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

Your suspicion is correct. They do indeed create the “world” and place the characters, lights, and virtual cameras inside it.

The camera can be moved similarly to a real camera, however since it takes up no physical space, it can achieve shots that a real camera never could.

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