Forum - View topic

Hey, Answerman! [2008-04-04]

At the same time however, it's important to note that we all also notice the low framerate and quality in anime compared to say, Disney or James Baxter or Dreamworks stuff. That goes without saying. Don't even bother to argue on the quality of animation please, because it irks me when dumb fans who know nothing about animation whine at me about the quality argument. To break it down, regular animation (cartoons) runs on 12 drawings per second (going up to 24 drawings per second for certain scenes). Anime runs usually on 6-8 drawings per second, and is sometimes bumped up to 12. This is a drop in quality of animation, the lag in movement is frustrating to the trained eye. Sure their moves may be more elaborate but they are generally unfluid and unappealing. Want to see beautiful animation? Check out James Baxter stuff or "Pyrats" a film by a group of students from Gobelins.

3. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that it was ever some kind of non-commercial, all-about-the-art movement that was solely concerned with artistic integrity and quality storytelling, so I won't sit here and offer platitudes about how anime in the 90's was better than it is now, because I firmly believe that the garbage-to-gold ratio is the same now as it was then. You get one or two shows per season that don't suck and the rest are terrible. Difference is that back then all we got were the good shows. Now we get everything, by legit or non-legit means. So there's a sense that we now know the "truth" about anime - it's TV product. Some of it is incredible, some of it is entertaining, and a lot of it is trash. Just like American TV. And British TV. And Canadian TV. And Korean TV. And Chinese TV. And Australian TV. And so on and so on, ad infinity.

At the same time however, it's important to note that we all also notice the low framerate and quality in anime compared to say, Disney or James Baxter or Dreamworks stuff. That goes without saying. Don't even bother to argue on the quality of animation please, because it irks me when dumb fans who know nothing about animation whine at me about the quality argument. To break it down, regular animation (cartoons) runs on 12 drawings per second (going up to 24 drawings per second for certain scenes). Anime runs usually on 6-8 drawings per second, and is sometimes bumped up to 12. This is a drop in quality of animation, the lag in movement is frustrating to the trained eye. Sure their moves may be more elaborate but they are generally unfluid and unappealing. Want to see beautiful animation? Check out James Baxter stuff or "Pyrats" a film by a group of students from Gobelins.

Here was a guy who needed his own room in the attic to have enough space for his hobby,

Ceru wrote:

At the same time however, it's important to note that we all also notice the low framerate and quality in anime compared to say, Disney or James Baxter or Dreamworks stuff. That goes without saying. Don't even bother to argue on the quality of animation please, because it irks me when dumb fans who know nothing about animation whine at me about the quality argument. To break it down, regular animation (cartoons) runs on 12 drawings per second (going up to 24 drawings per second for certain scenes). Anime runs usually on 6-8 drawings per second, and is sometimes bumped up to 12. This is a drop in quality of animation, the lag in movement is frustrating to the trained eye. Sure their moves may be more elaborate but they are generally unfluid and unappealing. Want to see beautiful animation? Check out James Baxter stuff or "Pyrats" a film by a group of students from Gobelins.

There's no doubt that animation outside of Japan is generally amazing. I checked out Pyrats and some James Baxter stuff, and it's incredible. But I think that anime has its own merit for the way it incorporates movement as well. Simply put, some of the flow is very original. In my opinion (as one who simply views, not animates), it's just a change in style. One isn't necessarily better than the other, and it all comes down to personal preference.

Mr. Toto wrote:

Ceru wrote: At the same time however, it's important to note that we all also notice the low framerate and quality in anime compared to say, Disney or James Baxter or Dreamworks stuff. That goes without saying. Don't even bother to argue on the quality of animation please, because it irks me when dumb fans who know nothing about animation whine at me about the quality argument. To break it down, regular animation (cartoons) runs on 12 drawings per second (going up to 24 drawings per second for certain scenes). Anime runs usually on 6-8 drawings per second, and is sometimes bumped up to 12. This is a drop in quality of animation, the lag in movement is frustrating to the trained eye. Sure their moves may be more elaborate but they are generally unfluid and unappealing. Want to see beautiful animation? Check out James Baxter stuff or "Pyrats" a film by a group of students from Gobelins. There's no doubt that animation outside of Japan is generally amazing. I checked out Pyrats and some James Baxter stuff, and it's incredible. But I think that anime has its own merit for the way it incorporates movement as well. Simply put, some of the flow is very original. In my opinion (as one who simply views, not animates), it's just a change in style. One isn't necessarily better than the other, and it all comes down to personal preference.

After reading Ceru's argument, I do agree that Western animation have better representation of motion. I also agree that many ignorant fans cast one sided judgment without understanding of technical side. I also think that Ceru's statement was a bit myopic. Why? He (she) regarded fluid animation done in high FPS is the best way to measure animation. Now let's talk about technical side of animation a bit. Is high frame rate animation good animation? Not always. Here's character or object that moves 24 fps. If its expression was bad, awkward, or unnecessary, then that's wasted effort right there. Good animation is not just about how smooth it moves. It's about the right expression with good draftsmanship, staging, gesture, and timing.

For audience who don't quite understand behind the scene matters, talking about animation FPS and other technical matters are a bit elitist to non-animator person. Anime does wonderful job with its entertaining and graphic nature, but many people have no idea how labor intensive the animation production process is. Thanks to easy access through internet, a lot people can get access on how anime is made. Unfortunately most people are just passively content with their daily fix of anime with easy access. Few people have true appreciation for anime as a part of the big world of animated film making.

PRIMETIME GOLD

here is my idea, what do you think, A reality show that has anime fans in a house and they all watch shows and then talk about the shows.

That would get cancelled 5 minutes into the pilot broadcast. Nobody cares what nerds think about cartoons. I'm a living example of that.