Mr. C & the CG version of the Supermarket Stare 1

In an interview with Ward Jenkins, Oscar winner John Canemaker offered the following quote:

"John: I’m biased, of course, toward drawing, but it does seem to me the more layers of “reality” you strip away in animation, the more soul is revealed. It’s a paradox. When ultra-real CGI goes in for extreme close-ups of fuzzy animals, I start to count the hairs on their fur. And that distracts me from the narrative. Story is the most important element of the process, not the tools used to tell it, and...well, now I‘m getting away from the story I was telling you."

I'm not going to jump on my computer-generated high horse over this - there's no need. If I did that every time I would soon get some sort of repetitive strain injury and besides, all opinions are valid here at RedVan Enterprises Inc. With that said, I am curious as to why any viewer would react to digitally-made imagery this way. After all, we see live-action close-ups all the time in film and television, so what is it that is throwing Mr. Canemaker (and others) out of the animated world of the CG picture? Is it the computer-made equivalent of the "Supermarket Stare" we all get when out shopping? Is it just preference or signature style?

There also seems be a little contradiction in John's last couple of sentences, but I wanted to put this up before offering some thoughts on anything. That'll come in a subsequent post.

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PS. Go and read Ward's interview about the Oscar stuff - it's really interesting. (Part 2 has the above quote, just so ya know).

PencilBox #3

This week - Alternatively Fueled Cyborg Creature

Yow! Tube

6 months since I put my shorts up on YouTube and not much in the way of interest. Then, WHAM!

Over 190,000 views in 2 days. Insane.
This is all down to the vids being linked from another one (Kiwi - it's really cool) that is currently on the front page. It's amazing just how many people are slacking worldwide and willing to spend their time watching animation... Ace!

(I had to turn the email notifier off, as you can see from this couple of hour old inbox...)

PencilBox #2

My submissions for the "Caveman finds a mate" topic.

Pencilbox #1

We've got a weekly drawing thing going on. Last week's theme was "Pimp goes to work". Here's my take on it, inspired by the industrial-y, post war paintings of L.S. Lowry. Don't suppose he ever though to put more pimps in his work...