how rendering CGI scenes work in film..it it an entire frame or do they create a “world” to film?

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I’ve wondered this for a while and a quick Google hasn’t yielded great results.

When films, particularly full CGI films, are made, do they truly make it frame by frame? Or do they desgin the full 3d world and put cameras into the software to “film” the scene? And how extensive to they get?

For example, in the car chase ending for Toy Story, would they have designed and modeled the entire neighborhood and used “cameras” in the scene to film it? Would they fully 3d model each house and “play” the scene to film it? Or would they design and create small pieces and put them together like traditional cartoon?

I always imagined it was similar to the StarCraft map editor. I could build the map, add in units and then assign them AI cues to move through routes or take actions based on programmed cues. Very curious how it works on big budget films.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Even at age five, I think you would LOVE watching [Corridor Crew](https://www.youtube.com/@CorridorCrew) on YouTube for an hour. They’re digital artists who review scenes from TV and movies and discuss how they’re made, sometimes with artists and stunt performers from the actual movie as a guest. You really, really ought to just watch a couple episodes or some of their YT shorts.

Sometimes it’s an entire world like a video game. There was a 14-yr-old boy who recreated the entire [Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse](https://youtube.com/shorts/ikme2icAU50?si=vu_CbOmWyoU5jqAP) trailer in computer software, in less than a month. Sometimes it’s real people and things in front of a background that’s all CGI. Sometimes it’s real people in front of a projection on a huge screen that wraps around the set. Sometimes it’s [people in green bodysuits operating puppets](https://youtu.be/UZl6uAu1-fY?si=_KlXDbBSNtyQXwQS) that touch human actors and move physical things on set, processed with color-replacement. It’s a great channel.

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