Computer Animation a Dead End?!
I don’t read much of Michael Barrier’s blog, but I was completely floored by this comment:
What’s clear from WALL•E and Kung Fu Panda , as never before, is that computer animation is a dead end, a form of puppetry even more limited than stop motion.
This is the kind of statement that makes me think I’m wasting my time “blogging” about animation. How could anyone in their right mind say something like this? The animation in those two films is far from being a form of dead puppetry. I can’t even form the right words to respond intelligently to it. Strangely enough I can’t link to the original post to read any comments, but I’m not sure it would be worth it.
But what I was really surprised to read today was this comment from Michael Sporn:
When I first saw Toy Story, I realized that the possibility of computer animation replacing traditional animation might actually exist. Nothing prior to that point led me to think that. What I didn’t expect was that I was watching the high point of the medium.
Sporn’s blog is one I frequently link to as I find it a great resource for animation inspiration, so I don’t quite know what to make of this either. How can anyone possibly say that Toy Story was the high point of computer animation?! What about this film?
Really? Toy Story tops Ratatouille?
Mayerson, another blog I enjoy reading, has an excellent commentary on both posts and tends to be the voice of sanity in all this blogging madness.
The link to Barrier’s post is dead and Mayerson has closed comments on his post, so feel free to add yours here.
Comments
Hank U.:
Well, Barrier hates everything. And he makes poor attempts to hide this fact by calling it “criticism.” And he’s CREEPY in person. Don’t know who Michael Sporn is. I doubt many people do.
Samuel:
Sincerely, I´m glad that they are seeing things as they are.And, answering your question, yes, Toy Story really tops Ratatouille. But, it´s no surprise. Ratatouille only tops over THe Incredibles and Monsters S.A.
However, please, don´t stop blogging, Jim!!!
Jim:
Really?
That’s so weird. I just assumed everyone agreed that Ratatouille was the top of the artform over the past 10 years or so. My order would be (if there is such a silly thing):
Ratatouille>Incredibles>Toy Story>Monsters
And no, no stopping the whole blogging thing for me. Too much fun.
Mark Fearing:
I through around a lot of odd opinions, but I have to agree with you. A ‘dead’ art form? That’s just an excuse to argue I think. And maybe get attention?
As for Toy Story being tops…that’s really odd too. It was amazing at the time, and is still a great film. But the evolution continues and I’m sure in 10 years we will have another whole level of material to consider.
-Mark
mike:
while i wouldn’t go as far as saying we’ve hit a “dead end”, i do think that cg animation techniques from toy story-today can’t be compared to the leaps that disney traditional animation made from plane crazy to snow white. i still think the most emotional scene that pixar has ever animated in a film is when buzz discovers that he is a toy back in the original.
actually, even disney’s animators seemed to level out after snow white to today. the artwork and performances got slightly better, but the innovations of the medium seemed to slow down.
on that same note, today’s cg animation is more or less doing what it always has done. we have better controls now than we did when toy story was made, which allows for nicer motion. it also seems that cg animators are inbetweening their scenes a little more now than just posing out some keys and breakdowns and letting maya do the rest.
i do think the achievements made these days in rigging, lighting, modeling and texturing would rival what walt’s studio accomplished back in the 1930’s, and those have helped make the movies look a lot better than toy story. animation in my opinion, hasn’t made equivalent leaps to those other disciplines.
the technical accomplishments that pixar makes really gets showcased in the animation performances. i think that some of remy’s animation would fall flat if they were rendered out like an original toy story rig; his technical fur, fleshy elements and rendering enhanced a lot of his keyed animation.
the one trend i have noticed more and more in today’s animation is that the look of cg animation in mainstream films is trying harder and harder to mimic the look of traditional animation.
it seems like this started around 2005 when dreamworks made madagascar and disney made chicken little. it was the first time that i knew of cg animators like jason ryan doing traditional pencil test versions of their scenes first, then projecting that onto a background image plane to “roto” their stretchy IK rigs on top of their original animation.
the art of kung fu panda has a page with beautiful pencil keys of a fight sequence hand animated too. i’m assuming they used this process as a guide for posing out a few of their amazing traditional looking cg scenes?
“presto” has a few shots that seem to be heavily influenced by the motion and timing in tex avery’s animation direction. the take of the magician looking at his watch/locking the door and slinking off screen are straight out of a droopy cartoon. i’ve never seen pixar animate something so “cartoony”.
as a traditional animator who now makes a living animating in maya, i don’t think this is a bad thing. in my opinion, the animation done in an old HB tom and jerry is still a lot more fluid and fun to look at than anything pixar has animated to date using a computer.
if this trend continues, i wonder if we will someday see a film that is fully animated in pencil test form first, then projected onto image planes and “cleaned up” using amazing stretcy IK rigs in maya. i wonder if this has ever crossed glen keane’s mind while making rapunzel?
if that is the case, CG animation will be dead, traditional animation will return and the newly formed “CG ink, rig and paint” department will be the place that all of the cute girls hang out at.
minxlj:
That’s absurd - WALL•E is one of the best films I have ever seen. It made me CRY - does dead puppetry evoke emotion in humans? No.
Besides, Kung-Fu Panda and WALL•E are not even comparable; totally different styles of animation and movie-making.
The guy doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.
George:
I agree with your list Jim.