Few special effects designers have impacted both the world of cinema and him. If the eighties and nineties were aesthetically dominated by Industrial Light & Magic and the colorful and naive mastodon of the George Lucas company, The new century greeted a new generation of science fiction films and its effects. The flag bearer of that change was’Matrix‘And the impressive, even today impeccable digital tricks of John Gaeta.
And although Gaeta went down in history for his revolutionary Bullet Time that allowed to capture scenes in a virtual space that could be digitally manipulable, a technique for which he won an Oscar to the best visual effects, his work was Beyond this foundational trilogyin films like ‘The curious case of Benjamin Button’ and ‘Avatar‘. He is one of the founders of Ilmxlab, a specialized Lucasfilm division in virtual reality and mixed reality, and we have had the opportunity to chat with him on all these issues during the Comic-with Malaga.
Of course, we have no choice but to ask how you see His own role as absolute classic of the history of special effects. He tells us that “‘Matrix’ initiated a new chapter in the volumetric media: the real world was incorporated, including actors and characters, to a prototypic form of simulation.” But he did not understand it as a simulation, but as “a three -dimensional version of a real scene or moment.” And that fit the idea of the film, where “we do not understand that we are already within the simulation.”
That is, and there was greatness: the special effects took into account the argument and message of the film: if in the future the machines wanted to simulate the real world, they had to capture it visually and translate it: “we would have to capture the real world and translate it in some way to spatial media, computer graphics. And that was where we began to include the capture of actors.” Of course, technical difficulties began: “These things were like sculptures. They were not interactive or dynamic,” and had to create it from zero. “I think ‘Matrix’,” he concludes, “it was a catalyst event in the new medium form, a potential medium.”
And therefore, sequences like that in which neo dodges the bullets are more than an exhibition of technical expertise: “That moment represents how your mind is imposed on matter, on Matrixthere is a certain self -realization. It is able to control the simulation that manipulated its reality, it is a decisive moment. And we needed to show something never seen, something supernatural, and that the viewer was witness.
The future of effects
When we ask about the future of special effects, it is very clear that they are in AI, something that is not surprising taking into account that it is currently immersed in the direction of Escape.aia platform that drives audiovisual narration with artificial intelligence. With it it intends to democratize the creation of content: “In the next ten years we will see the union of all media (from the cinema to other immersive such as virtual reality or video games) in a single multimodal medium thanks to AI.”
What we are seeing now is just the beginning, “Once the generative AI is not as simplistic as it is currentlywhich is trained in two -dimensional passive media to simulate them. “What is that future, then?” When it begins to be much deeper when acquiring space intelligence, physical intelligence and scientific intelligence (because it will be trained for different purposes by scientists, educators, governments …), we will have the possibility of accessing entertainment that will no longer only consist of contemplating in a passive way. “
And that absence of passivity of the spectator (which will no longer be a spectator, according to Gaeta), is what the AI will bring us: “Literally, we can say: ‘Well, now I do not want anyone who predetermines the content of this virtual world that has already shown me a story. I want to move away, turn around the corner, enter this world and start interacting with the characters and even play in this environment, or do what you want.” Gaeta blindly trusts the possibilities of AI to generate these completely interactive immersive worlds and that are created according to the user’s needs ..
And this comes, of course, with SU batch of corresponding risks, on which Gaeta is reluctant to speak. But finally, he grants that “it is scary, it is exciting at the same time. It has always happened. As the technology with which cars were manufactured, which replaced the horses and is the same that ended up leading to the manufacture of tanks, and that is scary. It was supposed to be a great educator, and it turned out to be a device of distortion of reality. Everything has a price”
“Technology is a double -edged sword, so there will be people who use things for good and create extraordinary things, solutions, inspiration, and then there will be evil people, who always exist, who will explode, try to enslave, try to destroy.” Gaeta is clear: “We have to be mature about it and know that technology always ends up revealing that duality.”
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