Flight Of The Navigator

Flight Of The Navigator the world's first 35 mm feature film to use environment mapping, creating the illusion of a chrome object occupying a live-action frame. This was a new digital innovation and worked very well within the film, personally however I find it to be tacky looking compared to todays standards. Personally I prefer films using either puppets or good cgi, this film came out the same time as Labyrinth which is one of my all-time favourite films due to its storyline and its use of puppets for alot of the characters.

One of Flight Of The Navigator's best achievements was the steps going up into the ship these were actual props with hidden supports which gave a great effect due to them reacting well with the action, for example the shadows and highlights that were shown as they are reflective and have a unique shine to them. This is a much better technique than trying to use full cgi steps as this wouldn't of had the same realism to it.

Overall I enjoyed the film as it was amusing and the cgi and use of props worked very well.

A shot of the ship in fast mode which shows the environment mapping