Animation - The Ultimate Showdown!

[Kris T]

Which style of animation is the best?

While there are dozens of styles, some are obscure and you don't see them very often, if even more than once ('sand animation', for example). I chose some of the most common today, or those quickly rising to popularity. If you really feel another style should be added other than what I have chosen, let me know. I can have up to fifteen altogether.

Everyone has their own opinion - now vote for your favorite style!

Also, this is a great place to debate over the merits of each individual style, discuss why some are better than others, which aren't good at all, which you may find interesting even if you don't consider them your favorite, and more!

Cel-Animation (AKA 'hand-drawn' or 'traditional-animation'):

Films to note: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), "The Secret of NIMH" (1982), "Spirited Away" (2002).

Photorealistic CGI:

Films to note: "Shrek" (2001), "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" (2005), "WALL-E" (2008).

Toon-shaded CGI (AKA 'cel-shaded'):

Films to note: "Vexille" (2007), "Appleseed" (2004), "Skyland" [Nicktoons Television show] (2006).

Motion-Capture (AKA 'performance-capture'):

Films to note: "Monster House" (2006), "Beowulf" (2007), "A Christmas Carol" (2009).

Rotoscoping:

Films to note: "Waking Life" (2001), "A Scanner Darkly" (2006), "Renaissance" (2006).

Stop-motion (clay and/or Silicone-covered armature):

Films to note: "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), "Coraline" (2009).

Stop-motion (paper cutout AKA 'papermation' or 'cut-out animation'):

Films to note: "Twice Upon a Time" (1983), "A Series of Unfortunate Events" [Credit Sequence] (2004), "Dante's Inferno" (2007).

Flash:

Examples to note: "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends", "Total Drama Island", "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi".

 

[Proud Capitalist]

None of those films were done in Flash. The only full-length Flash movies that have been done were made-for-TV, like the "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends" pilot.

As for which I prefer, I've always liked the look and feel of traditional animation the most. There's plenty of absolutely beautiful CGI (like Kung Fu Panda) and stop-motion (like Coraline), but for me nothing beats old-fashioned hand drawings. I don't actually consider motion-capture or rotoscoping to be "animation", since you're not so much creating movement as dressing it up.

 

[Marjeela H]

Okay, I had always been told/read on blogs (who must have been mistaken) those films were in flash.

Do you know three TV shows that are strictly flash?

And unfortunately, while rotoscoping is the cheat's version of cel-animation, and motion-capture is the cheat's version of CGI - they will continue to rise towards the point where people don't separate between them.

More and more video game companies and animation studios have come to rely on motion-capture to animate humans and other tricky-to-draw objects in CGI.

We're going to see it become continually more acceptable, so, I thought it should be added here - however less of a skill level is involved than its partners on that list.

 

[Wendi wooo]

How is Ice Age photorealistic CGI?

 

[blt135142]

Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Total Drama Island, and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi all were.

 

[kanebigredmachine]

Thanks, R-Taco!

And DarthGonzo, just because a character is made to be cartoony in mannerisms, doesn't make it not photorealistic. I understand Sid and the other main characters have goofy, unrealistic expressions. However, I classify it as photorealistic because the backgrounds and foregrounds are meant to be convincing as 'real':

 

[pino]

I say anything other than motion capture. It's just too darn creepy. Also I have never been too big on stop motion either.

 

[kerbear]

Hand-drawn and claymation/stopmotion, and Flash when it's done right (I've only seen one example of a good Flash cartoon). The rest, shall we say, fails to enthrall me in any way.

 

[Dana B]

I like them all really, but I'd say my favorites are cel animation and stop motion.

For cel animation, I just love how expressive a artist can make the characters. And I love seeing those beautiful background paintings.

And for stop motion, I really just like the look of it all. I haven't seen that Coraline movie yet, but I think it looks great judging from the commercials.

 

[Trebor1990]

Actually, I think the backgrounds in both Ice Age movies were very stylized. They had a lot of texture detail, but otherwise looked like something straight out of a Chuck Jones cartoon. Wall-E is definitely cartoony as well.

 

[I Run With Scissors!]

Alice's Birthday got a theatrical release.

Anyways... personally, I'd replace "Flash" with vector animation in general, since there are other programmes that do it (Anime Studio, for example).

And where's stop-motion with corpses?

 

[Kunmui]

I voed Photorealistic.

 

[goalpostcasualty]

I vote for all of them. None's better or worse than the others, just different.

 

[MissMiller]

Great topic!

I picked standard animation as my choice, it's the most enjoyable for me and I have always been a fan of classic style animation, though I do enjoy claymation and stop-motion as well. Looks like classic animation is winning in the poll too, it's good to know that people still enjoy regular cartoons in this day and age when a lot of the big features are CGI.

 

[arlabeth]

I agree.
There's no best style to do animation, just different ways.
Plus it's hard to take this thread seriously when we're splitting hairs in terms of CGI, and people are confusing which animation style is which.

FTR, Skyland is motion capture.

 

[Eithan]

All are OK in my eyes. To me, it doesn't matter what medium it is, it matters how good the plot, character,s and everything else are that make a good movie.

 

[jonahsmom]

You know, looking at those pictures, I agree 100%. Each of them is visually pleasing in it's own way, even the ones that get maligned so much, like mo-cap, rotoscoping, and flash.

Also, Sita Sings the Blues, was done in flash. I can't believe you all forgot that.

Also, @ Dudley, there's a pretty huge difference aesthetically between cel-shading and standard CGI. I don't think it's "splitting hairs" at all.

 

[Kunmui]

I voted for all of the above.

I don't have a favorite animation style; it's like comparing apples and oranges. Most of us have preferences, but no one is conclusively better or worse than any other; they're just different. I've seen good and bad examples of each.

 

[smillas]

I like traditional animation best because it just looks more natural. It's strictly hand drawn without being "realistic" using computer technology.

 

[alli. (:]

Cel by far. My reason is vague and certainly could be considered more an 'opinion' if left unexplained. There are various reasons but one of the more prominent is that it achieves greater flexibility of animation, or at least most cel productions have greater flexibility of animation than those products of flash or cgi. For instance the quality of movement in Atomic Betty or WordGirl is hardly as good as that in Recess or Pepper ann. However it doesn't have to be that way and i suppose some might argue that the stiff odd style of movement in flash cartoons is a style unto itself rather than an inferior version of cel style. I choose to consider it inferior but i guess i'll label that as an opinion. Flash animation imo is stiff, strangely glowing and has no real normalcy to it's motion or image. It appears like something that would be good in an advertisement or short animation for commercial purposes but which lacks the normalcy style found in cel animated works. Take Recess as an example of the pinnacle of cel animation. Sure it's no Fantasia but by pinnacle i don't mean artsy heights but heights within normalcy. Thus we see a fluidity of motion but stiffness where worthy, i.e bones and flesh etc. As in reality but evolved beyond this to incorporate those elements of unrealistic things such as some motions.

Now with cel there is a normal element to it. All other styles imo are weird. To explain normalcy and weirdness would be very complex and much of the definition would in third party situations be considered biased opinion, although that bias is founded upon ordinary systems and thus is not a weird bias.

Flash cartoons such as Atomic Betty are worthy for entertainment but don't have that normal realism to them... Now Doug Funnie he was normal. Also Bart Simpson. Bart was normal but now he looks weird and i just don't think he looks normal anymore. he looks all glossy and bright and weird.

Well sorry if all the gist of my post was normal=worthy and counternormal=unworthy but i was never very creative or imaginative... all i can really do is to agree or disagree with any future posts in this thread... and do my best to explain why i do... I was never good with my memory either so i've probably forgotten a lot of arguments i would use for defending cel against flash etc.

Oh and one mention of claymation. Yes it's a process of animation but i consider all 3d animation whether clay or cgi to be unworthy compared to 2d... as it's weird and 2d is more normal. Well perhaps there are better terms but i think Bart was normal