As part of something called Freedom Project, which is dubbed "A story of freedom fighters set in the 23rd century," Otomo Katsuhiro has directed a commercial for Nissin's Cup Noodle. The 30-second long commercial is done in that extremely creepy and sort-of-gross 3D cel-shaded style, and was sort of mystifying in a way. At any rate, and on a redeeming note for the commercial itself, it features Utada Hikaru's "This is Love" which will be on her upcoming album, Ultra Blue Album. A… uh… fitting title indeed. Seriously though, I can't stand that 3D stuff. It creeps me out. 3D should be for realism, or at least for semi-abstract renderings. That stuff in the commercial is a little too uncanny valley for me.
April 30th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Personal taste aside, in terms of cel shaded 3D animation, that's actually not bad. The character designs were faithful to Otomo's designs and they still held up when animated too.
In comparison, that Tank S.W.A.T. OVA, based on Shirow's "Dominion" manga, tried to realize his manga character designs in the same way (3D cel shaded). It didn't work out too well, especially when you see them animated, at least in my opinion.
That was too uncanny valley for you? I find that if the characters are constructed and rendered far more photo-realistically (think Polar Express) then it starts entering that threshold for me. But personally, not the cel shaded stuff because of the very fact that it's cel shaded.
April 30th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Well, I'll agree that Polar Express was definitely in that realm as well. Maybe it's just the character designs that irk me. Then again, I can't see Shirow's characters being brought over very well, based on what I imagine the budget is for a 3D anime. It's likely not nearly high enough to warrant bothering making it at all.
I think Karas is a good example of how I'd rather see 3D used in the anime realm. I mean, I wasn't a fan of Appleseed because the 3D characters just seemed sort of awkward to me. I guess that's the problem though, I just don't dig 3D cel shaded things. They don't sit right with my brain somehow.
May 1st, 2006 at 6:01 am
It's a barrier, to be sure. When they pair cel shaded CG with motion cap, then it starts getting a little weird for me. I get the same feeling when watching traditional animation that has been clearly rotoscoped.
I guess I find it appealing (or at least not minding it as much) since I work with 3D CG and it presents another opportunity for an entirely different look.
May 1st, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Yeah, I'm definately not closed to it, but I just sort of see the emulation of the current anime style as a bit of an eyesore. Eyesore is too strong a word, I guess, but the insistance for directors to use this medium to try to recreate the same feel seems wrong, like it's cheating somehow. It's funny because both square and hentai games seem to have the right idea. Human-esque people that tend in the direction of anime people in this way or that. It's a nice blend and it really helps immerse me in the world a lot better. FF: AC is a shining example, but I wouldn't really expect anyone to live up to that, I think the best I would hope for is for the experience to be good enough that I hardly notice the 3D at all beyond my brain processing it as 3D when the show first begins. Then, that could be a limitation of the commercial itself.
May 2nd, 2006 at 7:09 am
The directors tend to get too enamored with CG and they go overboard with the visuals. Everything's in motion, the frame is too busy and so on…
FF:AC is guilty to some extent of this. I'm not saying it makes FF:AC a bad movie by any means, but the impression I got is that they pulled out every trick in the CG magic book for no other reason other than because they could.
I tend to support the notion that just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you necessarily SHOULD.
I understand what you mean about feeling like it's 'cheating' re: cel shaded CG. It feels like they're trying to cut undercut the traditional animation industry by emulating the look and feel of traditional animation but with the budgetary appeal of being able to do a production in half the time and with an animation department that's only a third of the size of a traditional animation department.
Feels like the "fast food of animation" doesn't it? :)
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:43 pm
About FF: AC:
I think I largely have forgiven any wrongdoing Advent Children could be accused of because I sort of knew from the get-go that it was supposed to be a spectacle. I didn't really go into it looking for anything more than blazingly fast fight scenes and Tifa looking sexy enough to stop bullets. And Yuffie looking sexy enough to steal materia. I need to watch that thing again.