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NEWS: xxxHOLiC Nominated for Annecy




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midori kou



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Personally, I don't think it'll win anything. It was THAT great. =/
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Nagisa
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Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:32 pm Reply with quote
I hope it doesn't win. The XXXHolic movie is easily one of the worst examples of off-model character animation and warping of proportions that I've seen in...one helluva long time. I hope the staff in charge of the TV series are able to grasp the notion that a character's head is not supposed to be the same width as their neck, and that their hands aren't supposed to be as long as their entire arm. Confused
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nobinobita



Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 75
PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:20 pm Reply with quote
Weird,

I haven't seen the xxxHOLIC movie, but i can say that it's really cool that it's getting into Annecy in the first place. For anyone not familiar with Annecy, it's an annual Animation Festival organized mostly by people in the biz (on the art side, it's mostly animation FOR animators). It's one of the best festivals in the world and takes place in France every year. In the world of Western animation, it's probably the most highly regarded festival. They show stuff from all over the globe though

From the sounds of it, I guess they could have picked a better Japanese entry though.

Anyone interested in Annecy or French animation, check out this link:

http://www.gobelins.fr/galerie/animation/

If you scroll down to the "Annecy" section, there are a bunch of short films produced for Annecy. These are little bumps that are produced by Gobelins, the best animation school in the world (Yes, they really are the best, i was lucky enough to visit them this past fall and the students were AMAZING).

I love French animatioon because it isn't afraid to show influence from Japan AND America (and anywhere else for that matter). They don't seem to have the same anti-anime sentiment that so much of the American industry tends to have (not that everyone in America hates anime, far from it, but you'd still be suprised by how many animators in the states have a borderline racist disdain for Japanese stuff).

Anyway, the French are a force to be reckoned with. I just wish more of their stuff was available stateside.
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hikaru004



Joined: 15 Mar 2004
Posts: 2306
PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:23 pm Reply with quote
The Gonzo theatrical, Gin-iro no kami no Agito, is also nominated.
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wao



Joined: 04 Jul 2004
Posts: 224
PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:34 am Reply with quote
If you're talking about the animation itself then I don't think the weird proportions are a problem - its not like the designs themselves were proportionate to start off with. Whether the characters look off model or not is irrelevant if they can get the feeling of that scene correct, and not just the drawing, the movement has to be good as well. There's the direction, too.

The bunny scene had some really awesome animation...
But this must be good news to the director.
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Nagisa
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Joined: 19 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 6:09 am Reply with quote
Thing is, proportion and being on-model ARE important. Unless the whole point is to be psychedelic and avant-garde and attempt to trip out your audience, then you really do need to put effort into making the characters as close to their proper proportions as possible. I don't know where you're getting your facts from, but this IS a very important part of doing even halfway decent animation. And yes, the regular XXXHolic designs are very stretched out and lanky, but even then they retain proportion. Yuko's hands don't randomly inflate to the size of her entire torso and everyone else doesn't randomly grow a giraffe neck and a head that looks like it was processed several times over by Amazon headhunters.

Like I said, I don't know where you're getting your rules for good animation, but going so extremely off-model like that is a pretty significant aspect of BAD animation. It's lazy. It's irresponsible. And it detracts from the production. Period.
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Brack



Joined: 15 Oct 2005
Posts: 281
Location: UK
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:56 am Reply with quote
Nagisa wrote:
Unless the whole point is to be psychedelic and avant-garde and attempt to trip out your audience, then you really do need to put effort into making the characters as close to their proper proportions as possible.


Which considering who the director is I'd be willing to assume that is the point.

I came to it as a fan of the director rather than as a xxxholic fan, and I liked the character animation a lot. It had the frenetic movement I was expecting and I think he used the CLAMP designs to exagerate that.

What I didn't like was the jarring switches to 3D to get Raimi-esque camera shots, particular as these shots were achieved in Guu without pulling the viewer out of the world. That combined with sub-par music made it seem a video game once too often.

Don't see it winning anything, but I think there are scenes in there that are of interest on an animation basis alone.
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