Computer Generated Imagery vs Practical Effects

Developers should learn CGI when working in industries like entertainment, gaming, or simulation, where creating high-quality visual content is essential meets developers in game development, virtual production, or vfx pipelines should understand practical effects to integrate physical assets with digital workflows, enhancing realism and reducing computational overhead. Here's our take.

Computer Generated Imagery

Nice Pick

Developers should learn CGI when working in industries like entertainment, gaming, or simulation, where creating high-quality visual content is essential

Pros

• It is used for building immersive environments, character animations, and visual effects in movies and games, as well as for architectural visualization and product design
• Related to: 3d-modeling, rendering

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Practical Effects

Developers in game development, virtual production, or VFX pipelines should understand practical effects to integrate physical assets with digital workflows, enhancing realism and reducing computational overhead

Pros

• Learning practical effects is crucial for creating hybrid productions where physical props, sets, or stunts are combined with CGI, as seen in films like 'Mad Max: Fury Road' or video games using photogrammetry
• Related to: visual-effects, computer-generated-imagery

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Computer Generated Imagery is a tool while Practical Effects is a concept. We picked Computer Generated Imagery based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Computer Generated Imagery wins

Based on overall popularity. Computer Generated Imagery is more widely used, but Practical Effects excels in its own space.