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Monday, September 27, 2010

Modern Animation

Those of you who are friends with Damios on Facebook (which in all honestly is probably everyone who would read this) may have noticed that he posted the video for “A Whole New World”, from Aladdin. If you scroll down a bit, you can read a conversation between him and me, which at one point discusses the animation quality of Aladdin compared to more recent works. We also discussed time travel, THE BURNING HUMAN SPIRIT, the fact that Crowley proves that my attempts to make Omegia asexual inadvertently turned the entire setting into a gigantic mental/spiritual orgy, the fact that Omegia also is documented proof that I am a creepy pedophile, and that Jesus is David Bowie. However, you really only need to focus on the animation part.

Go ahead and watch the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VfN2BhJA8) or if you own a copy of the movie, just watch it instead. Pay attention to the animation. It’s GORGEOUS. Prior to watching the clip, I had assumed that a movie from the 90s wouldn’t have aged well. After all, we live in the future, with computers which can drastically reduce the amount of work needed to animate; plus, modern CGI should have improved dramatically since then. Except that’s not the case here; I watched the clip from Aladdin, a movie I watched when I was just a wee lad, and realized that its quality was superior to the majority of recent animation that isn’t PIXAR.

The oddity doesn’t just end with 90s era Disney. Look at the works of Studio Ghibli. The animation in their film Ponyo is hand drawn, but it is far, far superior to animated movies using computer technology to assist the process. True, Disney and Ghibli had larger budgets than most studios, but we’re comparing hand drawn animation to studios that presumably have the help of modern technology.

The problem isn’t just restricted to movies; many cartoons and animes have animation quality which makes me feel sad. There are only a few shows which I find visually appealing; Code Geass, Death Note, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are the only series I’ve seen recently where I’ve said to myself, “Damn that’s pretty” while watching. Part of it is a slight, personal problem I have with modern anime style: everything is so damn shiny and colorful. Even Code Geass has this, with bright primary colors thrown all over the screen every scene. It’s like they think we have the attention spans of children, and need the rainbow effects to keep us entertained. Death Note avoids this with a more subdued, realistic color scheme, but everything is still so bloody shiny looking.

Maybe I’m just ranting. In fact, I definitely am. I’m not an animator; I have no experience with the process it takes to make a cartoon. But when I look at modern work, I expect it to be higher quality than works that lacked modern technology. If it doesn’t, what’s the point of having all that expensive stuff in the first place?
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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Video Game News!

I had a serious post lined up about Glenn Beck's Washington rally, but then homework happened. I'm at work now, so I figured I'd just post some recent news in the world of video games.

Vanquish demo is out for XBL and PSN. Played it a bit last night, and it's actually even more fun than I'd anticipated. High speed, loads of adrenaline, craziness abounds. Highly recommended.

Kotaku got their hands on the "Playstation Move" and some games prior to it's September 19th release date. Seems that they are rather impressed with it, but I wonder how much of that is genuine "I'm-impressed-ness." Not that I'd suggest Kotaku is being paid off by Sony or anything, but having strongly negative opinions about a system that's going to be here for a while does have consequences. When you're gonna be reviewing games and whatnot for this system for that long, you can't really just say "Move sucks" and then convince everyone your reviews aren't affected by that. Just the same, most Kotaku writers seem to feel that the constant calibration is a concern.


Me, personally, I won't be getting it. I share Yahtzee's sentiment that without tactile feedback most motion control games won't feel natural or intuitive. While there are some genuinely innovative design implementations possible (usually of the painting and brush stroke variety a la "Okami," or possibly paint brush mechanics in Epic Mickey), they don't seem to show up often enough to warrant (in my opinion) the purchase of a motion control system. Course, Move still beats Kinect no matter what. I mean seriously...what exactly is the point? So I can play imaginary full body soccer in my living room? Why not actually go out and play soccer? At what point is technology like this "innovative," and what point is it "a substitute for having no friends?" And yes, this is totally coming from the guy who has no friends whatsoever at college. Feel the judgment.

But I can't give Kotaku all the credit for early reviews. IGN posted a review as well. While I'm not the biggest fan of IGN (A perfect 10 for GTA IV? Seriously?), it's good to have different opinions. They seem to think the motion controls are solid, but the software is pretty weak. Really? Shovelware? In MY Playstation Move? What nonsense is this!?


Also, Tank MMO. As in, an MMO where you play as a tank. Because...why not.

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