GET WITH THE PROGRAMS COMPUTER IMAGERY PLAYS A BIGGER PART IN MOVIES WITH EACH PASSING YEAR.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Asked to contemplate a future of moviemaking and movie watching some 20 years from now, Alias Wavefront general manager Kevin Tureski took the matter to a higher authority. And, no, Tureski, an Oscar winner at this year's science and technical achievement ceremony, didn't plug the question into one of those ``it thinks for itself'' computers we've all been anticipating.

``I have a Magic 8-Ball. Let's see what it says,'' said Tureski, whose company created the pioneering Maya software. ``Uh Oh. 'Sources cannot reveal the answer.' ''

But seriously folks ...

``Looking ahead, the tools will become easier to use, and we'll be able to create better re-creations or simulations of reality,'' Tureski continued. ``Things you can't do with a physical camera today will be seamlessly integrated to the point where you can't tell what's real and what's not.''

What's on tap for cinemagoers in the year 2020? Three words, say Oscar nominated animators and visual effects artists: digital, digital and digital. Oh, and maybe a full-scale mainstream rebirth of 3D movies if ``Titanic'' director James Cameron has anything to say about it.

Unquestionably, digital actors - when needed - will look so much like humans that we flesh-and-blood types in the audience (assuming we don't become computerized as well) won't know a pixel creation from a person. Even when emoting isn't required, digital doubles figure to have many a stunt person reconsidering his line of work. Why pay a guy in a Spider-Man suit to bounce around a bunch of buildings when the computer can pull off the feat just as convincingly?

Realistic fire, water, smoke and snow? Nothing simpler. Just start moving that mouse and hitting those keys. Sets too. The computer can do it all. Never again will Homer Simpson have to worry about squandering his family's life savings by investing in a company that manufactures motion-capture body suits (as he did in a memorable ``Simpsons'' episode from 2001.)

As the technology gets faster and cheaper, audiences figure to be faced with more viewing choices as well. You say you don't want to wait in line for a summer blockbuster or even leave your house? How about the ability to download a movie into your computer and then watch it on your own high-definition TV? Forget about whipping out your Blockbuster card. Just sign the security agreement. Pay a little more and you'll be able to watch a first-run flick in your armchair.

That's right, the world of the movie figures to shrink. Directors will take classes in character animation. Video stores will become obsolete. Ditto actors. The ``Simone'' scenario - with director Al Pacino creating a sensation out of a computerized starlet - was just the beginning. Audiences figure to watch seamless scenes between ``Star Wars'' aliens and Clark Gable without barely registering a Jar Jar blink.

All this is assuming, of course, that moviegoers will accept these kinds of revolutions. That may happen, say the people with their hands in the technology, but not to the Orwellian extent that the human touch becomes obsolete.

``What won't change is the pressure of filmmakers to tell a good story,'' says Chris Wedge, director of the Oscar-nominated animated film ``Ice Age.'' ``The stories come from the same place they always have. You have to wait for the muse, and then you have to keep pounding on it until it makes sense.''

Certainly you can expect more creatures like ``The Two Towers' '' Gollum, ``Harry Potter's'' Dobby, the House Elf, and the distinctly un-puppetlike Yoda of ``Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.'' The voice and movement work of Andy Serkis (who voices Gollum) is certainly an advancement in on-screen authenticity from, say, the hokey giant lizard of Roland Emmerich's ``Godzilla'' a scant five years ago.

Animated films now have their own best picture category at the Oscars. Could acting categories for animated characters be next? ``And the award for best performance in a supporting role by an animated actress goes to Praxis, the demon worm of 'Universal Frontier.' ''

Could happen. Of course, you'd need to mint dozens of trophies. Even with the leaps in innovations, the technical team that makes a realistic creature possible is enormous.

``Animators of today are starting to dabble in some real acting ability,'' says Rob Coleman, a member of the Oscar-nominated visual effects team of ``Attack of the Clones'' ``Definitely in the next 17 years, you're going to see digital characters taking more leading roles in live action films - humanoid or not.''

Maybe film schools will start requiring budding directors to take multiple classes in computers as well as animation and cinematography. When a guy like ``Big Chill'' director Lawrence Kasdan is getting giddy over the enhancements that Industrial Light and Magic can bring to his latest film ``Dreamcatcher'' (Hello realistic alien weasels!); when that film is precededby ``The Matrix''-inspired short, ``The Final Flight of the Osiris,'' clearly a shift is in motion.

``Osiris'' director Andy Jones was the animation director of the computer-generated ``Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.'' Yes, he sees a future of CG storytelling. No, he doesn't expect actors to get left behind.

``What you're going to see with 'Matrix 2' and 'Matrix 3' is really going to raise the bar a bit,'' says Jones, who is the animation director at Digital Domain. ``This sort of filmmaking expands the repertoire of the director. There are so many more tools available when you get to that level. You can tell a story any way you want.''

James Cameron, who took digital filmmaking to a new level in such movies as ``The Abyss'' (1989) and ``Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' (1991), is looking to the past to help create film of the future. For his latest documentary, the upcoming ``Ghosts of the Abyss,'' Cameron not only plunged into the North Atlantic again, he and engineer brother Mike invented a special camera system to make possible new forms of undersea exploration. Cameron also filmed the documentary in 3D IMAX. ``Ghosts of the Abyss'' will play on some 150 screens - many specially configured - in North America.

``Ghosts of the Abyss'' is quite literally a return to the sunken luxury liner Titanic. In the summer of 2001, Cameron took a crew of Titanic experts - and actor Bill Paxton - 2 1/2 miles down to explore the wreckage anew, using a pair of specially designed Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) cameras that poked into nooks and crannies of the Titanic never seen before.

Next up for Cameron: a full-length 3D feature film, subject still top secret, of course.

``Because of the eye strain, 3D was never thought to be a viable medium for a mainstream feature film,'' says Cameron. ``We've solved all those problems. There is no hurdle we can't get over to do a two-hour feature film and have it be perfectly comfortable and exciting to watch.''

That may mean a version of those funky glasses may be required. But don't call it a gimmick.

``I don't think technology ever takes the place of underlying elements of what goes into the film: story, cast, writing, directing and all the things that make a good movie,'' says Cameron. ``There's a kind of malaise that people have associated with 3D that it's always been a gimmick, used to elevate a C movie to maybe B movie status. As opposed to starting with an A movie concept and turbo-charging it from there.''

Will the audience buy it? We'll have to wait and see. Or consult the Magic 8-Ball again. After all, some technology will never go out of style.

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(1 -- 4 -- cover -- color) ON THE COVER

Special-effects and animation experts say that if you like the technology used in films such as (clockwise from top) ``Final Flight of the Osiris,'' ``The Two Towers,'' ``Ghosts of the Abyss'' and ``Ice Age,'' what they have in store will blow you away.

(5) Animation director Andy Jones' ``Final Flight of the Osiris'' short is running before screenings of ``Dreamcatcher.''

(6) Filmmakers who envision a return to 3D movies say the special glasses will still be there but the eye strain will not.

(7) Yoda went from puppet to computer-generated character in the latest ``Star Wars'' installment.