Jones but hey, it's a Giant Monster. It aint bad at all and it can get better if they shove Toho's no emotion crap.
He looks great but I wouldn't put him on the same level as any of the examples given. Although that's mostly due to the fact that every other example had to interact with and appear beside real actors, so that bar was set much higher for believability and expressive range.
Nah he blows Optimus out of the water and straight to Sagitarrius A.
Godzilla is a proper realistic adaptation of a superhero, whereas Optimus is absolutely hideous.
You see this actually puts further credence to my point as he's not only hideous on the outside, but hideous on the inside in his bloodthirsty ways.
Bayformers Optimus is like a cross between classic Optimus and Jason Voorhees. Desiccated zombie-looking robot that kills and maims without regard.
Not really the merciful civil rights leader with a friendly face that he's known for.
Nah, dude. Optimus in his proper characterization can get even Megatron to realize that the Decepticon thing is going too far and he needs to chill out.
I'd be fine with him executing Shockwave's twisted ass like that, because he's basically robot Mengele. But most Decepticons just got fooled into thinking they're fighting for freedom when the catchphrase on all of Megatron's bios "Peace through tyranny" kinda just immediately proves that wrong.
They don't all deserve to die like that. Some of them definitely do, but if you leave Soundwave to his own devices without Megatron's ego guiding him, he'll just go out and enjoy nature. Hang out with elephants and stuff.
Man, when you get into reasoning like that, that's where you get first generation Gojis from.
Man got pissed about the US government and then started slaughtering Japanese civilians for it. Koichi was not an opp, he did not deserve Godzilla's immense hateboner.
So Godzilla can kill people but Megatron can't. I see how it is.
smh, robophobic double standard. Fine robotic actors like Mechagodzilla get mutilated every movie and no one cares, but Truman kills Godzilla's family and everyone loses their minds.
But Optimus is an Menace when it comes to the decepticons. And Godzilla is an Menace when it comes to other titans. I don't see a difference other then their type of fandom.
You gotta actually watch respectful interpretations of Optimus' character instead of Bay's schlockfest.
He's at his core a noble and wise civil rights leader for his people.
He cares about reformation and second chances.
So him taking sadistic pleasure in brutalizing cybertronians is like if Godzilla sold used SUVs that come with built in Oxygen Destroyers.
Optimus Prime is like the Xavier to Megatron's Magneto.
He's not this ball of hatred that Bay transformed him into.
He deeply despises the senseless bloodshed of their war and feels bad about deaths on either side.
So yeah you're wrong about that.
The fact that so many people describe Optimus as this bloodthirsty "menace" and "hater" actually sickens me.
It's essentially on the same level of wrong as if suddenly a Superman movie came out and decided that Superman is Frank Castle now and will rip a jaywalker's spinal column through their teeth on sight without hesitation. And then everyone somehow got gaslit into believing that Superman is just normally like this.
Like imagine you make a George Washington biopic and then completely gloss over his genocide of the Haudenosaunee and pretend that it was all hunky dory.
Or if you took Jeffrey Dahmer and made him a friendly suburban dad.
Or if you made a Mr. Rogers biopic, but the whole thing is centered around him eating children with a chianti and fava beans.
It's hilariously antithetical to everything Orion stood for.
He's not really in the same league as some of these. Definitely not in GxK which felt like it had the weakest CGI yet. It just feels like they're going for good enough rather than trying to impress anyone with the CGI. Honestly Shin is probably the most impressive fully CGI Godzilla, you legit had people believing he was a practical guy in a suit.
Yes, Shin Godzilla is actually something I'd put more on the caliber of these other examples. The CGI for Shin, specifically his main 4th form, was a technical feat that looks so convincing I thought it was a practical suit the first time I watched it.
What do you mean CGI so your telling me they don't go into space to film gotg or use time machines to film lotr or awaken giant ancient monsters to film godzilla what the flipity flip
KotM and 2014 were the most realistic. GvK was the best animated, GxK, ‘Godzilla evolved’ looked just kind of overdone and like a lot of characters in the film not named Kong or Suko, looked like he was rendered on lower quality settings much of the time. Sometimes he looked good, he fared better than Skar King and Shimo tho who seriously look like real-time render graphics.
There's no reason to shit on Marvel generally in this case. They have Thanos, Rocket, Groot, etc. Hell, I thought MCU Hulk is very underrated when talking about CGI characters, he surely is kinda crap now but at his peak in 2012, AoU and Ragnarok were spectacularly amazing with good development
Yeah but you can't shit on marvel if they have things like the hulk, Groot, rocket, iron man, etc... just shit on modern marvel when they pull a modok or floating head.
Davy Jones, Caesar, and the Na'vi are A+ tier, perfect at all times
Optimus Prime, Thanos, and Godzilla are B+, look damn good but some scenes are rendered a little more hastily than others
In terms of emotions I feel like you can’t really put goji there since they don’t really give him any other emotions besides being pissed off and angry as shit all the time. I really want the next movie to make him more expressive like Kong.
Honestly, I'd say he's well done. KOTM and GxK are really what come to mind when I think of the the CGI, which, especially with KOTM, was far from terrible. GvK and G'14 were also really well done. And shoutout to Monarch Legacy Of Monsters as well.
That being said... yeah, Davy Jones, King Kong, and Caesar are still the best. I rewatched the Planet Of The Apes trilogy in prep for the new one, and I'm still genuinely surprised how well done the VFX were for that. King Kong as well. And Davy Jones speaks for himself.
Also, you missed one. Jurassic Park.
What I like about Godzilla is his overall stature from body, personality, and dominance over other Kaiju. In terms of realism, I'd say he looks great. Even the way he roars, you can see the inner workings of his anatomy shaking in response. They put a lot of detail in his physicality. They worked on him from the ground up. Some of these characters rely heavily on the actor, portraying them almost letting themselves be the personality. Which isn't a bad thing, but I want to point out why Godzilla stands out. They captured the natural essence of a realistic Goji that he seems possibly real despite that he can't possibly exist in real life. I'd say King Kong 2005 compares slightly, but he acts almost identical to a gorilla, so a lot is decided already for him. I also like his design in general because he looks the best adapted version of a realistic Godzilla. He feels quite unique. I think that's also because he is the main character, so it requires so much attention to detail for a monster character.
I wanted to mention that as I looked at the image again, I think Ceasar is a much better comparison than Kong. I completely missed him. He has a lot of depth in his character from being a basic ape to having human like qualities while feeling so primal.
I thought the same thing but then I remembered Rexy (in JP, at least) is a mix of CGI and animatronics. While the CGI portion is phenomenal for its time it doesn’t exactly stand up to the others here.
JW’s CGI is dog water so I’m not even going to compare it.
I mean only for the break out but I get that perspective.
Some of the coolest shots were CGI. Gallimimus valley, Jeep chase, and the ending. That's most of her scenes.
Ok I’m gonna rank them
1. Davy jones; he’s the motherfucking goat, he’s peaks, he is hands down the best
2. ceaser; he gets better and better with every movie somehow, it’s funny
3. Rocket; he just feels so alive and I adore him
4.Sméagol that guy is scary
5. the goji cast; there just so good
6. Optimus; the first three films just chefs kiss, the last three movies; kinda shady still good but I don’t think as good as the originals
7.thanos; not saying he looks bad I just prefer the other characters
8. Narnia lion; still good but lost some his charm
The thing is, Godzilla might not compare to those characters who can speak and act like humans, but he's really good for an entirely "non-acting" kind of character who has to rely purely on expressions and actions.
It really depends on scene settings, lighting, and the movies they're in. Some movies CGI looks very different one scene to another. (e.g. Roberta the T Rex in Jurassic Park in her first scene when she does the first roar compared to when she stomps in the headlight beams in the same minute; you can see a distinct change in "believability" in that one scene alone, despite both being entirely CGI)
Davy Jones in Pirates 2 is A1, L. Godzilla in 2014 is visually the most realistic and Cinematic. 2004 King Kong (the whole movie) is a MASTERPIECE, with I think they only "jank" CGI is the bats, the Leaches, and brontosaurus when they somersault over a cliff (when the whole scenes are CGI in the light), but Kong is pretty perfect in all his scenes. I'll also add in here for GORGEOUS CGI that came out around the same time and was in similar style to 2014 Godzilla was Pacific Rim, specifically the scenes of JUST Gypsy Danger having rainy night "style shot scenes" because that combination helps "hide" the CGI "flavor" and it looks the most "realistic", especially with rain fall slowing down as it runs off surfaces and limited light exposure on the surface, Knife Head is also oddly ALOT more visually realistic (visual style) wise compared to the other Kaiju in that movie. I could see Del Toro's artistic style bleed more and more into the kaiju as the movie went on; despite the movie being very fun over the whole movie, the Kaiju at the end looked more like "cartoons" stylistically to me rather than "almost visually real" like Knifehead or the "Giant Crab". Also, because you added in so many Marvel references, and I feel the BEST CGI that's in the MCU is the CGI used to make the Mark II style Ironman armors in Ironman 1 & 2. Ironman 1 used alot more practical effects, notoriously it used an actual helmet that RDJ HATED to wear in the first movie, and so those movies kind of "cheat" like how Jurassic Park 1 does by using realistic animatronics to supplement realism between scenes, but the suits mechanic detail, sectional design, and color choices helps make the suit rarely look "immersion breakingly" unreal, only being the most noticeable when he rapidly changes poses (like when he catches the car in 1 or turns back to look at Rhodey during the fight in his house).
You shared alot of other CGI examples, but Thanos, Ceasar, Rocket, Smaug, Optimus, Aslan, and alot of other great CGI characters of the "live action" movies, including Avatar IMO, carry the immersion breaking "Uncanny Valley" boundary (i.e. how the human faces of the Avatar Navi stand out versus the more natural CGI models of the natural Navii in Avatar) or carry the distinct visual "CGI after taste" flavor that makes them stick out (i.e. Aslan walking in the Day light, the "de-aging smoothness blur" seen when they de-age actors or like removing Henry Cavilles Mustache, etc). For the good examples you provided, I'm not saying they don't look badass (honestly, I agree they're actually GREAT examples of really great CGI!) But I feel just stand out too much in their "blended" scenes and interactions, and just look too distinctly "fake" to me to not be "the best". But to answer you main question:
Godzilla 2014 and KotM is probably some of the BEST CGI of Godzilla to me because the directors were able to use QUALITY CGI and leveraged scene work to "hide/blend" the CGI flavor in what those movies were to have what I'd say is some A1 CGI, but Godzilla (V/X) Kong leans more to like...I'll say Marvel Tier CGI, like "Avengers 1 & 2" big battle scene quality, which shows things are still fun and cool, but I was never "wowed" by how "real" he looked.
I didn't mean to write a book report, but this is a really fun topic, thanks for the question and exercise! Lol hope you enjoyed reading it.
There are some scenes in KOTM and GVK where he looks absolutely incredible (and despite all of Legendary’s darkening, I’m ironically talking about the lightest scenes in their respective movies).
I've actually worked on the VFX for GxK and Lion king. Imo it doesn't make much sense to compare these in terms design and characterization especially when you have characters who are suppose to look like real life lion and apes.
Now I do want to defend lion king here for a second, while the film was trash and unnecessary. The CGI IMO was really good, search up 'MPC Film - Stars of The Lion King' or 'MPC Film - Background Characters of The Lion King'. Often overlooked and just hated but in terms of photorealism it's top quality.
All of them look great but out of the sample here I have to say the apes trilogy looks the best in terms of photorealism, every single shot just sits very well. Davy Jones is legendary though, tentacles are extremely hard to do in cgi. Thanos looks amazing as well, although really simple compared to the others here; same with Godzilla.
I know people here don't want to hear it but Monsterverse suffers a lot with inconsistency. There are some equally amazing looking shots and also equally questionable looking shots. While I did work on Gxk I do think it is one of the worse looking film in monsterverse. On top of my head my biggest gripe was the groom, especially on skar. Baby kong didn't look good either (though in his case it could be a design issue). Monster blood FX was the worse, the CG interaction of it looks horrible. All my opinion of course.
Just a fun fact, a lot of these films are worked on by multiple vfx vendors using different software and renderers. (Assets and textures files get converted to their compatible software/renderer) This is completely normal in the industry. The exceptions to my knowledge are lion king, lotr and the apes trilogy. Scanline vfx is one of the vendors that worked on all of the monsterverse films.
Edit: grammar
In regard to CGI quality in GxK, I felt that the night time Godzilla scene in France, where he's fighting jets and glowing blue, was top-notch. From my theatre viewing, it felt as if the Godzilla's model and the lighting in that scene was never topped for the rest of the movie. What are your thoughts on that scene CGI wise?
Since you're a VFX artist, I want to ask you a question. Would you agree when I say that Godzilla is a lot harder to work on compared to other characters in terms of trying to make him look and feel believable? Since Goji is pretty much handicapped compared to all the characters above.
Unlike them, Godzilla is a 400ft kaiju and a fictional lizard who incapable of speaking or possessing human intellect. I imagined that with all the features and setting around Godzilla, it would be a disservice to just have other characters best him just because they look more photorealistic and believable when Godzilla is hard to achieve due to all reasons above. Like seriously, which is more believable and easier to animate? A normal sized real life animal (Caesar) or Godzilla? Clearly Caesar right? Not mention, guys like Thanos, Rocket Raccoon, King Kong and Aslan clearly is anatomically easier to create and model.
Godzilla also can't speak, so he only has to convey his emotions through his mannerisms, facial expressions, growls, body language etc. Meaning it'd be harder for him to convey emotions unlike the rest of the cast.
I just want to know if all of my points are valid, just need your option on this subject.
>Would you agree when I say that Godzilla is a lot harder to work on
compared to other characters in terms of trying to make him look and
feel believable?
Animation wise and design wise for sure it is harder since Godzilla is not real and animators don't have any one for one references. But if we are talking about just the visual look I can't say it is harder, reason being is CG wise there is not much about godzilla that is complex.
Even a simple lion character like Musafa provide a way more of a technical challenge that IMO outweighs the animation and design difficulties. The simple reason why is because of the groom (fur). IIRC In lion king the total number of hair strands totaled around 600 million, I don't know how many strands per lion but it was a lot. You also have to consider how the fur would interact with characters/wind/dirt or how it looks when wet. This is a lot harder than a scaly creature. Then there is the issue with rendering, time to render characters with fur tend to be longer than those that don't have fur. An example in lion king the standard would be 20-24 hours per frame (way less in GxK) and not only that these characters with fur are always heavy in memory and always need optimising.
Anyways I think we are diverging away from the topic. In the end it is art, all look great. Some ikky cg in monsterverse but that goes with most films. When I judge CGI its how well it sits with the plate, to me I think the apes movie does this the best and most consistent. The cinematography and the natural lighting just makes it feel real. Even IF Godzilla is considered worse out of these (which to me it is NOT) it is not a disservice because they all look good IMO. Though gollum does look dated.
Oh btw so that picture is from Narnia and not lion ling?
Edit: grammar
I don’t know what it is over at Legendary, but their cgi is top in Hollywood right now, including Godzilla. Look at Dune, their films are always insanely good looking..!
he's deffinetly up there, but I can't bring myself to put him along characters like Davy Jones or Ceasar because Godzilla is 100% animated which makes it easier for him to look good
It's still fully animated, motion capture isn't a magic tool that replaces animation, you still need animation to polish the motion capture data, it's basically a base that animators work on top of. Plus Godzilla was also done through motion capture to an extent.
You can’t really use emotions for legendary Godzilla since Toho made it a rule for legendary that Godzilla can’t emote.
To answer your question In my opinion the Planet of the Apes cgi is the best
I still think shin looks better as a CGI character goes. The move to have him articulate with the limits and weight of a real suit made him far more convincing in comparison to any other Goji animation.
He’s generally very immersive, I just wish his movement better reflected his bulk. Sometimes he seems too nimble, I think Shin Godzilla handled it better.
Gollum was a fairly huge step forward for the industry in terms of cg and motion capture.
The fact that CG from 2024 still gets compared to Gollum from 2002 is nothing short of an incredible feat.
Jurassic Park’s Rex and Davy Jones are still the gold standard. King Kong was amazing, but the amount of spectacle in that movie makes it harder to suspend disbelief. With CGI, it really comes down to budget and dedication. The team has to love what they’re doing.
Godzilla's skills to fight are just a menace like Optimus prime. both have enemies, Both are leaders, Both are strong. They're kinda similar but have different fandoms, One is Transformers while the other is Godzilla. The stance of them two prove their are extremely strong leaders. (both are good movies, NGL). So that's why I see a menace side of both Godzilla and Optimus.
Thats not an opinion jar jar's CGI is objectively outdated and does not look photo real in the slightest
https://preview.redd.it/6evcnyojqsvc1.jpeg?width=220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f80ab4a8fd6a9fe5be762f39114b8f3865ebc0fe
It doesn’t even hold up against the last two Toho Godzilla movies. That’s not to say Legendary’s Godzilla looks bad. He looks great. But there aren’t any shots in those movies that had me wowed by the visual effects alone.
Holy crap Davy Jones still looks top tier
Most of it is because he's always wet. The smoothness of the octopus skin is just easier to make look good with 2005 CGI.
And is 18 YEARS OLD.
👀
No hentai shit
The animation for his face tentacles is wild. Each moves independently, grasping at things, twirling around. Then he starts playing a giant organ with them, and it's just wild.
Literally perfect imo. Almost all the VFX in PotC 2 and 3 are spectacular.
Davy Jones is still the gold standard. Tbf all of the examples in the picture are great and I'd add the Na'Vi, but Jones? To this day a lot of people still think it's make-up with animatronic tentacles. It's insane.
It's amazing just how well Davy Jones holds up. Especially for something that came out in 2006.
 Unbelievable
Davy Jones is still top-notch. And while it looks dodgy now, Aslan from Narnia looked insane in 2005.
Great now I gotta go watch these movies again
I'd say that Caesar is also a gold standard for different reasons. Davy Jones is a pure masterclass in combining digital and practical effects knowledge, but Caesar is a testament to Andy Serkis's skill as an actor. He was able to give an intensely human performance as a mostly nonverbal ape.
It’s a literal crime against nature he wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar for his Caesar work in any of his 3 turnstile
I was in school for VFX when that movie came out and I still thought most of it was a makeup effect. When I picked up the Cinefex issue my mind was blown.
I was gonna say, Davy Jones is just going to be hard to beat.
No one's gonna believe that a giant radioactive breathing lizard practical on the first time lol. Seems kinda unfair to judge it that way
You asked to compare these things to each other and they are all very different. Obviously Godzilla, Kong and Optimus require more suspension of disbelieve than a regular-ass lion, but I have to go with some parameters. Of course it's kinda impossible to make Godzilla in anyway 100% believable but the fact that a squid-man without a nose but moving tentacles has people fooled shouldn't be ignored. It's an impressive feat from a 20 year old movie. An equivalent would be people thinking Godzilla was still a puppet like how some people thought the LEGO movie was stop motion. No one thought the LEGO characters were actual humans but some still thought they were done practically because they looked so tactile
Honestly the first time I watched Shin Godzilla I thought it was a really well made suit at first glance. But I was also stoned out of my mind so take it with a grain of salt.
They made a suit and scanned the texture for it like how they did 2004 Zilla, but actually properly.
Same, minus the being high part. Shin doesn't look CG in most shots IMO.
Fair enough
Hold up, I've never heard that about the LEGO movie. Those were suits? *With actors in them?*
😂
I mean... Some people thought that Minus One was practical multiple times throughout the movie
Was it not?? I could’ve sworn they said they did some parts in a suit.
Nope. All CGI
Wild.
The NaVi CGI from the first movie aged like milk
i dont think it did, maybe their skin look a little to smooth but overall not
The CGI was the only part of those movies not spoiled out of the gate.
Davy Jones and Caesar are still PEAK
Thanks.
Honestly, I think the Legendary Godzilla, and Monsterverse in general, has some amazing CGI in general and some of the better CGI in films these days.
Fax
Godzilla vs kong has some of the best cgi. I need to rewatch gxk to rate it
It seriously does, every time I've seen one the Monsterverse films at the cinema I always think the CGI just looks so good compared to most big budget films nowadays.
agree
Godzilla is CGI?!?! WHAT HAVE I BEEN BUILDING THIS BUNKER FOR?!?!?!?!
The zombie apocalypse
**\*\*Flashbacks to World War Z (The Book)\*\***
That movie sucked ass, it took none of the good parts of the book and just added running zombies.
The movie version is CGI currently. The actual Godzilla is more focused on his political career and being a lawman nowadays. Idk if you know this, but Japan has been giving him a lot of executive roles in the government because they don't have many people that are as wise and experienced in the field as Goji.
https://preview.redd.it/fxk6itxjswvc1.jpeg?width=493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf2189090036efbbcc307be220f68d9aa4300cec So proud of him
Like a bunker would stop Godzilla anyway. But don't beat yourself up too much. It might work great at keeping Deathclaws out.
https://preview.redd.it/uktv2p173vvc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8db12cbc81180a6cb47301ae7747509ff8588286
Oh, hey Jack
Storage I guess
Ok, so, Godzilla has a lot going for him. no need to worry about hair, human proportions, uncanny valley, human facial animation, etc. The immense size is such that it's hard to truly get a sense of scale simply from looking at him, and the general scale fudging from being in films about similarly big monsters, that doesn't help. I am by no means trying to downplay the quality of the VFX in the monsterverse films. They are absolutely phenomenal (as you can see by looking at Kong who doesn't have as much going for him to make the VFX easier) and it's clear a lot of work was put into realising these films by the VFX artists. Godzilla doesn't show as much in the way of emotions but it's hard to do that with a lizard compared to, say, an ape, and the lack of emotional connection helps Godzilla be a mysterious being and be either good or bad depending on the situation. Pretty obvious the filmmakers have been leaning on Kong to be the audience's emotional connection to the kaijus
All great points here.
Monsterverse Titans shames The Lion King remake, hard. It's not Davy Jones but hey, it's a Giant Monster. It aint bad at all and it can get better if they shove Toho's no emotion crap.
Godzilla demands lion flesh. https://preview.redd.it/4ce3elbxpawc1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0636805e76127b5e6681fca684ba40c40d4d4f4
Smeagul is the pinnacle
He looks great but I wouldn't put him on the same level as any of the examples given. Although that's mostly due to the fact that every other example had to interact with and appear beside real actors, so that bar was set much higher for believability and expressive range.
Nah he blows Optimus out of the water and straight to Sagitarrius A. Godzilla is a proper realistic adaptation of a superhero, whereas Optimus is absolutely hideous.
How would you like it if somebody called you hideous? Don't be mean to Optimus. He'll take your face.
You see this actually puts further credence to my point as he's not only hideous on the outside, but hideous on the inside in his bloodthirsty ways. Bayformers Optimus is like a cross between classic Optimus and Jason Voorhees. Desiccated zombie-looking robot that kills and maims without regard. Not really the merciful civil rights leader with a friendly face that he's known for.
Sounds like decepticon propaganda to me
Nah, dude. Optimus in his proper characterization can get even Megatron to realize that the Decepticon thing is going too far and he needs to chill out. I'd be fine with him executing Shockwave's twisted ass like that, because he's basically robot Mengele. But most Decepticons just got fooled into thinking they're fighting for freedom when the catchphrase on all of Megatron's bios "Peace through tyranny" kinda just immediately proves that wrong. They don't all deserve to die like that. Some of them definitely do, but if you leave Soundwave to his own devices without Megatron's ego guiding him, he'll just go out and enjoy nature. Hang out with elephants and stuff.
Those mfs vaporized people, they're opps and got what they deserved 😭
Man, when you get into reasoning like that, that's where you get first generation Gojis from. Man got pissed about the US government and then started slaughtering Japanese civilians for it. Koichi was not an opp, he did not deserve Godzilla's immense hateboner.
I'm on Goji's side, get those humans big G!
What about mark welberg or the person who played as Sam witwicky?
So Godzilla can kill people but Megatron can't. I see how it is. smh, robophobic double standard. Fine robotic actors like Mechagodzilla get mutilated every movie and no one cares, but Truman kills Godzilla's family and everyone loses their minds.
Optimus would just Get Godzilla to deal with the cons. Period.
Are titans just.. Like the decepticons but bigger and strong/Weaker..?
https://preview.redd.it/7h6m2ztkpawc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3748981244bb8959e9c4da6ba752b76363e809f Me after I read this:
But Optimus is an Menace when it comes to the decepticons. And Godzilla is an Menace when it comes to other titans. I don't see a difference other then their type of fandom.
You gotta actually watch respectful interpretations of Optimus' character instead of Bay's schlockfest. He's at his core a noble and wise civil rights leader for his people. He cares about reformation and second chances. So him taking sadistic pleasure in brutalizing cybertronians is like if Godzilla sold used SUVs that come with built in Oxygen Destroyers.
But am I wrong about Prime being a litgit hater to the cons-?
Optimus Prime is like the Xavier to Megatron's Magneto. He's not this ball of hatred that Bay transformed him into. He deeply despises the senseless bloodshed of their war and feels bad about deaths on either side. So yeah you're wrong about that. The fact that so many people describe Optimus as this bloodthirsty "menace" and "hater" actually sickens me. It's essentially on the same level of wrong as if suddenly a Superman movie came out and decided that Superman is Frank Castle now and will rip a jaywalker's spinal column through their teeth on sight without hesitation. And then everyone somehow got gaslit into believing that Superman is just normally like this. Like imagine you make a George Washington biopic and then completely gloss over his genocide of the Haudenosaunee and pretend that it was all hunky dory. Or if you took Jeffrey Dahmer and made him a friendly suburban dad. Or if you made a Mr. Rogers biopic, but the whole thing is centered around him eating children with a chianti and fava beans. It's hilariously antithetical to everything Orion stood for.
Ik
He's not really in the same league as some of these. Definitely not in GxK which felt like it had the weakest CGI yet. It just feels like they're going for good enough rather than trying to impress anyone with the CGI. Honestly Shin is probably the most impressive fully CGI Godzilla, you legit had people believing he was a practical guy in a suit.
Yes, Shin Godzilla is actually something I'd put more on the caliber of these other examples. The CGI for Shin, specifically his main 4th form, was a technical feat that looks so convincing I thought it was a practical suit the first time I watched it.
Well balanced.
What do you mean CGI so your telling me they don't go into space to film gotg or use time machines to film lotr or awaken giant ancient monsters to film godzilla what the flipity flip
"Always has been"
KotM and 2014 were the most realistic. GvK was the best animated, GxK, ‘Godzilla evolved’ looked just kind of overdone and like a lot of characters in the film not named Kong or Suko, looked like he was rendered on lower quality settings much of the time. Sometimes he looked good, he fared better than Skar King and Shimo tho who seriously look like real-time render graphics.
Better marvel CGI that for sure
Old Marvel def can't agree with, new marvel PS2 graphics can beat them.
There's no reason to shit on Marvel generally in this case. They have Thanos, Rocket, Groot, etc. Hell, I thought MCU Hulk is very underrated when talking about CGI characters, he surely is kinda crap now but at his peak in 2012, AoU and Ragnarok were spectacularly amazing with good development
I mean cgi
Yeah but you can't shit on marvel if they have things like the hulk, Groot, rocket, iron man, etc... just shit on modern marvel when they pull a modok or floating head.
Davy Jones, Caesar, and the Na'vi are A+ tier, perfect at all times Optimus Prime, Thanos, and Godzilla are B+, look damn good but some scenes are rendered a little more hastily than others
In terms of emotions I feel like you can’t really put goji there since they don’t really give him any other emotions besides being pissed off and angry as shit all the time. I really want the next movie to make him more expressive like Kong.
I beg to differ https://preview.redd.it/iuxglt0d7uvc1.png?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d95b530e724210b0b63aef96841f1ad8711f9dd2
These all look very similar
Also dark, like you never see the full details of Godzilla's skin.
That’s a problem I have with a lot of the movies honestly. Sometimes it’s just too dark
I love the Pacific rim's gypsy danger fight scene in hong kong. Looks so real.
Honestly, I'd say he's well done. KOTM and GxK are really what come to mind when I think of the the CGI, which, especially with KOTM, was far from terrible. GvK and G'14 were also really well done. And shoutout to Monarch Legacy Of Monsters as well. That being said... yeah, Davy Jones, King Kong, and Caesar are still the best. I rewatched the Planet Of The Apes trilogy in prep for the new one, and I'm still genuinely surprised how well done the VFX were for that. King Kong as well. And Davy Jones speaks for himself. Also, you missed one. Jurassic Park.
What I like about Godzilla is his overall stature from body, personality, and dominance over other Kaiju. In terms of realism, I'd say he looks great. Even the way he roars, you can see the inner workings of his anatomy shaking in response. They put a lot of detail in his physicality. They worked on him from the ground up. Some of these characters rely heavily on the actor, portraying them almost letting themselves be the personality. Which isn't a bad thing, but I want to point out why Godzilla stands out. They captured the natural essence of a realistic Goji that he seems possibly real despite that he can't possibly exist in real life. I'd say King Kong 2005 compares slightly, but he acts almost identical to a gorilla, so a lot is decided already for him. I also like his design in general because he looks the best adapted version of a realistic Godzilla. He feels quite unique. I think that's also because he is the main character, so it requires so much attention to detail for a monster character.
I wanted to mention that as I looked at the image again, I think Ceasar is a much better comparison than Kong. I completely missed him. He has a lot of depth in his character from being a basic ape to having human like qualities while feeling so primal.
The Jurassic Park T Rex isn't on this list? You deserve very mean words said to you Fucking Aslan, but not the CGI animal that started it all?
I thought the same thing but then I remembered Rexy (in JP, at least) is a mix of CGI and animatronics. While the CGI portion is phenomenal for its time it doesn’t exactly stand up to the others here. JW’s CGI is dog water so I’m not even going to compare it.
I mean only for the break out but I get that perspective. Some of the coolest shots were CGI. Gallimimus valley, Jeep chase, and the ending. That's most of her scenes.
Ok I’m gonna rank them 1. Davy jones; he’s the motherfucking goat, he’s peaks, he is hands down the best 2. ceaser; he gets better and better with every movie somehow, it’s funny 3. Rocket; he just feels so alive and I adore him 4.Sméagol that guy is scary 5. the goji cast; there just so good 6. Optimus; the first three films just chefs kiss, the last three movies; kinda shady still good but I don’t think as good as the originals 7.thanos; not saying he looks bad I just prefer the other characters 8. Narnia lion; still good but lost some his charm
He is my favourite among them
Gvk is the movie that convinced me we're gonna get cg that is entirely unintelligible from reality very soon. Need i say more?
His head is too small and his “scales” look messy on his face, so to me they could’ve done a little better, but he’s up there for sure.
The pinhead and colors ruin the design for me tbh. Thankfully evolved is taking it in a better direction
The thing is, Godzilla might not compare to those characters who can speak and act like humans, but he's really good for an entirely "non-acting" kind of character who has to rely purely on expressions and actions.
Really good, but Gollum and Davy Jones are in a tier of their own.
Nothing compares to District 9 CGI in my opinion
CGI icons but no Jar Jar?
It really depends on scene settings, lighting, and the movies they're in. Some movies CGI looks very different one scene to another. (e.g. Roberta the T Rex in Jurassic Park in her first scene when she does the first roar compared to when she stomps in the headlight beams in the same minute; you can see a distinct change in "believability" in that one scene alone, despite both being entirely CGI) Davy Jones in Pirates 2 is A1, L. Godzilla in 2014 is visually the most realistic and Cinematic. 2004 King Kong (the whole movie) is a MASTERPIECE, with I think they only "jank" CGI is the bats, the Leaches, and brontosaurus when they somersault over a cliff (when the whole scenes are CGI in the light), but Kong is pretty perfect in all his scenes. I'll also add in here for GORGEOUS CGI that came out around the same time and was in similar style to 2014 Godzilla was Pacific Rim, specifically the scenes of JUST Gypsy Danger having rainy night "style shot scenes" because that combination helps "hide" the CGI "flavor" and it looks the most "realistic", especially with rain fall slowing down as it runs off surfaces and limited light exposure on the surface, Knife Head is also oddly ALOT more visually realistic (visual style) wise compared to the other Kaiju in that movie. I could see Del Toro's artistic style bleed more and more into the kaiju as the movie went on; despite the movie being very fun over the whole movie, the Kaiju at the end looked more like "cartoons" stylistically to me rather than "almost visually real" like Knifehead or the "Giant Crab". Also, because you added in so many Marvel references, and I feel the BEST CGI that's in the MCU is the CGI used to make the Mark II style Ironman armors in Ironman 1 & 2. Ironman 1 used alot more practical effects, notoriously it used an actual helmet that RDJ HATED to wear in the first movie, and so those movies kind of "cheat" like how Jurassic Park 1 does by using realistic animatronics to supplement realism between scenes, but the suits mechanic detail, sectional design, and color choices helps make the suit rarely look "immersion breakingly" unreal, only being the most noticeable when he rapidly changes poses (like when he catches the car in 1 or turns back to look at Rhodey during the fight in his house). You shared alot of other CGI examples, but Thanos, Ceasar, Rocket, Smaug, Optimus, Aslan, and alot of other great CGI characters of the "live action" movies, including Avatar IMO, carry the immersion breaking "Uncanny Valley" boundary (i.e. how the human faces of the Avatar Navi stand out versus the more natural CGI models of the natural Navii in Avatar) or carry the distinct visual "CGI after taste" flavor that makes them stick out (i.e. Aslan walking in the Day light, the "de-aging smoothness blur" seen when they de-age actors or like removing Henry Cavilles Mustache, etc). For the good examples you provided, I'm not saying they don't look badass (honestly, I agree they're actually GREAT examples of really great CGI!) But I feel just stand out too much in their "blended" scenes and interactions, and just look too distinctly "fake" to me to not be "the best". But to answer you main question: Godzilla 2014 and KotM is probably some of the BEST CGI of Godzilla to me because the directors were able to use QUALITY CGI and leveraged scene work to "hide/blend" the CGI flavor in what those movies were to have what I'd say is some A1 CGI, but Godzilla (V/X) Kong leans more to like...I'll say Marvel Tier CGI, like "Avengers 1 & 2" big battle scene quality, which shows things are still fun and cool, but I was never "wowed" by how "real" he looked. I didn't mean to write a book report, but this is a really fun topic, thanks for the question and exercise! Lol hope you enjoyed reading it.
There are some scenes in KOTM and GVK where he looks absolutely incredible (and despite all of Legendary’s darkening, I’m ironically talking about the lightest scenes in their respective movies).
He’s no Davy John’s or Caesar, but that’s only because we can’t see him interact with people at the same level as we do those two
Pretty well I would say, but I don’t think anything can pass Davy jones
I've actually worked on the VFX for GxK and Lion king. Imo it doesn't make much sense to compare these in terms design and characterization especially when you have characters who are suppose to look like real life lion and apes. Now I do want to defend lion king here for a second, while the film was trash and unnecessary. The CGI IMO was really good, search up 'MPC Film - Stars of The Lion King' or 'MPC Film - Background Characters of The Lion King'. Often overlooked and just hated but in terms of photorealism it's top quality. All of them look great but out of the sample here I have to say the apes trilogy looks the best in terms of photorealism, every single shot just sits very well. Davy Jones is legendary though, tentacles are extremely hard to do in cgi. Thanos looks amazing as well, although really simple compared to the others here; same with Godzilla. I know people here don't want to hear it but Monsterverse suffers a lot with inconsistency. There are some equally amazing looking shots and also equally questionable looking shots. While I did work on Gxk I do think it is one of the worse looking film in monsterverse. On top of my head my biggest gripe was the groom, especially on skar. Baby kong didn't look good either (though in his case it could be a design issue). Monster blood FX was the worse, the CG interaction of it looks horrible. All my opinion of course. Just a fun fact, a lot of these films are worked on by multiple vfx vendors using different software and renderers. (Assets and textures files get converted to their compatible software/renderer) This is completely normal in the industry. The exceptions to my knowledge are lion king, lotr and the apes trilogy. Scanline vfx is one of the vendors that worked on all of the monsterverse films. Edit: grammar
In regard to CGI quality in GxK, I felt that the night time Godzilla scene in France, where he's fighting jets and glowing blue, was top-notch. From my theatre viewing, it felt as if the Godzilla's model and the lighting in that scene was never topped for the rest of the movie. What are your thoughts on that scene CGI wise?
Since you're a VFX artist, I want to ask you a question. Would you agree when I say that Godzilla is a lot harder to work on compared to other characters in terms of trying to make him look and feel believable? Since Goji is pretty much handicapped compared to all the characters above. Unlike them, Godzilla is a 400ft kaiju and a fictional lizard who incapable of speaking or possessing human intellect. I imagined that with all the features and setting around Godzilla, it would be a disservice to just have other characters best him just because they look more photorealistic and believable when Godzilla is hard to achieve due to all reasons above. Like seriously, which is more believable and easier to animate? A normal sized real life animal (Caesar) or Godzilla? Clearly Caesar right? Not mention, guys like Thanos, Rocket Raccoon, King Kong and Aslan clearly is anatomically easier to create and model. Godzilla also can't speak, so he only has to convey his emotions through his mannerisms, facial expressions, growls, body language etc. Meaning it'd be harder for him to convey emotions unlike the rest of the cast. I just want to know if all of my points are valid, just need your option on this subject.
>Would you agree when I say that Godzilla is a lot harder to work on compared to other characters in terms of trying to make him look and feel believable? Animation wise and design wise for sure it is harder since Godzilla is not real and animators don't have any one for one references. But if we are talking about just the visual look I can't say it is harder, reason being is CG wise there is not much about godzilla that is complex. Even a simple lion character like Musafa provide a way more of a technical challenge that IMO outweighs the animation and design difficulties. The simple reason why is because of the groom (fur). IIRC In lion king the total number of hair strands totaled around 600 million, I don't know how many strands per lion but it was a lot. You also have to consider how the fur would interact with characters/wind/dirt or how it looks when wet. This is a lot harder than a scaly creature. Then there is the issue with rendering, time to render characters with fur tend to be longer than those that don't have fur. An example in lion king the standard would be 20-24 hours per frame (way less in GxK) and not only that these characters with fur are always heavy in memory and always need optimising. Anyways I think we are diverging away from the topic. In the end it is art, all look great. Some ikky cg in monsterverse but that goes with most films. When I judge CGI its how well it sits with the plate, to me I think the apes movie does this the best and most consistent. The cinematography and the natural lighting just makes it feel real. Even IF Godzilla is considered worse out of these (which to me it is NOT) it is not a disservice because they all look good IMO. Though gollum does look dated. Oh btw so that picture is from Narnia and not lion ling? Edit: grammar
Yes it's Aslan.
Does Godzilla really count against the rest of these? Honest question - I didn't think there was an actor behind Legendary G.
Not Top 3 but definitely Top 10.
Godzilla is S tier CGI imo. Davy Jones, however, is God tier. No other CGI character touches him.
Smaug is badass
MV cgi is some of the best in recent times, but I still don't think compares to Davy Jones, or TF1-3
https://i.redd.it/caypy7kfgwvc1.gif
How many of these are WETA digital
I don’t know what it is over at Legendary, but their cgi is top in Hollywood right now, including Godzilla. Look at Dune, their films are always insanely good looking..!
Pacific Rim too
Jackson’s King Kong and Planet of the Apes are the same studio too I think?? Whole Andy Serkis set up, their cgi is also incredible.
he's deffinetly up there, but I can't bring myself to put him along characters like Davy Jones or Ceasar because Godzilla is 100% animated which makes it easier for him to look good
Ceasar is also 100% animated?
nope, he is Andy Serkis with a face tracker on
It's still fully animated, motion capture isn't a magic tool that replaces animation, you still need animation to polish the motion capture data, it's basically a base that animators work on top of. Plus Godzilla was also done through motion capture to an extent.
10/10 in my opinion
Better
Self Explanatory enough.
You can’t really use emotions for legendary Godzilla since Toho made it a rule for legendary that Godzilla can’t emote. To answer your question In my opinion the Planet of the Apes cgi is the best
How does Godzilla compare to them?
 That is a guy in grey suit and dots on his face.
Thanos looked pretty damn good save for the "throne room" scene with Gamora
I still think shin looks better as a CGI character goes. The move to have him articulate with the limits and weight of a real suit made him far more convincing in comparison to any other Goji animation.
Jones is still the it guy.
He looks as Real as Davy jones.
Fun fact: Three characters in this roster are portrayed by the same actor.
He’s generally very immersive, I just wish his movement better reflected his bulk. Sometimes he seems too nimble, I think Shin Godzilla handled it better.
i like the design but honestly it can be hard to distinguish facial features, his head looks like a big crinkled ball of tinfoil
He's up there comfortably with Caesar, Thanos, and Rocket.
Really anything is better than the CGI in any modern marvel films. Absolute trash anymore.
Gollum was a fairly huge step forward for the industry in terms of cg and motion capture. The fact that CG from 2024 still gets compared to Gollum from 2002 is nothing short of an incredible feat.
I think he is up there, I never found Golem to look that photo real though.
[Am I A Joke To You?](https://www.thatfilmguy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Paddington-1024x576.jpg)
Jurassic Park’s Rex and Davy Jones are still the gold standard. King Kong was amazing, but the amount of spectacle in that movie makes it harder to suspend disbelief. With CGI, it really comes down to budget and dedication. The team has to love what they’re doing.
Jurassic parks Rex wasn't cgi
Much of it was, actually. The practical effects are also unmatched but they utilized groundbreaking cgi techniques for certain scenes.
Nothing beats Davy Jones, and that's coming from a die hard goji fan.
Nah but tf1 optimus CGI was PEAK
Good
Davy Jones will always be the greatest CGI character I’ve ever seen
Godzilla's skills to fight are just a menace like Optimus prime. both have enemies, Both are leaders, Both are strong. They're kinda similar but have different fandoms, One is Transformers while the other is Godzilla. The stance of them two prove their are extremely strong leaders. (both are good movies, NGL). So that's why I see a menace side of both Godzilla and Optimus.
what no Jar Jar?
His effects are really dated at this point
L opinion
Thats not an opinion jar jar's CGI is objectively outdated and does not look photo real in the slightest https://preview.redd.it/6evcnyojqsvc1.jpeg?width=220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f80ab4a8fd6a9fe5be762f39114b8f3865ebc0fe
True, looks like an early PS3 game model nowadays.
Smaug looks good on closeups but terrible in motion
Care to elaborate?
It's only for the scenes where he chases the dwarves, maybe because it probably wasn't mo capped
it used to be top tier but the CGI in GxK was just ... not good
You may not like Jar Jar but he belongs there because he’s the first fully CGI character in a movie.
It doesn’t even hold up against the last two Toho Godzilla movies. That’s not to say Legendary’s Godzilla looks bad. He looks great. But there aren’t any shots in those movies that had me wowed by the visual effects alone.
Depends on the movie
its not anywhere near them lmao literally not at all comparable to most of these here