The abbreviation CGI is for computer-generated imagery. Images are as such created with the help of a computer. Things which don’t exist are common to depict this way. On the other hand nothing stops one from depicting real objects. A great deal of product descriptions are provided with such images. As long as they don’t differ too much from what is sold I will not complain.
Some claim that pictorial evidence would be computer-generated. Understood that what is shown would not exist. Either they refuse to trust that it could be. Or because they start from faulty expectations. Anyway, it leads to real being labelled false. This without other argument than it looking wrong to the accusing person. As if he or she could not possibly misjudge. All humans make errors. If own errors are not considered they will only be repeated.
That said there are ways to recognise computer-generation. However, as with so many other skills it is not something which some would just be able to. Instead it is something one has to learn. Myself I have learned by following the development of the technology. People have stated images they have made themselves are. Then I have compared the image to photos of similar motifs. This for example applies to such as landscapes and buildings. Or different forms of living organisms. The later looking too perfect is a trick I use.
The ability of computers to calculate has multiplied during my lifetime. This has consequences for what computer-generation is commercially available. In 1989 there was with mosaics of flat surfaces. In contrast these surfaces were not each curved. Ten years after this curved surfaces were possible. But I can tell the difference in the surfaces’ textures. After another ten years the difference in these was no longer obvious. At least not to me who had followed this development.
Impressed by the development others have overestimated this technology. Take for example the movie Days of Future Past. In the movie the main character does a sort of magical time-travel. His mind is sent back to himself as younger. Some characters occur as both young and old. A journalist has claimed the younger version of them to be computer-generated. However, this does not hold true. As young and old they are played by different actors. The exception is the time-traveller who looks nearly the same. The fictional explanation for this is him aging very slowly. Apparently this is a result of one of his superpowers.
Finally there are images which have to be made using computer. Not because what is shown would not exist. But because they are based on information coming from scientific instruments. These instruments send information in the form of narrow stipes. Then this information has to be pieced together digitally. One example of this is large scale satellite images. To create them it is required that many strips are pieced together. This is not the same as to computer-generating from scratch. Because of misunderstandings and faulty thinking some believe they are the later.
Uploaded on the 23rd of May 2026.
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This site was last changed on the 8th of July 2026.
