- The way that you can completely change your character model to reflect the feelings of a character. Miyazaki does this really well, think Ponyo, or the constant changes to Sophie's emotional life, and how it effects the witch's curse in Howl's Moving Castle.
I think it can look far more natural in animation than it would with "digital makeup" in a live action film. Or having a live actor transition into CG. (I know, this leads back to some semantic questions, but you know what I'm talking about)
- The mixture of unscripted audio with animation. Documentary or otherwise. There's something fascinating about mixing the spontaneous and unexpected with animation, which requires meticulous planning, no matter how loose your style is. Whether it's Creature Comforts or the NFB film Ryan or the Hubley shorts, it's fascinating.
- Pixilation
I recently found out there was a term for making stop motion animation with live actors. Taking something you could easily do in live action, but you give it that stop motion jankiness. Yet, it's still precise and controlled. Weird, underused, and a beautiful technique.
- The trend of hand drawn effects in commercial CG features.
- Related, the use of animating CG characters on 2s. (is there a term for this technique?) You can make your stuff look as 'smooth' as possible on a computer, yet people realize there's something about the limitation of movement that draws the eye.
Richard Williams was wrong, and Frank Thomas was correct, in my estimation, 2s do sparkle!! (dare I say, 3s do as well)
- The fact that when making animation, you have complete control over the weather.
- The facial animations in Tokyo Godfathers
- Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson's approach to directing acting in animation.
- The creative use of materials in stop motion animation. I was thinking about Jiří Barta's The Pied Piper, and all of those eerie characters sculpted from wood, and taxidermy mice. (although I gotta admit, raw meat is up there)
I could go on and on, but this is a fun exercise!!
This is a fantastic piece with a really fresh angle! It covers all this ground and raises so many things to think about, but makes it all feel breezy. Great stuff. (And it was a real surprise to see the stillness article linked here -- thank you for the shout-out!)
What an excellent excellent list. Had me laughing and nodding all the way through as well as chasing a lot of the links down (I'd never seen that fabulous He-Man rendition).
Very nice list. I'll share a few of mine.
- The way that you can completely change your character model to reflect the feelings of a character. Miyazaki does this really well, think Ponyo, or the constant changes to Sophie's emotional life, and how it effects the witch's curse in Howl's Moving Castle.
I think it can look far more natural in animation than it would with "digital makeup" in a live action film. Or having a live actor transition into CG. (I know, this leads back to some semantic questions, but you know what I'm talking about)
- The mixture of unscripted audio with animation. Documentary or otherwise. There's something fascinating about mixing the spontaneous and unexpected with animation, which requires meticulous planning, no matter how loose your style is. Whether it's Creature Comforts or the NFB film Ryan or the Hubley shorts, it's fascinating.
- Pixilation
I recently found out there was a term for making stop motion animation with live actors. Taking something you could easily do in live action, but you give it that stop motion jankiness. Yet, it's still precise and controlled. Weird, underused, and a beautiful technique.
- The trend of hand drawn effects in commercial CG features.
- Related, the use of animating CG characters on 2s. (is there a term for this technique?) You can make your stuff look as 'smooth' as possible on a computer, yet people realize there's something about the limitation of movement that draws the eye.
Richard Williams was wrong, and Frank Thomas was correct, in my estimation, 2s do sparkle!! (dare I say, 3s do as well)
- The fact that when making animation, you have complete control over the weather.
- The facial animations in Tokyo Godfathers
- Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson's approach to directing acting in animation.
- The creative use of materials in stop motion animation. I was thinking about Jiří Barta's The Pied Piper, and all of those eerie characters sculpted from wood, and taxidermy mice. (although I gotta admit, raw meat is up there)
I could go on and on, but this is a fun exercise!!
Thanks for contributing – these are all great ones!
This is a fantastic piece with a really fresh angle! It covers all this ground and raises so many things to think about, but makes it all feel breezy. Great stuff. (And it was a real surprise to see the stillness article linked here -- thank you for the shout-out!)
Alex, excellent list with a beautiful-poetic approach!
What an excellent excellent list. Had me laughing and nodding all the way through as well as chasing a lot of the links down (I'd never seen that fabulous He-Man rendition).
Thank you
Fantasia would be on my list as well.