Originally Posted By mawnck Nic Ranieri was one of the hand-drawn veterans let go in the recent "purge" - just short of his 25th anniversary with the company. He animated Lumiere, Kuzco, and Meeko ... and, for one brief piece of test animation, Wreck-It Ralph. His last day was yesterday, and now he's talkin' ... and sharing with the world his hand-drawn Ralph footage, which was created as a guide for the CGI guys. (I wonder what they'll use as a guide now?) Go thee hence, and check it out: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=577194715665934 (Open to non-Facebook-users)
Originally Posted By mawnck P.S. Hat-tip to <a href="http://www.cartoonbrew.com" target="_blank">http://www.cartoonbrew.com</a>
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Very cool. I love the pencil animation -- it almost seems to have more life than the final animation. Guess that's why I love the look of '101 Dalmatians' and 'The Sword in the Stone' and 'The Jungle Book' Good luck Nik!
Originally Posted By mawnck >>it almost seems to have more life than the final animation<< Almost? ;-)
Originally Posted By mawnck Oh look .... <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfTxkg-wB9Y" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...xkg-wB9Y</a>
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA >>it almost seems to have more life than the final animation<< Almost? ;-) Since the inked and painted animation is supposed to be the final, polished thing, I feel bad that I like the pencil test better. :/
Originally Posted By leemac Truly heartbreaking as Nik was one of the good guys and tremendously talented (Meeko is still one of my favorite characters ever). He didn't play the political game and choose to stick to his strengths rather than give up his supervising animator's gig. My anger towards Lasseter and Catmull's management of WDAS just continues to get hotter and hotter. They have killed an art form that has always had commercial potential with the right source of material. It isn't the medium's fault that a succession of poor managers have greenlighted the wrong features like PATF.
Originally Posted By basil fan Yeah, Nik seems like a great guy, and that pencil test is awesome!! As much as I like Wreck-it Ralph, it would've been even better as a hand-drawn feature. >>it almost seems to have more life than the final animation Ha! That's the nature of hand-drawn. It's more alive than CGI, even more than live-action, IMHO. Disney's Second-Class Villains <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/henchmen.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/...men.html</a>
Originally Posted By Yookeroo Wreck-it Ralph is a video game character. Think what you will about hand drawn being more alive or whatever, but of there's a movie that screams to be done in CGI, it's Wreck-it Ralph.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby <<Wreck-it Ralph is a video game character. Think what you will about hand drawn being more alive or whatever, but of there's a movie that screams to be done in CGI, it's Wreck-it Ralph.>> I agree. I love hand-drawn, and I enjoyed both pencil tests. But I think going CGI was the correct formal choice for Wreck-It Ralph. CGI put me in "that world" more than the pencil tests. Can you imagine the Hero's Duty world in hand-drawn? I cannot see that working.
Originally Posted By cheesybaby ^^ Let me rephrase that. For Hero's Duty, I cannot see that working nearly as successfully in hand-drawn as in CGI. Yes, it could have been great in hand-drawn. But it would not have been as "real." If Hero's Duty had been done in hand-drawn, it definitely would have taken me out of the movie.
Originally Posted By basil fan >>Let me rephrase that. For Hero's Duty, I cannot see that working nearly as successfully in hand-drawn as in CGI. Yes, it could have been great in hand-drawn. But it would not have been as "real." If Hero's Duty had been done in hand-drawn, it definitely would have taken me out of the movie That might be true if the movie used a different style for the virtual world and the real world. But as video game characters and their environs (while off-duty) are rendered exactly the same as human gamers and their world, I can't see the point. Phil's Hero Rules <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/hero.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/...ero.html</a>
