Can I talk for a moment about visual storytelling, cause, I feel like it’s something that a lot of adaptations forget about in lieu of trying to replicate their source material.
It’s a problem you see most often in anime derived from manga or light novels, but it’s also present in movies based on YA novels, and you gotta know what I’m talking about, start on black, opening narration, fade in as the main character explains the world and environment. This works in a book since the reader can’t see anything, they need the specifics of the world explained, but it feels like the movies are just like “well it worked for the book, it’ll work for us right?
I’d say it’s worse in anime, where characters will go on long internal soliloquies trying to explain their thought processes and complex emotions, which again, works for the manga, in a manga movement is very expensive, every single motion requires it’s own panel, which takes up the artist’s time, printed space, and a moment in the narrative, so it’s important to only show what absolutely needs to be shown. But animation is different, it’s all movement and the details are what sells it more than the dialogue.
The reason I wanted to make this post is because of one scene in One Punch Man that perfectly exemplifies how to translate a written thought process into visual storytelling. After getting punched to the moon (err, spoilers), Saitama has this thought process
and it’d be easy to translate that entirely literally in the anime, Saitama crouches, has an internal monologue as he tries to figure out how much force he needs to put into his jump, and then he launches. Instead though, the scene is done completely silently, to sell the fact that he’s in space, but the thought process isn’t removed, it’s just show visually.
He throws a bit of moon rock to gauge the moon’s gravity, then launches, it’s a much more thoughtful approach to the scene and the audience’s ability to interpret visual information.
I just, really wish more adaptations realized the inherent strength of the visual medium instead of relying entirely on the source material’s structure and reliance on its own medium.
The other day my mom said something that i found really insulting to
the 2d animation movies, she said that they stopped doing those because
they were no longer appealing to the audience and that they were
supposed to be discontinued, and i just thought how bullshit of an
argument that is.
Comparing 2d animation with 3d and saying one is
superior is like saying that digital art is better than traditional
art, better than the fucking Mona Lisa, The creation of Adam, in fact,
is a pretty ignorant comparation to do because one does not suprass the
other, but new techniques are getting invented and we invest in those
more.
Is just another way of animation, in fact, the shitty move
all those studios did by closing their 2d animation studios eas
pointless and it´s gonna cost them greatly, because someday people are
gonna want to go back to the 2d animation and studios like Disney or
Dreamworks will be too scared to do that, that will be the day that
other studios will take upon them and give us what we want.
2D animation has the most beautiful animation i´ve ever seen, there´s something in it that i can´t explain that makes a big difference from watching cgi, and what i think would make a great combination is the great amount of details that you see in CGI and 3D movies into 2D techniques so you could expect to see shit like this
Atlantis (2001)
Treasure Planet (2002)
Sinbad (2003)
5 centimeters per second (2007)
The princess and the frog (2009)
Children who lost their Voices (2011)
Beyond the boundary (2015)
Your name (2016)
So whoever dares to say 2d animation is dead is wrong and also a bitch
“Have you always wanted to be Pixar animator? Now that process is a tiny bit easier. The animation studio recently made a number of courses available on the Khan Academy website to help you start your journey – and they’re free.”
The group of courses are called “Pixar in a Box” and include short lessons on everything from character modeling and animation to using virtual cameras. Today, it added a new course into the mix: The Art of Storytelling.
The free course is an exploration into the storytelling process at Pixar. From the course description:
“What makes someone a good storyteller? Storytelling is something we all do naturally, starting at a young age, but there’s a difference between good storytelling and great storytelling. In this lesson you’ll hear from Pixar directors and story artists about how they got their start, what stories inspire them, and you’ll begin to think about what kinds of stories you might want to tell.”
Don Bluth movie cats look like they were designed by someone who has never personally met a cat, and envisions them as being some sort of large raccoon or rodent like creature
I would really like to point out that each design has a context. Without the context they are going to look weird. Grey cat on top is from Secret of Nihm. It’s in the view of a mouse so of course it’s going to look terrifying. Cat with match NATURALLY LOOKS LIKE RODENT WHICH IS WHY HE FAKES AS ONE. I could really go on but I’m too tired for that.
Short rant is: Don Bluth created characters to look a certain way for a reason and story telling. Fine if you don’t like them but at least he didn’t do same face/characters. They are all recognisable.
And yet I still can’t distinguish between all his humany dudes with undercuts
disney concept art: the most beautiful dynamic original thing i have ever seen
disney finished project: rubber same face minimalism regurgitated plots
concept art:
final version:
What makes me so mad is that snow queen is such a lovely tale and there was an evil mirror that shattered and froze the queen’s heart. So the first thing the newly evil queen does is PLUNGE THE KINGDOM INTO ETERNAL WINTER.
And the kid Anna is based off of is actually this sweet peasant girl who is rescuing her best friend whom everyone else thought drowned and whom no one cared for because mirror shards got in his eyes and he only saw beauty in snowflakes while everything else was just disgustingly foul to him. Except he didn’t drown because he was whisked away by the snow queen.
Like this girl gives her shoes to the river to find out he didn’t drown. Her hair ribbons to the birds to find out who took him. Works her hands raw to get to him and has to suffer a mental breakdown because she got SO FUCKING CLOSE to saving him and he won’t even look at her because he wants to solve this puzzle the snow queen gave him.
And then her sobbing wakes him up and he cries and washes the shards from his eyes and the fact that she saved him is enough to melt the snow queens heart and she brings spring back to the kingdom.
Wow Frozen really is some weak shit
Let’s not forget Gerda’s journey takes her along a long road that includes meetings with multiple women, many of them old, most of whom are not evil witches but wise women who aid her in her quest. She’s also at one point held captive by a bandit princess who swaps clothes with her and insists on sleeping in the same bed and routinely threatens her with a knife, but she eventually lets Gerda go with a magic talking reindeer she was also holding captive. The bandit princess cries because goddamn Gerda you’re so NICE and PRETTY and BRAVE and you clearly care about this stupid guy I GUESS and I can’t bear it just GO ok just GO and also you better fucking take care of her reindeer or I will CUT YOU.
The story is full of interesting complex women of many ages and magical talking animals and it’s a real shame we didn’t get an adaptation closer to the original ‘cause it’s really cool.
hey good news about the adaption:
There was a Soviet animated movie from 1957, that doesn’t brush over any of the things you just listed.
You get Gerda on her journey, meeting all of those people that both hinder her quest and help her, with older women from different regions of northern europe, as well as several princesses who aid her
also the art style and animation is absolutely gorgeous and I always feel like it’s a shame that older Soviet animation is barely recognized around the world
you can see the entire thing with english subtitles here
Animation software is, by and large, very expensive and out of the range of most people seeking to get into animation. As of March 26th, this software will become open source and available to all prospective animators!
wupacing 