Tuesday, January 30, 2007

"Animation"

What does Animation mean, anyway?

If I use computers to make a bunch of pretty things, that are completely impossible, but have people dance in front of a camera and make the computer reproduce it, am I an animator?

Happy Feet got a nomination for Best Animated Feature.

As this blogger points out, it's not really animated. It's computer assisted puppetry.

Savion Glover did all the dancing, and deserves credit for it.

But should the actual animators who created the motion in Cars be compared to the technicians who computerized Savion Glover's dancing? (Assuming you think comparing artists and giving them awards is a relevant task to begin with.) Happy Feet is a better movie, with better writing and characterizations. But is it animation?

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