Lev Manovich’s opens the fourth chapter in his book ”The Language of New Media” by discussing illusionism in the arts. Creating a visually convincing image has long been the desire of artists since the likes of the ancient Greek painter Zeuxis (Manovich 177) After the invention of the camera, artists have largely begun to leave this task to machines (Manovich 177). “[T]he achievement of photorealism is the main goal of research in the field of computer graphics. The field defines photorealism as the ability to simulate any object in such a way that its computer image is indistinguishable from its photograph” (Manovich 199). Industries with an interest in immersion, such as for the use of simulations or in movies and video games, have a vested interest in creating technologies that are capable of photorealism (Manovich 193).

 

Manovich calls the photorealism of computer graphics (CG) its “reality effect” (177). According to the Oxford Reference, the “reality effect”, a concept named by Roland Barthes in 1968, is “The small details of person, place, and action that while contributing little or nothing to the narrative, give the story its atmosphere, making it feel real.” The complexity of our world presents a unique challenge to creating photorealism in CG, the expanding power and falling cost of computer hardware has allowed artists to create CG that is more realistic because it is more complex (Manovich 195).

 

CG has come a long way since its emergence in the 1950s. Both an art form and a tool, the work that many artists, engineers, and researchers have done over the decades has brought us to a point where we can render enough complexity to create convincing synthetic images with computers.