So like me you were probably excited by the release of CS5 tomorrow and thought you would be able to quickly develop cross-platform apps using Flash. Well Steve Jobs has decided otherwise.
according to Wikipedia, this is where it all started
The Dover Boys is notable for being one of the earliest examples of stylized animation, a technique which used shape-heavy designs with minimal movement, as opposed to the type of animation done at that time by the Walt Disney studio. In addition, the short is among the earliest Schlesinger/Warner Bros. cartoons to utilize “smear” animation, where characters move with sudden bursts of speed depicted with only a frame or two of a smeared image between two extreme poses. Jones would go on to use similar animation techniques in later cartoons he directed starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Stylized animation would later be made famous by the artists at startup animation studio UPA, for which Jones moonlighted to direct the political film Hell-Bent for Election in 1944.
I have had a very healthy Facebook conversation on animation style with my friend Samy for the past few days and we were trying to define the Animation Mentor style and compare it with other style of animation.
Personally I love all animation styles, and Michael Dudok de Wit throughout his work encapsulated the whole range of styles I respond to. From the abstract “The Aroma of tea” to the over the top oscar nominated “The fish and the monk” through the delicate “Father and daughter”.
I love all animation style but one style I have a problem with is the “motion capture style”. I am definitely not a big fan of motion capture but what I want to talk about today is something a bit different.
You might have come across shots that were so well animated that they looked well … “motion captured”. Shot that were keyframed but looked so real that they looked like they were captured by computers.
The motion capture look is perfect when you work in VFX and want to blend the CG animation with “live plates” but it is not so great when you work with cartoony characters.
My friend Tomas posted a great animation on his blog sometime ago. A shot that really impressed me for someone who just graduated from Animation school but I felt that something wasn’t quite right. I wasn’t able to tell him what to improve until my ex mentor Kevin Koch, recorded a very enlightening eCritique for my friend Nedy’s February “11 second club” winning entry.
What he is suggesting Nedy to get rid of that motion capture feel is to simply push the poses and timing.
