@Background Pony #0328
Fuck originality. No one actually knows why they want it, they just think it’s automatically better. But you can’t expect too much originality in a show about taking pastel colored animals living in a magical world, that cliche dates back to at least the 80s.
@Background Pony #2796
I didn’t say that. read my comment again. I said that all emotion comes from anatomy, less detailed anatomy means cartooned expressions, and that no emotion comes from the medium itself.
@CMC Scootaloo
Expression comes from the tension and relaxation of muscles. All animation does is replicate that. CGI can replicate more details in anatomy, and thus can represent expressions with more clarity, while 2d animation has to resort to broad, cartoony gestures and expressions and can’t capture subtlety as well. There is no emotion in lines and flat colors.
I was talking about cheap plastic toys. I asked you if you have ever seen emotions on cheap plastic toys.
But yeah, basically, there isn’t much more on CGI animated characters.
What you showed me is supposed to look emotional. The characters are sad or happy and the faces have to show that.
That’s something I’m not questioning. What I question is that it’s pulled off and executed terribly, by default, because CGI just isn’t good for that sort of stuff.
Compare what you showed me there, or anything from CGI-animated movies really, with old, classical 2D animations, no matter if they were drawn with or without computers. The old movies have a lot more emotion in the faces of characters.
CGI animation just can’t replicate that. It’s a huge step down in quality.
@CMC Scootaloo
I know not how the discussion of realism and uncanny valley in 3D brought this to mind, but I sometimes think 3D FF games would look better if the art director were Amano instead of Nomura.
…Mmmmaybe it entered my mind because exaggerated cartoon graphics tend to look better than realistic graphics, simply because they’re unable to enter the uncanny valley by definition. A cartoon’s expressions can never reach the valley, and so, an anthropomorphic can more easily mimic easily recognizable emotions while still retaining a human resemblence, also by definition.
Mario and Sonic were two of the three first ever fictional characters to enter the Game Hall of Fame in 2005, and I like to assume there are several contributing reasons, including ways in which their appearances make them more appealing to general consumers, something to do with the hillside that precedes the valley, and not just because of recognizability, sales, and nostalgic legacy.
@CMC Scootaloo
Bullshit, bullshit, BULLSHIT!! The people in charge of materials try as hard as they can to make believable textures. No studio ever gets away with pulling shit like using plastic textures on non-plastic objects.
That is another problem. CGI animation makes the characters look like cheap plastic toys and have you ever seen big emotions on those? No, me neither.
That is something that might be fine for videogames, where it’s more about the gameplay anyway (aside for a few examples, like Final Fantasy where they really put all into the graphics to make them look real in the 3D games), but for movies? There you have a lot more the feeling of suffering together with the characters and if their faces don’t really show that suffering, half of that deal is already ruined.
I really wish the industry would come back to its senses and just drop all that CGI crap entirely and return to classical, drawn animation. CGI just doesn’t look as good in comparison.
@thps48
The part where he throws Buzz out the window on purpose might have something to do with it. No wonder Disney wanted to cancel production after seeing that.
I still prefer 2D. 3D just looks rubbery to me. I think the problem is the textures. With 2D, the textures are abstract, and it’s easy to mentally fill in the blanks. With 3D, they have to define the textures. But if they overdo it, it easily creeps into uncanny valley territory. But when they underdo it, everything looks like rubber.
@northern haste
Perhaps. Additionally, as I said, another issue comes from production, and how the animation turns out is meaningless if everyone hates the central characters.
The creators of Toy Story said they had to completely rewrite Woody’s character because in the prototype, he started out a jerk then became nice, but test audiences still didn’t like him in the end, and I don’t entirely remember all the details, but I think they said it was because he was too flawed going in and not rounded enough coming out. :j
People seem to act like all 2d animation is on par with disney. People seem to forget that a lot of 2d animation ranges from mediocre to terrible, even with movies that aren’t disney, only some of them have great 2d animation, mainly the ones made by warner bros and dreamworks.