Motion Capture: Is It A Cartoon? Animation? Or Is It Unique?

edited January 2012 in General Discussion Posts: 5,745
The award world of Hollywood has been scratching their head with the widespread adaptation of motion capture technology for films.

Big hits like Planet of the Apes, The Adventures of Tintin, and Avatar are all made either partially or completely with the new technology, but how do we classify them?

For Tintin and Avatar, are they animated features? Can we call them Cartoons? Or will they soon need a category of their own at awards shows?

Comments

  • Posts: 1,856
    Heck we don't call a Pixar film a cartoon really.

    If th film is completely done in motion capture (The Tin Tin Trilogy, Mars needs mums) it's a animated film. As Walt Disney used a very similar (but less Hi Tech) technique on Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

    Partial Mo-Cap (Planet, Hobbit, Crapatar) should count as Live action/VFX.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Well, MoCap in films is somewhat new technology. Video games have been using MoCap as far back as '99, I believe (if not earlier). Movies like Tintin, or (and I'm grouping this here) Avatar, those I basically call animation. Sure, there's actual actors in parts of Avatar, but there's too much not.

    Oh, @Virage, I believe you're talking about rotoscoping with Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.
  • Posts: 5,745
    Then why have the Academy Awards not considered mo-cap animated films?
  • Posts: 1,856
    ^ Becuse it's an actors proformance, It could be argued its a very elaborate costume.
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