History Main / NoFlowInCGI

** Even though there is little flow, there are ways to fake it, at least in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation[=/=]UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}[=/=]UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn era. If something was supposed to flow, like a dress, the designers would at least have it warp a little to show some animation, like Zelda's dresses in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. Ganondorf's cape also animates quite well during the fight against him. [[spoiler:When he's beaten, though, it moves straight through his body as he collapses.]]

** Thanks to the new FOX Engine, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' this trope is averted, as can be seen in the opening to ''Ground Zeros'' with Skullface's rain coat and Snake's new scarf-laden outfit, complete with trailing belt that follows him like a tail.
* ''MLB: The Show 07'' on the [=PS3=] demonstrates why this trope exists. The game tries to model wind effects on flags and player jerseys, but it only contributes to an UnintentionalUncannyValley feeling.

* In the 2D games of the ''StreetFighter'' series, Chun Li wears her long hair up in {{Odango}} buns, Cammy's hair is braided into 2 easily animated plaits, Karin's hair is sectioned into 6 tubular ringlets, and Sakura has short, boyish hair -- all are easy to animate. Rose provides an exception, and her long hair flows seamlessly out behind her in a wave-like motion. However, when the games went 3D for the ''Street Fighter IV'' series, Rose's render was criticized by fans for having a zig-zag of rigid, plastic-looking hair that incorporated none of the movement of her 2D sprite.

* ''MLB: The Show 07'' on the [=PS3=] demonstrates why this trope exists. The game tries to model wind effects on flags and player jerseys, but it only contributes to an UncannyValley feeling.

* Hair in the original ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy has all of the bob and flow of a concrete sculpture. This is hilariously evident with Miranda in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect3 3]]''; unlike the military-haired characters of the rest of the game, Miranda has long, flowing, shoulder-length hair, but it's as stiff as a brick. It ''does'' kind of move, but only around the shoulders. Like so many other things, the third game's ''Citadel'' DLC pokes fun at this; Garrus complains about how long it takes Miranda to do her hair in the morning. This trope is also in effect with the "tears" characters would cry, which range from a pool below their eyes to two slicks running down their cheeks. No animations in between -- it's quite a surprise to see someone suddenly look like they've been crying for ten minutes. It's [[UncannyValley especially jarring]] next to all the genuinely ''good'' graphics the game features, including stunning backgrounds. ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' finally [[AvertedTrope averts]] this trope for the first time in the series.

** Despite the technology only being a couple of years more advanced than for its forerunner, ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' gave Blackarachnia a big clump of black hair in her robot mode. Thankfully, due to the way her forehead was designed, the animators didn't have to bother with the front. Then, there's also Nightscream's infamous floppy hair-streak. Essentially, although they are for the most part animated to look floppy, they look more like [[UncannyValley weird bits of flesh coming out of their head]], as they never separate into strands.

* Hair in the original ''Franchise/MassEffect'' trilogy has all of the bob and flow of a concrete sculpture. This is hilariously evident with Miranda in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect3 3]]''; unlike the military-haired characters of the rest of the game, Miranda has long, flowing, shoulder-length hair, but it's as stiff as a brick. It ''does'' kind of move, but only around the shoulders. Like so many other things, the third game's ''Citadel'' DLC pokes fun at this. This trope is also in effect with the "tears" characters would cry, which range from a pool below their eyes to two slicks running down their cheeks. No animations in between -- it's quite a surprise to see someone suddenly look like they've been crying for ten minutes. It's [[UncannyValley especially jarring]] next to all the genuinely ''good'' graphics the game features, including stunning backgrounds. ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' finally [[AvertedTrope averts]] this trope for the first time in the series.

** Lara's trademark ponytail in the original ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' was absent outside [=FMVs=]. From ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' onward, however, her ponytail was present and had its very own physics engine, making it blow in wind (at different degrees depending on her surroundings!) collide with Lara's body and even float on the surface of water. Nowadays the physics are a bit dodgy due to the different engine -- one could play a DrinkingGame and take a sip every time Lara's hair goes straight through her neck.
** ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'', however, goes out of its way to avert this. On 7th-gen consoles and low graphics settings on [=PCs=], Lara's hair moves fairly realistically, although it's wrapped in a tight ponytail. High-end [=PCs=] have an option called [=TressFX=], which seems to render almost every single hair on Lara's head as it flutters about in the breeze...at the cost of about half your video memory. And since [=TressFX=] is an AMD program routine, it doesn't run well with nVidia graphics cards. It's standard in [[UpdatedRerelease the Definitive Edition remake]]. ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'' continues to uses the impressive hair physics on current-gen consoles and PC, to the point that Lara's hair actually moves a bit ''too'' much to be realistic.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' avert this, with Inklings' and Octolings' tentacle hair bobbing and bouncing around with every step they take (most impressive with the default MegaTwintails on the girl). The clothing is rather tight and stiff when worn, but special attention was given to the animation of your character's shirt crumpling to the ground after you're [[NonLethalKO splatted]].

* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'' wardrobe made sure that Ariadne had her hair up for the level in the hotel. As her character floats in zero gravity for that level, it would have been a nightmare for the SFX crew to animate Creator/ElliotPage's hair if it had been down.

This is because accurately simulating flowing hair and fabric requires two extremely computationally expensive things: a very high polygon count that can translate into smoothly curved surfaces and individual strands of hair, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_fluid_dynamics computational fluid dynamics]] to accurately simulate the material's motion as well as the air itself. As a result, early CGI software and hardware limitations made anything other than clunky, UncannyValley inspiring graphics impossible. Even when technical limits and costs are slowly being pushed back, it's still hard and costly to simulate nowadays, especially in video games, where maintaining 60 FPS means there's only 16 milliseconds to calculate all that.

* Most human women that appear in early Pixar films wear pants or some other form of tight clothing. [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory 1 Bo Peep]], who's one of the few exceptions to this rule, instead wears a very rigid cage skirt. A rare exception to this rule is a female patient in the dentist's waiting room near the end of ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' whom Nemo and the tank gang briefly mistake for Darla.

* Most human females that appear in early Pixar films normally wear either pants or tight clothing. An exception to this rule would be a female patient in the dentist's waiting room near the end of ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' who is mistaken by both Nemo and the Tank Gang for Darla, especially in the full-screen version where the exposed portion of said patient's legs are completely visible. However, the environment averts this with plants realistically moving with the [[IncrediblyLamePun flow]].

* Even though ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' is a perfect example of this trope, there are some aversions, like shots of flowing water and the tearaways near the beginning of the movie produce various realistic flames, which are especially impressive to anyone who knows how difficult realistic particle animation is.

* According to the folks at Double Fine, the original main character of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', D'artanan, had a big, flowy [[NiceHat hat]] that was "too awesome to animate".

In old or low-budget CGI, the characters will never wear loose garments, have long hair or include anything that might flow or rustle in wind or when moving.

This is because accurately simulating flowing hair and fabric requires two extremely computationally expensive things: a very high polygon count that can translate into smoothly curved surfaces and individual strands of hair, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_fluid_dynamics computational fluid dynamics]] to accurately simulate the material's motion as well as the air itself. As a result, early CGI software and hardware limitations made anything other than clunky, UncannyValley inspiring graphics impossible (and these limitations still apply to modern entry-level hardware and software). Even when technical limits and costs are slowly being pushed back, it's still hard and costly to simulate nowadays, especially in video games, where maintaining 60 FPS means there's only 16 milliseconds to calculate all that.

To be fair, in real life a lot of people's hair doesn't move much, with the exception of strong wind or fully submerged. But RealityIsUnrealistic and less cool, and besides, how else would the CGI animators show off their skills and technology (and their budget; flowing in CGI can get expensive)?

In the modern day, however, aversions of this trope have become increasingly common to the point of ubiquity -- film animators have spent decades perfecting the ability to render hair and cloth physics, and even low budget animation has improved in this aspect, with many off-the-shelf programs including physics engines in their toolkits. The place you're most likely to see straight examples in the present day is in video games. While video game graphics rapidly improve with each generation, hair and cloth are still aspects that are difficult to realistically render in real time. Most game engines usually have rudimentary solutions in place, but they still can't reach the level seen in pre-rendered animation.

* This can apply to traditional animation in a similar manner; before the days of CGI, elaborate flowing objects tended to be avoided for ease of animation, since every frame had to be hand-drawn. The flying carpet in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' was considered a technical breakthrough, being a traditionally-animated character with CGI used to overlay a flexible and detailed surface pattern, which would otherwise be time-consuming and difficult to hand-animate. In the direct-to-video sequels and the TV series, the carpet's elaborate design was downgraded so it could be drawn without CGI. Compare the [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YtQFcCXNo6k/TAANptMk7fI/AAAAAAAAFMw/NeOwtWQC06Y/s1600/carpet11.jpg carpet as seen in the feature]] with the [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FfjJYRc-WlY/T7_FusFjayI/AAAAAAAADQs/MpAj6mp6ktQ/s400/Aladdin_cartoon_magic_carpet_4.jpg direct-to-video/television version.]]
** This is also why Belle's hair was usually in a ponytail in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' (though her dress twirls during the song "Beauty and the Beast").

* ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' has Sephiroth's hair and Red XIII's fur. While the former got more screen time as a key character, it was still stated to be very costly. Red XIII[=/=]Nanaki on the other hand got very little. WordOfGod also says that Cait Sith showed up riding Red XIII instead of his giant Moogle Doll thing because rendering that big thing (which was already established to be fur-covered as well) would have taken too much time out of other, more important parts of the movie. See the video game section below for more. In a similar vein, Tifa has RapunzelHair that goes to just above her knees in the original game. In the film, it's shortened to elbow length to make it easier to animate.

* VFX Studio Creator/{{Scanline}} was established to avert this trope by its staff's own admission.

** ''Tangled'' [[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fit-for-a-princess avoided this trope well enough to attract scientific attention]]. Averting this trope is the reason why this movie is the second most expensive film ever made. They did very well with the hair, clothes, and water... but the fire not so much.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
** ''RWBY'' tends to avoid this however -- it's still noticeable that most background characters all have straight hair. Even with named characters, curls are not that common.
** Nora originally wore a bow behind her skirt. This was scrapped after volume 1 because the bow was hard to animate.
** In volume 7, Blake's hair lost its curl when she received a haircut. Jaune's wavy hair also looks rough in animation.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series has played this straight for a majority of its history. Characters are either [[BaldOfAwesome bald]], short-haired, [[NeverBareheaded constantly wearing some form of headgear]], or [[TheFaceless never take off their face-concealing helmets]]. This also extends to their wardrobe, where their outfits tend to lack anything that might realistically move about. [[VideoGame/Borderlands3 The third game]] finally averted it completely where numerous things dangle and move independantly of what they're attached to. Notable examples include the long jacket that [=FL4K=] wears and Amara's ponytail.

** Barbie movies are very guilty of this. [[CoversAlwaysLie On the covers]] and [[ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy the doll-lines]], Barbie is always portrayed with long, wavy hair. In the movies themselves, her character's hair is almost always short, in a ponytail or a PrimAndProperBun. Then again, the fanbase tends to prefer the more individual hairstyles Barbie has in the movies themselves, so it's probably more a problem about the cover artists being lazy.

* ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'': Averted. From Menzoda's cape to Zia's hair, everything flows beautifully.
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* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Nocturne}}''. Real-time cloth physics were applied liberally to various things such as curtains and articles of clothing, and (more or less) reacted to being walked through and blown by the wind.

** The commentary discusses a scene where Edna reaches her hand through Incredible's old super suit and out the hole in the sleeve. It was not an easy task for the animators.

* When Pixar produced ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', they'd developed software models that could make Sully's fur look fluffy, stiff, or windswept where necessary. However, [[ToilerPaperTrail a bit of toilet paper stuck to Mike's foot]] took the longest time to get right. Even the fur came with a price; to fully render Sully's 2.3 million individual hairs, it took the software 11-12 hours per frame. That means that every second that Sully is on screen took up to ''twelve days'' to render.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' has it both ways. The characters have sections of hair that move with the wind and action, but the rest is solid even when it shouldn't be. They avoid loose clothing, but it sometimes moves lightly anyway. Averted completely with [[TheDragon Darth Vader]]'s cape, which eats up a considerable amount of the clothing budget every episode it's in (to the point where the showrunners wanted to include [[Film/RogueOne Orson]] [[SmugSnake Krennic]] but couldn't on account of ''his'' iconic cape). The hard plastic armor that the clones and stormtroopers are famed for are also too flexible, making it too obvious that they were simply painted onto the very flexible human model underneath, rather than being made of its composite parts.