Animation Appreciation Thread #11

We're back to the usual numbering

The Sakuga Wiki [JP] - http://www18.atwiki.jp/sakuga/
Good Animation Blog - http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/
Other websites: http://pastebin.com/r2Vcy4b2

Animation on Twitter, Tumblr and Youtube:
http://pastebin.com/CQa8wU3q

Older Threads: #1-Refuge Thread #1 http://pastebin.com/ykTP0v6m

Tamako Staff

Episode 10:
Script: Michiko Yokote
Director/Storyboards: Taiichi Ogawa
Animation Director: Nobuaki Maruki

Episode 11:
Script: Reiko Yoshida
Director: Noriyuki Kitanohara
Storyboards: Naoko Yamada
Animation Director: Shouko Ikeda

Episode 12:
Script: Reiko Yoshida
Director/Storyboards: Tatsuya Ishihara
Animation Director: Kazumi Ikeda

Kazuya Sakamoto didn't work on any episode.
He also hasn't posted on KyoAni's blog for a while...

>>81
I was expecting Yamada to direct the last episode. Somewhat looking forward to Taichi Ogawa's episode, I think he did a good job in episode 3.

Kazuya Sakamoto didn't work on any episode.

Another one bites the dust?

>>53

142k views and 6k likes?

It feels like it's facerolling Chuunibyou's first PV.

Oh well... Can't blame them. The sakugay is strong in this one.

>>81

Kazuya Sakamoto didn't work on any episode.
He also hasn't posted on KyoAni's blog for a while...

Inb4 he ninja'd a resignation like Mitsuyoshi Yoneda.

I can see it happening. He only worked on one episode on Chuunibyou and that was ep 7. If he hasn't worked on anything here, you can expect him to have left already.

>>80
┌（┌＾o＾）┐ホモォ作画...

R.I.P in peace kyoani

>>83

The sakugay is strong in this one.

Oh u

As always, I'm a slowpoke with everything. Tamako Market episode 9 was fantastic. It had some god-tier storyboarding. I really like some of the angles in some scenes.  Also, great timing in the acting, comedic scenes. Miyoshi Ichirou/Kigami Yoshiji is one hell of a guy with set-ups. It was better than Yamada's episode. Kinda expected though, only Takemoto has layouts on par with Kigami.

>>84
By that rule, Gatoh must have left KyoAni and rejoined several times.

>>89

Gatoh? As in Gatoh from FMP? If so...

He's not a regular at KyoAni but a contracted script supervisor/writer.

Well in any case. Yoneda worked only on an episode of Nichijou's first half then never got assigned to anything else on the second half.

>>90
Considering KyoAni projects spend years in preproduction I wouldn't worry so fast, they might be busy with something else.

http://vimeo.com/28321526

Effects animation

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/1636/salon1362681735740.gif

Tanaka in Zetsuen no Tempest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eVlwFbZmyg

Takashi Torii MAD

http://anibin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/cm_7.html

Apparently KyoAni's sakugay swimming was made in 1080p, here's hoping their next TV anime will be similarly made.

Why no mentions of Okiura or Inoue in top lists? I thought you guys like them...

>>34

where is BahiJD

>>96
I did mention them in my list...

On a more serious note, perhaps this might show that in the end people like stylized animation more due to how much it stands out?

>>93

Now that is some freaking amazing "western" animation, not the lame DC cartoons fist fights some other guy posted in the previous thread. Shame Disney (and the western market in general) are not so hot for traditional animation anymore, because stuff like that is just awesome.

>>99
It's no surprise the DC cartoon will look worse because it's a TV series and animated by Koreans, while the effects animation video I posted were from feature films and done by western animators.

I kinda wish they'd atleast nurture a homegrown animation market kinda like the Japanese do with TV anime. Sure most TV anime is produced cheaply, but every now and then there will be that one cut, or that one episode which had some amazing animation.

I mean, the west do have good animators. The closest thing I can think of is Motorcity from last year. But that was more an exception more than the trend.

>>96
I think the top lists are more who people like than who people consider good. I mean I understand Okiura and Inoue are very good animators, some of the best in Japan. But on a personal level, there are others I am more excited to look at.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/07/disney-hand-drawn-animation

>>98
We can look at what that article on >>63 has to say:

    What holds true of the photographic film does of course not apply to animated cartoons. Unlike the former, they are called upon to picture the unreal – that which never happens. In the light of this assumption, Walt Disney’s increasing attempts to express fantasy in realistic terms are aesthetically questionable precisely because they comply with the cinematic approach… There is a growing tendency toward camera-reality in his later full length films. Peopled with the counterparts of real landscapes and real human beings, they are not so much “drawings brought to life” as life reproduced in drawings… In these cartoons false devotion to the cinematic approach inexorably stifles the draftsman’s imagination.

The guy thinks that realism in animation=crap, and that the inherent quality of the medium (which is that it's being 100% drawn from the mind of the artists) should be exploited to max degree. I can't say I completely disagree, but realist animation has its own charm as well. Ultimately, I'd still say that someone like Ohira or Hisashi Mori is much more exciting than any realist animator.

>>102
That's a shame, but it's no surprise as well. At least there's that Paperman technology that they can use to emulate that hand-drawn look I suppose.

>>104
I think with that article I finally understand what the Paperman technology allows, it allows 2D animators to translate their 2D drawing skills onto a 3D platform. Before there had to be a middle man, a CG animation technician that would rig the models and set motion arcs and whatever else CG animators do. With the Paperman technology, 2D animators can also lend their talents to 3D works.

>>103

Not exactly what the article says. Strong points and merits of realistic/hyperrealistic animation are also brought up later. Personally, I prefer "realist" animators, by far. People like Oohira Shinya in particular (because yes, imo, he is a  heavily realism inclined animator - think of the movement, especially in his effects animation, no?). Shinji Hashimoto is a given. Or Itou Hidetsugu and Inoue Toshiyuki. I prefer the believable and comprehensive aesthetic/detail and motion (stuff like Itou's cut in Je T'aime towards the end when the android goes into shooting mode - link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSqkIdfa3qY&t=2m32s).  And above all, I have a special place for Iso Mitsuo. As we all know, he is all about motion, motion and motion. No flash, no visual bling (like Takeshi Koike's block shadows that personally tire me out). Just minimally abstracted, as natural as possible movement. And it looks fucking great.

"Honorable mentions" I guess, would go to Okiura. But I won't put him among my favourites (as much as his work sometime leaves me in awe) because he strikes me as uncanny at times. The stuff he does is so on the spot that it feels too good, creepy maybe (I remember the threads on /a/ when people claim he is rotoscoping). Technically impressive, but not aesthetically impressive. In a sense, he's an example of realistic animation gone slightly wrong. He'll always be the guy who's stuff I look up to but never really admire.

>>106
I wouldn't say something like Wanwa is realist... at least, not the type of realism that Inoue, Okiura or Iso do.

>>107

But you would say that many other things he did are. For example, his cuts in Innocence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrqAkgi2e_o&t=8m48s) are pretty much the most realistic in the whole film. Incredibly detailed movement, even down to breathing and small muscle tension (quite obvious at the very beginning, right after Batou lands out of the vent shaft from the ceiling).

>>107
>>108

Also, he's the only one that bothers to animate Batou's hair during the running/action.
You can say Ohira is versatile, expressive, and diverse in style, but you can't really say he's not a realistic animator.

The subject and content of the stuff that's being animated also has something to do with it. Wanwa is supposed to be a surreal story. It doesn't need to stick to the real world. Things are different with Ghost in the Shell. I'd say what most characterizes his style would be an obsession with detail, in everything.

>>108
Among Ohira's works that I've seen, his cuts from Innocence are the best. I don't always like his animation because I find it to be too weird at times. He's a realist animator alright, but in a different way from how the likes of Inoue and Okiura animate. He animates movement in a realistic manner, but it's not to replicate reality. Perhaps surreal animation is the right word?

Well yeah, he suits himself to what he's doing- his Ghibli stuff is also totally realistic. But I think it's telling that when he gets a chance to direct and have creative freedom, he churns out Wanwa instead.
I was referring to realism more in the sense of adhering to the character designs and exaggerating very little to achieve some sort of photo-realistic movement. Okiura would be the best example, but Nishio or Inoue aren't that far off. Ohira doesn't strike me as the same type of animator, particularly his more recent stuff.

Just goes to show that there are several aspects to realism.

>>111
I recall someone (Ben from Anipages?) referring to Ohira's animation as being "expressionistic realism". I think it fits pretty well.

>>103
>>104
That's not what the article says but what Kracauer said. The article itself is much more thorough in treating realism and questions the idea of Disney features as realistic and what realistic means within different contests.

Medium specificity beyond what's strictly material is a silly notion anyway. Especially if comes with nonsense rules about what an art form should and shouldn't do.

"Painting on canvas will always have a rough texture. To exploit this properly a painter shouldn't depict smooth objects but instead focus on the depiction of sand paper, beards etc"

>>80
I see Ohira's scene from Howl's there around 50 sec in
>>115
>contests
I meant contexts. Sorry.

https://twitter.com/manganewsjapon/status/309896977913618432

Yamauchi is directing the Kimi no Iru Machi anime adaption

>>96
I like stylized animation more

Is this realistic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCNDZY4vXPs

http://viploader.net/pic2d/src/viploader2d736727.gif

Salami