2 ms·
I am amazed they didn't seem to talk to any 3D animators before writing this. Because this is just plain wrong: > The hand-drawn images are usually faithful re
by nicklecompte 2y ago
I am amazed they didn't seem to talk to any 3D animators before writing this. Because this is just plain wrong:
> The hand-drawn images are usually faithful representations of the world, but only in a qualitative sense, since it is difficult for humans to draw multiple perspectives of an object or scene 3D consistently. Nevertheless, people can easily perceive 3D scenes from inconsistent inputs!
It is difficult for human artists to maintain perfect geometrical consistency. But that is NOT why 2D animation of 3D scenes is geometrically inconsistent! The reason is that artists stylize 3D scenes to emphasize things for specific artistic reasons. This is especially true for something surreal like SpongeBob. But even King of the Hill has stylized "living room perspectives," "kitchen perspectives," etc. The artists are trying to make things look good, not realistic. And they aren't trying to make humans reconstruct a perfect 3D image - they are trying to evoke our 3D imaginations. It's a very different thing.
Pixar and other high-quality 3D animation studios intentionally distort the real geometry of their scenes for cinematic effect: a small child viewed from an adult's perspective might be rendered with a freakishly long neck and stubby little torso, because the animators are intentionally exaggerating visual foreshortening to emphasize the emotional effect of a wee little child. A realistic perspective would be simply boring. These techniques are all over the place in Pixar movies - it's why their films look so good compared to cheaper studios, who really are just moving a virtual camera around a Euclidean 3D space.
I don't want to comment on the technical details. But it really seems like the authors missed the artistic mark.
- crooked-v 2y agoAlso, even putting stylization for specific artistic reasons aside, work in this context is always going to get warped for the simple needs of the camera (or "camera"). This goes double for anything pre-HD, where people or characters had to fit pretty tight into the shot to have the perspective close enough for facial expressions and body language. Dig into even the most "realistic" and staid shows of the era and you'll eventually find moments where they had to discreetly move furniture or even walls to make particular shots work.
- numpad0 2y agoIt's especially funny considering the same is done with real TV cameras. For an easy example, a lot of supposedly square rooms used in sitcoms are trapezoidal shaped; the walls meet at obtuse angles. Very few people notice that.
- chefandy 2y agoAs someone who works in this space professionally, my face and my palm have never been closer. I have no problem with the project-- research is research and it's not like they're trying to pass this off as a 'solved problem'-- but among a specific subset of tech folks, AI image tools arouse this completely unwarranted "we've solved art" bravado. It inspires them to arrogantly-- sometimes even imperiously-- throw around these baseless assumptions about basic art principles. I worked in software for a long time and I know hubris in software development is nothing new, and can even sometimes be beneficial, but I'm not sure I've ever seen such an intense collective overconfidence in a single subject within the software world.