a 3D look but a 2D Feel

I am a huge fan of traditional 2D animation. I love how ridiculously expressive you can make the characters, and I love how you don't need to depend on the physics of the real world to make your cartoon enjoyable. When I see films like Disney's frozen I ask myself the question of "Why did this need to be animated" or rather "What is animation adding to this story". And to be frank I don't know that I've found an answer aside from the fact that having 3D models of every character comes in real handy when rolling out lines of action figures and other such merch.

It's not that I don't like 3D animation in general. I just feel that it can get so close to the look of the real world that any abstraction would severely disturb the audience watching.

Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs was a 3D animated film produced by Sony Studios that I feel captures some of the very best that 2D and 3D animation have to offer. Take a look at the clip below:

While the look of the film is undoubtedly 3D, it really does feel like you're watching 2D cartoon. The characters move erratically  and emote expressively, you can see during periods of fast movement that someone has actually gone in and drawn smears and multiples into the 3D frame, and whatsmroe is that it never takes itself too seriously.

Like I said before, I don't have a problem with 3D animation as a medium, but I'd love to see it used to it's full potential.

The Lamb

Upcoming from Sony is a new feature length animation movie called "The Lamb," directed by Tim Reckart.  It is one of the few animation movies based on an original idea, rather than based on stories or fairy tales.  No release date is published so keep your eyes peeled for this upcoming film.

Marvel Sony Spiderman Deal

In the realm of CGI and animation lies a genre a movies that has gained a lot of popularity over the past decade, superhero movies. That being said, if one company had to be given credit for said rise in popularity it would have to be Marvel. Since creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 with Iron Man, Marvel has built an extremely successful franchise filled with individual movies for each character as well as The Avengers, where they all team up. However, not all Marvel movies were able to be part of this universe. The X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-man movies, were all owned by different companies making it impossible for them to be a part of the MCU...or so we thought.

This past week, Marvel Studios and Sony struck a deal regarding Spider-man. According to the deal, a new Spider-man will first appear in a MCU movie and then Sony will release the next installment of the series. Unfortunately for Andrew Garfield this does mean another reboot of the Spider-man series. However, for everyone else, this is really exciting.

The Regal Cinemas Openings

(NOTE: THIS WAS MY ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS WEEK THAT I FORGOT TO POST)

When we go the the movie theater we always get a little promo telling us to observe the various rules of the theater. But one of the main things exhibition houses push are their promos inviting movie goers to visit the concession stand.

 2D Animation

Special Guest Star Promotion
other 90s policy opening

Going to the movie theater as kid one of most memorable promo movie theater openings was Regal Cinema's 1990s movie train.

1990s Original 

At this point in time Imax was available only in major cities and 3D films were a few decades away from making a major comeback in major theaters. But as you can see from this earlier version of the opening this opening looked almost like sort of 3D roller coaster experiences you'd get in some of these indoor amusement parks. This opening played on Regal Cinema screens until the Fall of 2003. 

2011 Remake

In my investigation of Regal Entreatments' openings, I was unable to find exactly how they were able to create one of my favorite nostalgic movie openings. I did however discover that the main reason they brought back the train opening. Around 2009 this theater had made a deal with Sony upgrading its sound systems and screens to 4K projectors. In anticiaption of these updated projectors, Regal brought back its' iconic 3D coaster to match with the full power of the new technology.

God of War Title sequence

http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00176-God_Of_War_III



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXjS0pjPscw
(for some reason blogger won't let me embed this)


So my post from last week got me interested in looking at video game title sequences (the few that there are) and how they differ in structure from more traditional film title sequences. They deal with an obvious structural problem, games are expected to be interactive, and title sequences draw upon film in that they are clearly not. So, last week I talked about how the title sequence in The Last Of Us had other utility in that it was useful for the story. This week I want to talk about the title sequence from "God of War 3", published by sony. Again, this is one of the few video games that has a title sequence in the first place, but the title sequence here is useful for another reason, it artfully fills in the "previously on" sequence. Almost every tv show will include a "Previously on" segment including information that the viewer will need to understand the story. So is the case with video games, this type of information fill is fairly common, especially when the gaps between sequential games can be years, programmers find it useful to fill in the player with backstory if they didn't play the earlier games, or remind previous players what happened.

So first I want to talk about this title sequence specifically for its art style, because it is so incredibly striking. It looks like it is a painting from a greek pot or sculpture, which fits in with the mythology of the game. The background texture is incredibly detailed and cool, and the characters are appear as mostly psedo 2d and 3d cutouts on a 2d background, with some drop shadow to give dimension. Also, the use of lighting is incredible, especially at the beginning, to emulate a forge. Some interesting particle effects are used as well to transition between events.

One thing that I want to focus on however is the fact that this title sequence serves another purpose. The things that are animated are events that happened in previous games. It fills in the gaps that the player may or may not have, artfully, avoiding the simple "previously on" sequence that every media viewer in the world is tired of. I find it really cool in both the cases of The Last of Us and with God of War that the game makers decide to use a title sequence to make their game more "cinematic", as many games try to be, but also work to give this sequence extra utility. This title sequence passively fills in the viewer on the backstory of the world, without getting so much in the way, and still being entertaining and interesting to watch