Motion-capture has the capacity to make things look extremely creepy, if you use it as anything more than a rough guide. It lends a sort of Gentlemen-esque glide-y-ness to everyone's movements, especially walking and hand gestures.
You got fired, and you still hang around here like a big loser. Why can't he?
Cordelia ,'Chosen'
Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Jessica - Nov 11, 2004 7:59:14 am PST #5627 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Tom Scola - Nov 11, 2004 8:00:03 am PST #5628 of 10001
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
I wasn't creeped out by the animation in Final Fantasy, but the fact that they put the voices of well-known actors on different bodies bugged me.
tommyrot - Nov 11, 2004 8:03:02 am PST #5629 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I wasn't creeped out by Final Fantasy either, but I did experience a lot of something akin to cognitive dissonance, as some scenes did look totally real to me and some (most) did not. I had this weird sensation of the reality of the movie flip-flopping between animation and live-action.
Sean K - Nov 11, 2004 8:04:05 am PST #5630 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
I thought the animation in FF was incredible, and easy to watch (even though there were still problems with hand movements and lip movements). Somehow, whatever they did for FF, they did NOT do for PE.
JZ - Nov 11, 2004 8:05:31 am PST #5631 of 10001
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
And now I'm thinking about a Polar Express that could have worked -- a half-hour TV special, no padding added to the book, and Sky Captain's technique, with real actors weaving their way through fuzzy-edged nostalgic/futuristic computer-generated sets with a muted watercolor glow that perfectly echoes Van Allsburg's illustrations. That could have worked, beautifully, dammit. Zemeckis, you bastard, you bastard, Zemeckis.
Jessica - Nov 11, 2004 8:06:36 am PST #5632 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
but I did experience a lot of something akin to cognitive dissonance, as some scenes did look totally real to me and some (most) did not.
I actually had some of that during Incredibles. Not the characters, but the backgrounds -- there were several bits where I momentarily forgot it was animated because the water was so bloody fantastic.
Sean K - Nov 11, 2004 8:09:07 am PST #5633 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Not the characters, but the backgrounds -- there were several bits where I momentarily forgot it was animated because the water was so bloody fantastic.
They really upped the bar on some digital elements that were previously hard to get right.
Matt the Bruins fan - Nov 11, 2004 8:56:52 am PST #5634 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
I think Final Fantasy benefited in that it was ramping up themes of gloom and alienation, so the visceral uneasiness brought about by the Uncanny Valley figures in it fit the mood. Also, freaky-looking alien creatures handy for tranferrence of the creepiness actually being generated by the human figures.
If someone wants to make an animated horror movie, they need to go to the Polar Express people for tips about animation technique.
tommyrot - Nov 11, 2004 9:04:00 am PST #5635 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
If someone wants to make an animated horror movie, they need to go to the Polar Express people for tips about animation technique.
Or ask the ILM folks about Jar Jar.
Matt the Bruins fan - Nov 11, 2004 9:06:22 am PST #5636 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
I think in that case they'd want Lucas' scripting techniques rather than the ILM folks' CGI ones.