Summon the Infinite Horde

The use of computer animation to enhance movies has been on a sharp upward trend as the technology has developed. The sheer cost of hiring thousands of extras, not to mention orchestrating them into a coherent whole, would have prevented much of the modern battle extravaganza during previous decades.

 It is interesting to consider the idea of an infinite army of characters. In previous incarnations of film there wasn’t the same feeling of the multitude and infinite nature of on-screen entities. Having the capability to easily stretch the size of the field of view beyond all sides of the frame, allows for creation of a new experience for the viewer. This infinite nature creates in the viewer the feeling of awe, and often invokes images of insurmountable power. Before the age of computer animation, films able to utilize massive scale depictions were few and far between. It is now commonplace to create such epic landscapes as a Greek battlefield, a horde of Orcs, or duplication of the same character, which stretch on endlessly into the distance.

What happens when the paradigm shifts again? Conceptualize the possible coming era of anti-CGI movie production with retro stunts and manual camerawork. Where the magnificent and inconceivably large becomes mundane through overuse, we may touch upon an age of digital regression. Just because it is possible to create a massive army of CGI warriors, doesn’t necessarily mean it has the same authenticity as production value done using actual human beings. Regardless, the central theme of pop cinema is the utilization of cutting-edge computer-aided graphics; a theme that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.