I gave a talk for in-house CG researchers and product designers at Huawei Japan.

Language: Japanese (with simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin and English)

Computer graphics has long pursued photorealism, or physically correct light, as its grand challenge. That goal is now largely achieved and taken for granted in commercial production. So how is CGI actually being used in the industry today? This talk maps current commercial image-making along two directions: stylized CGI, which values what David O'Reilly calls “aesthetic coherence” over physical correctness, and a return to practical effects, where processes that could be completed digitally are deliberately taken back into physical space to be shot. Examples range from post-Spider-Verse Hollywood animation to Japan's commercial and indie animation scenes.

Takeaways

1. Photorealism is now a material, not a goal.
2. Stylized CGI: Coherence over correctness.
3. Practical Shooting: The making is a part of the work.

Keywords, Figures

• David O'Reilly
  • Aesthetic coherence（美的一貫性）

    My central belief is that the key to aesthetics is coherence.
    In 3d we essentially create artificial models of worlds, I contend that what makes these worlds believable is simply how coherent they are; how all the elements tie together under a set of rules which govern them consistently.
    Basic Animation Aesthetics (土居伸彰訳『アニメーション基礎美学』, 2012)

• Stylized CGI
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
  • Teenage Mutant Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
  • Julian Glander, Boys Go to Jupiter (2024)
  • Kanta Mochida & Ryohei Kamide, URAHARA (WIP)
  • densuke28, Qiezi Mabo Forever (Fried Checken Mix) ft. Punpee (2017)
  • Takashi Ohashi, Meg and Patron -- Pari Pari Party (2014)
• 神風動画 / サンジゲン / SIGNIF / sankaku
• Practical shooting / 特撮・実写撮影
  • Alan Warburton, SpeSpectacle, Speculation, Spam (2016)

    The unnecessary labor put into this is the real spectacle, (...) it recoils from the difficulties of quantifying the value of digital labor, by relying somewhat artificially on fetishized analog practice.

  • Blinkink/Hornet, John Lewis ”The Bear And The Hear” (2014)
  • Kazuyoshi Shinomiya, The New Dawn (『花緑青が明ける日に』, 2026)
    -Multiplane camera by Sukimaki Animation
  • Junchukan Bonta, Dungeons & Television (2025)
    • #indie_anime（インディーアニメ）
  • The Transmitted-Light Controversy（透過光論争）
    • 片塰満則
• Artist-In-Residency in GASBON
• Tsuribu Tokyo (釣部東京, Takafumi Matsunaga)
  • Satoko Shibata / Bochi Bochi Galaxy (2023)
  • Ikebukuro Parco “New Friends” (2026)
• Olia Lialina – Turing Complete User