Changes in Animation

So, whether or not you like the show Family Guy, there is no doubt that the animation has changed since season one. Some people say that it's for the worse, they think that the characters have become "stiff and creepy" when it comes to their animation. However, I think that the newer animation has given the show a more sophisticated look. There is shading for shadows and just a more smooth look to it overall. It's more computer generated now.


Before:














After:

Legalize Ted

Recently the new trailer for Ted 2 was released showing scenes from the sequel to the highly popular movie Ted, the story of a living stuffed bear and his buddy, played by Mark Wahlberg. Now to film this movie they couldn't just take a real teddy bear and have him walk and talk through the shot, they needed to use a lot of high level animation in order to me Ted look like a real living teddy bear. Therefore, they employed the use of motion capture technology to capture actor/writer Seth MacFarlanes motions to use to make Ted's motions look more life like.

Although this video makes it appear that everything Ted does was animated through the motion capture, a blog post from one of the animators who worked on Ted tells us that, the motion capture was used mainly for the sitting and gesturing scenes, while the larger motions were completely cg animation. This blog explains that at times due to the topical nature of the jokes some scenes had to be reanimated because the jokes simply were not relevant anymore. You can learn more about the animation of Ted and the point of view of one of the animators here: http://comedyforanimators.com/2012/06/29/behind-the-scenes-of-ted/

The Making of Ted

One of my all time favorite movies is the movie Ted. It is one of the funniest and most entertaining movies I've ever seen! Not only was the humor great but the CGI used to create the main character Ted was fantastic. Seth MacFarlan and his crew did an amazing job in creating him. So because I was such a fan I had to look up how they did it. They used what is called a Xsens MVN Motion Capture rig, which allowed MacFarlan to act for Ted.
Here is just a little video to show you how the Xsens MVN Motion Capture rig works.

It's pretty amazing how actuate the animation is to his actual movements.

So this Xses MVN Motion Capture rig allows Ted's movements to be as realistic as possible. So with this suit on Seth MacFarlan would act out, in a room near the other actor in the scene, Ted's scene like he was in the scene with the other actor and say Ted's lines. Below is a behind scenes video of the making of Ted. Definitely recommend watching; it is truly amazing what technology can do!

There is a longer behind the scenes of Ted in the link below.

http://vimeo.com/62601324