Originally Posted By basil fan I'm reading Drawn to Life, containing the art lessons given to the Disney animation staff by walt Stanchfield, and came upon an exciting quote I wanted to share. Noe he admits this isn't original with him, but he couldn't remember the actual source. "Whenever a photograph contains the principles and disciplines of the artist, the better it will be; but the more a drawing looks like a photograph, the worse it will be." That really spoke to me and I wanted to share it with you all. Free Skits www.whatsitsgalore.com/skits/skitsbits.html
Originally Posted By FerretAfros That's a really interesting quote. It seems particularly interesting to think about with the CGI films, where the goal seems to be hyperrealistic visuals. Yet the most effective ones are the ones that have a stylized 'look', like The Incredibles and Ratatouille, rather than simply immitating life. That quote really sums up a lot of great ideas in very few words.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA It reminds me of my reaction to the new 'Tin Tin' movie. It uses the screen capture technique used in 'The Polar Express' and 'A Christmas Carol' and so it looks very realistic. To piggyback on the quote above, almost too realistic, as the characters look sort of peculiar. Wonder if they might have been better off doing 'Tin Tin' as a live-action movie.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Wonder if they might have been better off doing 'Tin Tin' as a live-action movie.<< I always wonder that too. At the end of these films there are endless credits, and you think "Gee, if they had constructed a few sets and used digital effects, wouldn't that have achieved pretty much the same thing for a lot less headache?"
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA True that, Kar2oonMan. Plus, no matter how hard they try, the characters faces still look 'off.' It's like trying to make a movie with the audio-animatronics from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride. Those animatronics look cool from 20 yards away, with the moody theatrical lighting, but if you try and film them up close, they just look weird.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb I really hate the look of mo-cap animation. I might have had an interest in Tin Tin had they gone live action, traditional animation or even CG. But the people just look creepy. The Mo-cap for Jeff Bridges face really kept taking me out of the last Tron. It was great that they have the tech to make an actor 30 years younger, but they needed to show it less, much less.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>But the people just look creepy.<< I was watching The Polar Express on TV the other day. I liked the movie when I saw it in theaters -- it's a solid holiday story -- but the humans looked lifeless. There were times when the faces were meant to show fear, humor, wonderment, joy, but it usually looked like mild indigestion instead. It's like they need to have another animation crew come in and amp up the expressions or something. Or, better yet, go ahead and make a live action movie or an animated cartoon instead.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA The mo-cap in 'Avatar' was quite good. I was able to forget that it was animated.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Avatar was probably the best technically (pity about the script, though). Even so, those were human-like creatures rather than humans. When you do it with humans you have that "uncanny valley" to deal with; something that looks very human, yet just "off" will elicit a "that's creepy" response in us.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA True, Dabob2. Although, it seems that the makers of 'Tin Tin' are trying for a cartoony sort of look. Still doesn't work for me, but it seems that they're trying.
Originally Posted By basil fan Didn't see Avatar, so I can't comment. But doubtless you are right. After all, Gollum was supposed to be creepy.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 "True, Dabob2. Although, it seems that the makers of 'Tin Tin' are trying for a cartoony sort of look." From what I've seen, Tintin himself works okay. They gave him that cartoony look, so the uncanny valley effect is minimized. All the other humans suffered from it, though.
