Via: Cartoon Brew
By now we’ve all seen the stills on Empire and read the comments on Cartoon Brew. I myself would have posted a lot earlier but the old PC is acting up (my motherboard is suffering from capacitor fatigue) and it got to the point this morning that I was halfway done writing this post before it shut off by itself.
But enough of my computer woes and onto some animation ones. The upcoming Tintin feature will be made in motion-capture, that much is certain. Now I am no fan of the technology. If something is considered animated, that means there are no humans involved in the actual movement process. When I say this, I do not mean to include rotoscoping. That process still relies on a degree of talent to draw the character. Motion-capture removes the vast majority of that skill and relies instead on a designer and set-builder.
Much of the hubbub around the film concerns the look of the characters and how much they differ from the comics. It’s nearly impossible to pass judgement on a film based off two still pictures, so a more complete opinion will have to wait until we see some actual footage.
It’s sadly becoming harder and harder to convince people that traditional animation is often much more appropriate for certain projects. Tintin is a prime example. The Nelvana TV series was very much true to the comics and was all the better for it. This film is likely to see a much greater departure from the books fans the world over know and love (myself included).
The final aspect to consider is what the overall plan is for the film. There were 21 Tintin books in total and unless the producers expect to make a James Bond-esque series, there are going to be some tough choices to be made.
The release date is still some time away so I will not be worrying about it too much until then and neither should you.
I was looking forward to it I was turned off a bit by the renders.
On the Motion Capture I wouldn’t be so fast as to say there is no skill in it. I was at a talk from a head in Double Negative who do alot of visual effects and he stressed that alot of the mo cap is in fact not used or is altered so there still is animators going in on the model and tweaking things.