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What is the first truly breakthrough CGI character?

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Flying Spaghetti Monster

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I'm curious what you all think.

Some people might say Gollum. He of course changed the game, made the idea of a CGI character as represented through an actor's perfomace but given life on teh screen with computers and ingenuity, as being the breakthrough. It helps that the character was important and compelling, and we somehow feel sorry for him, despite his scheming.

We all may despise Jar Jar Binks, but he was a rather lifelike character that, as technical achievement, is impressive.

But what about Draco, from Dragonheart, made in the mid-nineties, This was during the time when Jurassic Park and Toy Story were breaking the boundaries, but Dragonheart was also an actual character, with over 2000,000 points of computer articulation. His mouth movements and mannerisms matched the voice actor of Connery so well they even got the tongue movements and his distinct lisp down.,Some people say that Draco looks a bit dated, but I watched the film recently and can't take my eyes over how compelling a character he is.

In my opinion, Gollum would not be possible without Draco to pave the way. I think Draco is the bigger breakthrough.
 
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Before even clicking the link, I was going to say Draco. Glad to see that was the point of the OP. :)

In terms of breaking ground as a character that was CGI, Draco wins hands-down. The T1000 gobsmacked people with a tiny sprinkling of CGI (Far less than people recall it to be), but the character was all Robert Patrick at work. Draco was an actual character top to bottom, and with only one or two physical set pieces to augment his CG-ness. He's everything the Jurassic Park dinos were, plus being a speaking part and main character.
 
I would also agree that Draco is the breakthrough here. It was amazing seeing that for the first time.
 
Pac-Man if we're talking about the first CGI character that people really cared about as a character. The Master Control Program from Tron if we're limiting to film. The T-1000 if we're talking about the first character that people weren't supposed to be able to tell was computer generated.
 
Agree with many of the above posts, would say Looker, Tron, Great, Jurassic Park, Terminator and Westworld proved it could be done, Last Starfighter and 2010 were ground breaking graphics but not on screen characters. Another thing we must also take into consideration the advancements in video game and computer entertainment in the 80s and 90s, generation consoles, the personal computers and golden age of video arcade games showed you could have character and an exciting story on a small computer screen without big hollywood sets and big expensive actors. These were small pix-elated characters, quirky scratchy noises, 8-bit sometimes less and yet characters like Mario, Chun Li, Lara Croft, Prince of Persia, Mega Man and others would later have their own films . I would give a shout out to the smaller independent companies, there were also many animation studios like the guys who would go on to run dream works and pixar, they did short animations of dancing plastic soldiers and dancing lamp shades to prove you could give life and personality to computer generated objects and shorts like 'Tin Toy'. Draco, from Dragonheart is great, great movement, great voice acting from Connery, great visual look with Draco but I believe by this time CGI characters had already 'broken through'
 
I'd have to say the MCP.

"You'd rather take your chances with me? You want me to slow down your power cycles for you?"

"Get this clown TRAINED. I want him in the games until he dies playing. Acknowledge!"

:devil:
 
I cannot believe that no one mentioned Yoda. Not necessarily in chronological order for me a distant second and so from Yoda would be: Wall-E, the Velicoraptors in Jurassic Park, General Grievous, and Sonny from I-Robot.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOsxXi-tu_U

The Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes from 1985 was definitely influential, at least among special effects artists. Certainly it opened the door for more than a few CGI possibilities in later movies, and the team ofanimators who worked on that scene later adopted the name Pixar in 1986.
 
^ This. I was just thinking of that, having just watched the movie again this Christmas. The Stained Glass Knight was THE watershed moment for CGI.
 
auntiehill said:
^ This. I was just thinking of that, having just watched the movie again this Christmas. The Stained Glass Knight was THE watershed moment for CGI.
Click to expand...

According to this timeline in Wiki actually one of the, 'watershed,' moments for CGI ironically was ILM's creation of the, 'Genesis Effect,' for ST II The Wrath of Khan. While that short isn't a character per se it was nonetheless breakthrough CGI.

Also the link says that the character Cindy in the sci-film, The Looker was the first CGI character on film.

Cindy
 
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It's a more recent film, but Christopher Johnson from District 9. He's probably the first CG character to actually have a performance and feel alive. There isn't even a human voice, he's just a giant bug and he's able to connect emotionally with the audience.
 
I always thought the Dragon from Reign of Fire was one of the finest CGI creatures ever created. It had a vicious beauty and the way it moved, in air or on the ground was simply hypnotic. The way that light past through the skin on its wings, with little tears and holes. When I think of Dragons, what they would be like and how they would look, I always go to Reign of Fire.
 
T-1000

And then the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.

And eventually Gollum.

Those are in my opinion the three definite milestones in CG animation and live action integration.
 
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