Beowulf: an animated film with epic discussions!
So I finally saw “Beowulf”. There has been so much chatter among the animation community about this film that I wanted to see the film with as open a mind as possible, without the distraction of an opening day crowd. In my opinion, it was a pretty good film.
I have read several posts all over the web, in blogs, forums, and news sites that come at the film in a negative way, due to it’s heavy use of motion capture. For the most part, I think this is because most people don’t know what you get from motion capture, and what a team of artists do with that to create the film on the screen. This film felt more like the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland than it did the Disney film “Pinocchio”.
Now, in the defense of some animator friends I have who hate this movie with all their being because of the use of motion capture, I can understand some of their confusion. To hear the PR on this film, you would think the creators spent an afternoon with Angelina Jolie covered in ping pong balls and then the film was done. This is not so.
Motion Capture is just that: capturing motion. The artists and animators use this motion as a jumping off point to create the final scene. This is in much the same fashion as a texture artist might use a photograph as a starting point for a realistic texture. For those yelling fowl, please take a moment to learn a bit about the techniques involved before bashing the movie as the fall of animation as we know it. Video may have killed the radio star, but photography didn’t kill painting, Pixar didn’t kill the pencil, and motion capture won’t kill computer animation that doesn’t use motion capture.
As for the film itself, it was pretty decent. There were a few awkward moments where people giggled at a few lines of dialog, and (without giving anything away) there is a scene with some nudity avoidance via props, but it was a pretty solid film. I saw it in the Real D projection, and there were more than a few “something is about to hit you in the face” shots, but it was a good time. A few films from now, the filmmakers will probably avoid using such gimmicks. It didn’t really detract from the film.
Please post your thoughts, along with saying if you’ve seen the film or not.
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On December 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am
It’s a special effect film. I cry foul when people call it animation and compare it with the likes of Ratatouille and Persepolis.
On December 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am
I would argue that there was quite a bit of keyframed animation in there as well, far too much to label it as an FX film, in my opinion. I would reserve that label for films like “Transfomers”, “King Kong”, and “Lord of the Rings” films.
On December 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
And King Kong and LORings didn’t use more keyframing than Beowulf? There was more art in both those films than anywhere in Beowulf. Only my opinion, of course. At least those two films didn’t LOOK ugly.
On December 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
There was much more keyframing in “Beowulf” than in one of the “Lord of the Rings” films or in “King Kong”, mostly due to the number of characters. There is no way to know for sure, but from what I understand of the workflow, I am certain there are more keyframes in “Beowulf”, but it’s obviously not about that. For example, “Bee Movie” used no motion capture, and I had no interest in that film.