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Re: animation vs. the real thing

Greetings, all,

I don't see why this should be a zero-sum game.  Animation and live action
films have different sets of challenges and strengths.  In animation, you are
free to do things that would be physically impossible with a real camera (like
in Toy Story, where you see the bedroom from Buzz's POV within the helmet,
*with* Buzz's reflection on the inside of the globe -- physically impossible to
do that in real life.), and on the other hand, cinematographers have to deal
with constraints and challenges that animators don't because animators have
absolute control over the environment.  On the other other hand, animators
don't get anything for free: things don't "just fall" when dropped.

As a light designer, let me assure you that "positioning lamps" is extremely
artistic and very challenging.  I'm actually using a computer ray-tracing
program to help me with the design I'm working on right now, because I can't
get into the theater until four days before the show opens.  So I can create an
exact model of the theater in the computer, put the lights i'm planning to use
where I'm planning to use them, and then have the computer show me what it's
going to look like.  *Incredibly* useful.  I've already found out that two
effects I was planning on aren't actually going to work the way I'd imagined
them in my head.  Thank goodness I know that now, rather than finding out when
I had them all plugged in and no time to change anything!

So, I don't think this is an either-or situation.  Also, with regards to
"acting" versus "just showing external gestures and facial expressions", I
would like to point out that the vast majority of the Muppets are (in
structure) just two hemispheres with a joint at the back, and yet the
puppeteers can somehow convey the whole range of human emotion.  Does that make
them more or less talented than "real" actors, who can convey the same thing,
but have much more at their disposal to do so?  I don't think we need to ask
that question.  

>Sure, you can talk about Robin Williams in 'Aladdin'

[Shudder.]  Let's not.  He ruined that movie for me.

Good night, all.
-- 
Don Smith                          Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                                http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd" - Miguel de Unamuno
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