'It all makes complete sense now. Well, except for the wet chickens.' by Kara
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 10:53 AM

Soooo. Finally went and saw Avatar last night.

What did I think?

Let me tell you a story.

Remember ReBoot? I was 13 when that started. My g'father and I would watch it together every Saturday morning. And while we both enjoyed it for its content (because it was a seriously good show), he used it as a tool to teach me about the capabilities of computers and what they'd be doing for the entertainment industry in the future.

See, my g'father is a genius when it comes to predicting future technological advances and their uses. I remember sitting in the den with him, and him telling me that this was the future of the entertainment industry, and it wouldn't stop at animation -- that someday it would become such a part of live-action film and TV that you would have live actors in entirely believable CG environments, and even CG-enchanced actors rather than heavy makeup.

'Yeah, right,' said Teenage Kara.

With ReBoot, he trained my eye to see CG. 'Someday it'll become very difficult to differentiate live action from computer animation. The sure sign is that computers operate on a rhythm. No matter how fluid and intricate the movements become, they will maintain that steady rhythm underneath. You're not going to have true realism until they learn how to break out of that.'

Over the years, I've always, always been able to pick out CG because I remembered that. It never ruined my appreciation of what I was watching; it was more of a mental Easter egg, a reminder of what my g'father had told me when I was younger. So over the years I watched, and I noticed, and I saw the attempts at breaking out of the computer rhythm, and I waited and waited for someone to figure it out.

Yes, the visuals were astounding in Avatar. The artistic vision was amazing. The world they made was breathtaking. It was in-depth, it was realistic, it was revolutionary.

But what I brought away most?

Every once in a while, when I wasn't staring at how straight-up beautiful it was, that little seed of engineer mentality I'll never be able to shake would look out and search for that one little tell that they've never ever shaken. That tiny trace of rhythm that's always been there. And that little seed of engineer would be baffled every time. Because it was so organic. So humanly and naturally uneven. So, well, unmathematical.

'My God, that was beautiful' was my secondary reaction. My primary reaction?

'My God. They've finally done it.'

You did it, Hollywood. You broke out of the rhythm. Let's see what you do with it.

If you have been, BUH.