Bleatings from the Sheep

The drawbacks of CG (Keith Lango)

NOOO!!!!!!! Not the gumdrop button!!!!!!!!

....Oh. Ahem. Sorry about that, folks. I had a friend in high school who used to frequently quote that line with me. It must've just slipped out, somehow. ^_^

Alrighty. Anyway, I was supposed to be blogging about something important, right? Right. The readings from Keith Lango.

I was amazed at what I was reading. It made so much sense, and I found that I completely agreed with it. For me, one of the most striking things he wrote about was the lack of connectedness. Here, I'll give you a quote:

"...one of the things that big budget CG imagery lacks is a sense of connectedness. For years called 'stiffness' or 'coldness' by reviewers, CG has had a difficult time warming the eyes of it’s viewers." (http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?p=376)

Ever since I started becoming interested in animation as a possible career option, this is something that I've noticed. I would always explain to people how, yes, the CG stuff is cool and all, but something about it struck me as...cold. I could never quite figure out why exactly that was, though. So I found it really interesting to read about how, in a way, the same complexity that makes the CG stuff so amazing also comes with the drawback of making it harder to successfully get emotion and "warmth" across to the audience. It makes sense, though; have you ever actually tried to create a 3D character? It ain't that easy. The structure of the character can get pretty complex and difficult to manage. I have a very, very small amount of experience with it, and as rewarding as it was to see my poorly created characters perform simple tasks after weeks and months of trying to figure out what I was doing....it was definitely challenging. Granted, all I had to work with was 40 minutes a day, 5 days out of the week, without formal instruction. I dare say I did rather well with what I had. But my point is merely that the medium of CG is not as easy as it seems, and it has definitely has its drawbacks, including the complexity of the characters.

Two other quick comments about the readings (quick because it's already past my bedtime and I'm getting rather sleepy....). I also found it interesting to read about how difficult it is to maintain consistency because the animation is put on a sort of "assembly line." (http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?p=295) I suppose I already knew about the assembly line part, but I just had previously kept that in the back of my head. The truth is, that definitely seems like it would make it harder to maintain a smooth flow to the animation. And, speaking of smoothness...Lango also made some intriguing comments about how sometimes things in CG are too smooth, too polished for their own good. (http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?p=211) One of the definite advantages of CG is that it does provide the creator with a great opportunity to create a more "polished" look. The drawback is when this tool is overused, and then you get stuff that all looks the same and is too polished to have any "life" in it.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the CG stuff. It's fun too look at, and it's fun to play around with making. I must admit that sometimes I have more of a fondness for some of the traditional methods of animation (at least, as an audience member); then again, I tend to be a pretty traditional sort of gal in most areas of my life, so why should that be any different? I do think that CG is a wonderful advancement/addition in animation, but it, like anything else, needs to have its flaws pointed out when they're discovered.

Oh, also...I'm feeling nice tonight. (Must be the sleep deprivation!) So here's a little taste of what I made with what little 3D experience I've had. This is good ol' Baa-Baa the Sheep, my trusted companion in all things mildly artistic. This was the first 3D computer graphic I ever got the chance to model. It took...oh...I don't know...months? In the animation itself, he does a little walk and a baa. Nothing fantastic, but still. This is just a screenshot of him:

posted by Caitlynn @ 12:45 AM