Happy ending for ‘Happy Feet’

Finally, it is ‘Happy Feet’ that has won the Oscars for the best animated feature, winning over Monster House and Cars. Without sounding like a rant of a Pixar fanboy, I would like to say that Cars deserved the award.

There are few things that have made me think so. Firstly, unlike Cars, the other two movies have extensively used motion capture. Ok, that might not weigh them down much. I found Happy feet to be a little monotonous with penguins, penguins and more penguins. What if they sing and dance, it still demanded variety. And the white bg from beginning to end really hurt the eyes. Though it looked ‘cool’ in the beginning, when I came out after the end, the whole world was painted white for some time.

With Monster House, I don’t see any reason why this movie should have been animated. With mostly human characters without any supernatural abilities or that sort, this story does not demand the use of animation. It could have been made as a live action motion picture. Only the house required animation and special effects, which could be mixed with live action.

‘Cars’ stands out in every aspect. ‘A World inhabited by Cars’- wow that’s a great concept to start with and the animation medium has definitely brought out something to us that is otherwise impossible to conceive wholly. The characters and the environments were simply superb with amazing details. I liked the story and the narration was great. The Pixar animators (actors!) are masters at bringing the emotions out of their characters. Not a single frame in the movie was dragging or boring. Its wholesome entertainment and very well made at that too. I wonder what else does an animated movie need to win the Oscars……a message?! oh no !

Hats off to the makers of all the three movies, but definitely, the Knight with the sword should have gone the Route 66 way.

Animation tips

I am listing some of the animation tips I got on web recently, but some of them are old ones.......
I found them to be very useful...here we go

Jeff Lew's tip:

Happened to see the sneak peek of Jeff Lew's 3d character animation DVD. He advises not to have a bone joint in the chest area, and reasons it out very well. The rib cage is stiff and does not bend itself. Having a joint there will allow for bending which will look unrealistic and too 'spliney'.

Stefan Henry's tips :

It was good to dig this one out. Its a very old one, but definitely stands true till now and will stay that way for ever. In his article in Gamasutra titled Anatomically correct character modeling , he discusses the placement of bone joints effectively that will help proper posing of characters and will animate correctly, all explained with clear images.

Jeremy Cantor's tips :

His article over at Zaayats.com discusses various pitfalls in cg animation and offers solutions to them. Good one !

Pixar-ization of Disney

Image source : http://www.cartoonbrew.com/

There were/are apprehensions over the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. Most were concerned at the future of Pixar under the mouse house. But the news coming out of Burbank and Emeryville are more than encouraging. Disney is sure benefited under the leadership of Lasseter and Catmull, especially by the restructuring of hierarchy and the efforts to bring back directors who have left Disney recently.
Pixar had been on the right track and doesn't need much changes. In fact, the starting of recently dumped Toy story 3 after the merger has brought in a lot of positive energy into Pixar ( not as if there was a dearth of it before).
With both Disney and Pixar working together, they will surely stay on top.

Read Story HERE

A good animator vs a great animator

Carlos Baena (Pixar Animator):

So...between a good animator and a great animator. For me, it's the difference between a good actor and a great actor. The animation skills themselves, with time, you learn them little by little. The acting part of things...the choices you have your character do. That's where the true skill relies. I think it takes a lot of studying to get there. Not necessarily animation studying at this point...but acting/drawing/craftmanship/mime/comedy studying. Also your personality has to do with it sometimes. Something you think may be funny, may not be necessarily funny for other people. It's tough. But in the end, and to answer to your question, it's all on the acting. Some animators at Pixar, I don't think of them as animators anymore...I think of them as actors. Purely. Mark Walsh is a great example for me. He has done some of my favourite acting shots in this company, and the best part, his acting is sincere and comes from his heart and experiences. That's what blows me away personally.


Source : Shaun freeman animation tips