July 04, 2013Well they only use animatronics in the close up shots. If you look at the t-rex scene where she emerges from the paddock, the reason that scene worked so well was because they mixed the use of animatronics and CGI perfectly.
When you could only see the rex's head or upper torso, it was animatronics (think of the eye looking into the window/ the head breaking through the glass etc). When you could see the whole body, it was CGI (think of Grant holding up the flare/ the lawyer being eaten etc).
For some reason the CGI seemed worse in JP3 than it did in JP1 and 2. I guess the dinos CGI effects are better hidden in scenes shot at night than day time, and JP3 had more 'day' scenes where u can see the slight imperfections.
As for JP4, it's not about picking one use over the other, it's about blending them together perfectly to convince the audience that what they're seeing is real...at least that's my hope.