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CGI, or computer-generated imagery, is a tool used to create still or animated visual elements with computer software. It is used in movies, marketing, advertising, video games, and more. CGI has evolved over the years, with advancements in technology making it more hyper-realistic. It is often used in conjunction with live-action films, with actors wearing motion capture suits. The global CGI market is expected to continue growing due to the increasing demand for cost-effective animation tools and the need to save time while filming movies with special effects. Pay attention to how CGI is used in commercials and marketing, as it is more prevalent than you may realize. This is Shape Up with Keba. A podcast dedicated to all topics health, fitness, and well-being. I'm your host and wellness promoter, Nikeba Evans. And the topic for this week's episode is science and technology, specifically on the concept of CGI. But what exactly is CGI? And more importantly, how do we use it? And how does it contribute to our society and entertainment? Well folks, in this episode, we're going to answer these questions with the help of a few sources regarding CGI and its history. And if you'd like to take a deeper look into these sources, then they've been included in the show notes for you to check out. Now, without further ado, let's get right into it. Now, take a moment to think about this. What do movies like The Polar Express, Toy Story, The Lord of the Rings, The Avengers, and Avatar all have in common? You might be tempted to instantly think, well, they're all animated movies, of course. Then you'd be close with The Polar Express and Toy Story, which are both animated films, but you'd be partially excluding the latter movies like The Lord of the Rings, The Avengers, and Avatar, which are considered to be live-action films. But each of them includes the use of a special component similar to that of animation within them. You probably already know what it is based on the topic of this episode, and that is CGI. This is an acronym for computer-generated imagery, which is a tool used to create stills or animated visual elements with computer software. The following are three different methods used to facilitate the process of creating CGI. One, algorithms that can create complex fractal patterns. Two, 2D pixel-based image editors that can produce vector shapes. And three, 3D graphics software that have the ability to generate anything from basic primitive shapes to complex forms created from flat triangles and quadrangles. The first instances of CGI date back to the 1950s, when mechanical computers were used to create patterns onto animation cells, which were then included in feature films. And while high-processing-powered computers are typically responsible for mapping out the data and producing the animated graphics, real-life people also play a critical role in how these images are captured. For example, if you took a look behind the scenes of films like Avatar or The Avengers, you would see a host of actors wearing motion capture and green-screen suits, sometimes covered with small reflective balls that help cameras locate the position of limbs when creating in three-dimensional spaces. Applications of CGI today include, but are not limited to, movies, marketing, advertising, real estate, visual art, video games, engineering, television shows, and more. And it seems like every year, with new and improved developments in technology, they get better and more hyper-realistic. To put things into a more economical perspective, an article from Emerging Research stated that the global CGI market size reached 3.18 billion US dollars in 2020, and it's expected to continue growing exponentially due to an increasing demand for more cost-effective animation tools, a need to save time while filming movies that require special effects, and an increasing need to improve brand credibility. So keep an eye out for how CGI is used in commercial ads and marketing. You might never know how prevalent all of it is until you really pay attention to how things are visually created. And that'll do it for this episode of Shape Up with Keba. I hope you enjoyed this tech-inspired episode, and I look forward to hearing you in the next one.