As you can see, except for the film's awesome logo, the cover isn't very appealing. But the concepts, rendered designs, and especially the character close-ups inside make up for it.
It's slightly different than other 'Art of' volumes in that there's greater discussion of the film's main animation process—motion/performance capture or mocap. It should have been titled The Making of...
The 200-page book is authored by Chris Guise, who was the lead conceptual designer for the movie at Weta Workshop. But much of the written material comes from quotes by others who were as instrumental in making the film.
While presenting the details in a fairly uncomplicated manner, the text holds some great facts on the filmmaking techniques used. Case in point: Weta's method for creating realistic skin textures (p. 56).
The artists at Weta are clearly proud of what they do and thus defensive about mocap.
"Do people say Michelangelo was just a technician because he copied a life model?" Guise asks in his introduction. "No. He's considered a great artist. The same should be said for digital artists, whether they build digital models, performance-capture movement, or create artificial hair for a dog."
He makes a good point. Performance capture is just another way to animate characters.
In a recent post on Cartoon Brew, animation historian and current vice president of ASIFA-Hollywood, Jerry Beck writes that mocap "is not "the future of animation" ... It will not replace human beings in narrative stories for motion pictures."
Mocap will never completely supplant frame by frame ("keyframe") animation, but to shrug off the potential for future progress is incredibly shortsighted and smacks of insecurity.
Of course I'm still with the studios (notably Pixar) that have rejected the technology because of its present limitations and hope they continue doing so as long as they feel that is in the best interests of the films.
Tintin would have been better off without motion capture. Then again, its doubtful that Spielberg would have directed it otherwise.
The Art of The Adventures of Tintin is published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. An iPad app based on the book is available from the iTunes App Store.
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7 comments:
I really want to see Tintin. Just after Christmas shopping I've been short on cash.
Yeah, mocap will not be stealing your animation jobs, don't worry.
Eh, forget Jerry Beck, the man's a backwards looking fool.
I've always felt that mo-cap has it's place alongside other forms of animation, as well as beside live-action. When CGI initially came out, or computer electronic voices, some people made the comments that this would replace actors - as if.
The point is, for an artistically creative world, there need to be many mediums in which stories can be told. And each have their place.
I think no one is complaining about Mo Cap. jerry was just saying that Mo Cap isn't the future of animation and you agree with him. Mo Cap and animation can go their separate ways and everyone will be happy. I think Jerry (and pixar) think its totally unnecessary for it to even exist in COMPLETE CG movies. Sure in live action film like Rise of the Apes but when the whole damn movie is animated what's the point? Waste of money. just my view on things
You said something interesting at the end there.... "that Spielberg probably wouldn't have directed if if wasn't a mocap project."
I think that's what mocap animation can really bring to the table... is great live-action storytellers like Spielberg or Scorsesse, or (fill in the blank), that love the medium of animation but find the production pace of traditional or regular computer animated films too different from their regular pace of live-action, that they've perfected over the years.
I think if mocap is what will open the door for those storytellers to make animated films, then god bless it.
Always an interesting read for the debate: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/05/entertainment/la-ca-animation-20110605
I still don't see the point of using mocap to animate human characters unless there is something the character design which would prevent using live actors. Like using mocap in animating Gollum is OK and the same is for using in Pirates of Caribbean, or aliens in Avatar. Those are examples of using technology to enhance the final output. But using mocap instead of finding good actor to play totally human character is still looks creepy, even though animation is done the best as it can be for now. I admired some shots from Tin Tin for its advanced renderings, very detailed views of models, shading, top-notch lighting but I don't get attached to the character. It's just still creep me out.
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