Styles of Animation

[Lac3y]

I'm currently doing my Media Studeis coursework (has to be finished on Monday, getting a bit worried) and I'm currently describing a few different animation styles. I've done Cel-shading and claymation, but what is the style of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within? Pre-Rendered? Realistic? Any help would be greatly appriciated.

 

[Kage]

Final Fantasy used Pre-Rendered Computer Animation, where yeah, they use massive farms of computers to render the final piece which can take ages depending on how many CPU's are rendering at the same time.
Its what I use most of the time for my work, and love the style to bits.

Theres also Manga, and that type of style, and also Flash based computer animation? Like you see on the web.

 

[Lac3y]

thanks Kage. I gotta say Advent Children is amazing. I never played the game, so it was pretty hard to follow, but the graphics are awesome.

I also love cel-shading, especially "wind waker" and "okami"

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

so what do you mean, when your playing final fantasy, its not being rendered on the spot? i thought all games were like that

 

[Kage]

Yeah all games are like that. But there is a film called Advent Children thats ben pre-rendered.

Yeah, i agree, it looks superb!

I can't keep up with all this 3D technology All I know is, I love my work to look realistic.

 

[Lac3y]

so what do you mean, when your playing final fantasy, its not being rendered on the spot? i thought all games were like that

nah, we're talking about the films, "spirits within" and "advent children"

Most computer games are rendered in real-time. I only know of resident evil that used pre-rendered backgrounds.

 

[Kage]

Yeah and because they used pre-rendered backgrounds, the scenes couldn't move.

Games can use pre-rendered textures also that already have shadows, etc implanted within them.
Nowadays though, most of the effects can all be done in real time within games, and if some effects aren't, theres alot of limits placed upon the engine which is never good.

Soon I suspect pre-rendered movies like the newly released Ice Age 2 (excellent film) will be able to be animated and rendered out in real time, taking just the films length to finish.

The reason they take so long to render is simply because the video card is hardly used. Mostly all the work is being placed on the CPU, for ray-tracing, etc which is why the task is so tedious, being that most CPU's can only do one thing at once, and a latest graphics card can do 48!

 

[alvino]

Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children is probably the most advanced CGI movie ever, considering the WHOLE movie was CGI. It was such a leap from Final Fantasy: Spirits Within...then again, that movie came out in 2001-2002, and it was pretty good for that time.

 

[Kage]

I still think the Spirits Within is realistic, though yeah, Advent Children is alot more advanced

Has anyone seen Ice Age 1 and 2?

I found that now if developers were clever, Ice Age 1 seems possible on a latest game engine, since I watched it lately, and found that most of the models were actually simple enough.

Ice Age 2 on the other hand I felt was greatly improved engine wise from the first, and especially with the water effects, would be impossible to do on a game engine of now.

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

yeah, i seen ice age 2 a week ago, and it was awesome. and the water effects in it were awesome too.