Computer Animated Characters in Movies
This article touches on something that has bugged me about computer animation from the beginning - it’s too sterile, too calculated, too fluid.
For example, if you are watching the average creature, there are often incomplete motions, twitches and jerks of excitement, indecision, rage or anxiety - the imperfections that are a major part of being an organic creature.
With wholly animated features, it’s not as apparent, or if it’s used for special effects. It’s when they try to pass them off as living characters, mixed in with or passing for live-action, that it becomes immensely distracting because it’s always a little off.
Specific examples in Star Wars:
- Jar Jar Binks & Watoo:
Unnecessary to begin with and distracting to boot. Abnormally fluid in movements, even in slapstickery and buffoonery. Attempts at mottled, imperfect skin texture appear systematic and precise. - Yoda:
Not only does he look like an entirely different creature than the puppet seen in the original movies, but his eyes apparently glow in the dark now. Somehow, even in scenes where shadows should be cast over his eyes by his brow-bone, the whites shine clearly and distractingly at all times. [Examples] - Revised Jabba (in whichever Episode that was of IV through VI):
WTF? I don’t think an explanation is even needed here if you grew up with the original originals, pre-Lucas-fucking-with-it-further.
Another offender:
- Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within:
Here, it seemed like they used intentionally plain looking characters to presumably make them more human. Instead, they succeeded in a visually uninteresting group of CGI characters that looked lifelike at some angles, but moved inhumanly, again with systematic computer-applied “imperfections” such as freckles.
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