I can definitely see the advantage of motion caputure. It is a much quicker alternative to actually animating everything, but I don't feel it is absolute in its capability. I view motion capture as a jumping off point. Ideally it should be altered by animators in order to make the characters move in a more interesting way. I love the Polar express, but the fact that the animators were not allowed to exaggerate or change the facial expressions bothered me. Much of the time it felt like I was looking at emotionless doll faces. The entire purpose of using animation as a medium is to have the freedom to exaggerate the action, even if only slightly. The animation of Gollum was extremely successful because the animators were allowed to perfect the animation and the facial expressions created through motion capture.
Posted on Dec 13, 2004, 6:31 PM from IP address 12.72.113.40