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One thing about 2D animation is that it is amenable to an infinite variety of drawing styles. If you can draw it, you can animate it. It's why 2D animation is s

One thing about 2D animation is that it is amenable to an infinite variety of drawing styles. If you can draw it, you can animate it. It's why 2D animation is so appealing, whether in short film or feature film form. In contrast, 3D animation (for feature films) feels stuck in an aesthetic rut - call it the "Pixar look". The recent animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has a refreshing 3D/2D hybrid visual look. It's a satisfying break from the 'convential' look of 3D animated movies. I hope the success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will inspire more visually varied computer animated films to follow.

dragontamer 5y ago
There's many styles of 3d animation. Video-gamers can recognize them: Dragonball Fighter Z looks completely different from Cyberpunk 2077. Lets take one genre dominated by Japan: fighting games. Look at Street Fighter V, Dragonball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat (the only non-Japanese on this list). None of these characters, or animation styles, are the same. In fact, Dragonball FighterZ clearly "bends" the rules of 3d animation the most (aka: squash and stretch animation), likely because the original source material (Dragonball Z / Dragonball Super) is traditional 2d animation. ------- Street Fighter V was based off of Street Fighter IV's style, which was itself based off of Battle Fantasia. (Street Fighter Alpha, the game before IV, was traditional 2D animation, so they looked at other games for inspiration on how to make 3d look good).
- kadoban 5y ago
  I think GP's point may have been specific to feature films. Games do have a lot of variety in 3D rendering styles, but how many of those do you see make it to films, especially mainstream films?
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    Wreck-it-Ralph kind of cheated, but... how many different styles of 3D animation did you see in that film alone? (Wreck-it-Ralph is sort of the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" of this generation, so it makes sense. No one will say that Betty Boop has a similar drawing style to Woody Woodpecker, even if both are characters in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit") ------ Thanos (Avengers: Endgame), Shrek, Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean), the Na'vi (Avatar), Spiderman (Into the Spiderverse), and the recreation of Princess Leia (Rogue One) are all 3d animation. Would you argue that they're the same style?
  - lehi 5y ago
    These are 3D characters from Pixar's most recent film: https://static.onecms.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/10/15/SOUL-1-2000.jpg https://static.onecms.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/10/...
  - slothtrop 5y ago
    Right, not just rendering but character design and motion. One recent stand-out in 3D was "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". The snappy, fluid and elastic movement, and designs, were a nice departure from convention that seemed to draw from 2d influences. Generally the other big studios knock-off the Pixar fashion. AAA games as of late are even more rigid as they aim for realistic-looking characters, save for monster-design. So you get the same brown-haired 6ft tall white guy hero in 90% of games.
    - dragontamer 5y ago
      > AAA games as of late are even more rigid as they aim for realistic-looking characters, save for monster-design. So you get the same brown-haired 6ft tall white guy hero in 90% of games. I dunno if that even qualifies as a style for FPS games, let alone AAA games in general. Overwatch, Gears of War, Halo, Team Fortress 2, Destiny, and Splatoon all have distinctive art styles. Sure, some games take inspiration / style from other games (ex: Fortnite clearly is going for Overwatch's style). Call of Duty vs Battlefront both also take from each other pretty severely. But there's more to AAA games than just Activision or EA Games.
germinalphrase 5y ago
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has some very clever animation choices. *The Mitchell’s vs The Machines” does seem to have a sort of blended 2D/3D thing going on as well.

dragontamer 5y ago

There's many styles of 3d animation. Video-gamers can recognize them: Dragonball Fighter Z looks completely different from Cyberpunk 2077. Lets take one genre dominated by Japan: fighting games. Look at Street Fighter V, Dragonball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat (the only non-Japanese on this list). None of these characters, or animation styles, are the same. In fact, Dragonball FighterZ clearly "bends" the rules of 3d animation the most (aka: squash and stretch animation), likely because the original source material (Dragonball Z / Dragonball Super) is traditional 2d animation. ------- Street Fighter V was based off of Street Fighter IV's style, which was itself based off of Battle Fantasia. (Street Fighter Alpha, the game before IV, was traditional 2D animation, so they looked at other games for inspiration on how to make 3d look good).

kadoban 5y ago
I think GP's point may have been specific to feature films. Games do have a lot of variety in 3D rendering styles, but how many of those do you see make it to films, especially mainstream films?
- dragontamer 5y ago
  Wreck-it-Ralph kind of cheated, but... how many different styles of 3D animation did you see in that film alone? (Wreck-it-Ralph is sort of the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" of this generation, so it makes sense. No one will say that Betty Boop has a similar drawing style to Woody Woodpecker, even if both are characters in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit") ------ Thanos (Avengers: Endgame), Shrek, Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean), the Na'vi (Avatar), Spiderman (Into the Spiderverse), and the recreation of Princess Leia (Rogue One) are all 3d animation. Would you argue that they're the same style?
- lehi 5y ago
  These are 3D characters from Pixar's most recent film: https://static.onecms.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/10/15/SOUL-1-2000.jpg https://static.onecms.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/10/...
- slothtrop 5y ago
  Right, not just rendering but character design and motion. One recent stand-out in 3D was "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". The snappy, fluid and elastic movement, and designs, were a nice departure from convention that seemed to draw from 2d influences. Generally the other big studios knock-off the Pixar fashion. AAA games as of late are even more rigid as they aim for realistic-looking characters, save for monster-design. So you get the same brown-haired 6ft tall white guy hero in 90% of games.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    > AAA games as of late are even more rigid as they aim for realistic-looking characters, save for monster-design. So you get the same brown-haired 6ft tall white guy hero in 90% of games. I dunno if that even qualifies as a style for FPS games, let alone AAA games in general. Overwatch, Gears of War, Halo, Team Fortress 2, Destiny, and Splatoon all have distinctive art styles. Sure, some games take inspiration / style from other games (ex: Fortnite clearly is going for Overwatch's style). Call of Duty vs Battlefront both also take from each other pretty severely. But there's more to AAA games than just Activision or EA Games.

germinalphrase 5y ago

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has some very clever animation choices. *The Mitchell’s vs The Machines” does seem to have a sort of blended 2D/3D thing going on as well.