New ‘Monsters University’ Picture Sells Photo Realism

I couldn’t help but lean in to my computer screen upon seeing the above image from Monsters University. From the detail in fur and clothing to the level of attention when it comes to the depth of focus, this picture is about as close to photo realistic as it would seem it could get.

You can click the image above for the ultra hi-res version and zoom around it, but there were only a few spots I noticed where things were almost a little too perfect such as Sully’s eyes, teeth and horns, but look at the shadows on the trees in the background, the soft focus is perfect as is the fact the animators haven’t blown out the color of the monsters in the foreground seeing how they are in the shadows while much of the background is in the sunlight.

As has Wall Street Journal saying, “We try to simulate those things in computer animation, but the truth is, until just recently, we didn’t have the computational power or clever enough algorithms to actually do the more realistic kind of computations.”

I can’t help but wonder what this will do for the future of animation and movies in general. At what point will simulating a human to the point you can’t tell real from CG come into play?

In other Monsters news, the full voice cast was recently announced, which now includes Nathan Fillion and John Krasinski along with Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Joel Murray, Peter Sohn, Aubrey Plaza, Tyler Labine, Bobby Moynihan, Julie Sweeney, Alfred Molina, Beth Behrs and, of course, John Ratzenberger.

Monsters University hits theaters on June 21.

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