[tiger and bunny] SUNRISE AND VIZ MEDIA'S NEW BUDGET PLAN

[vikki]

MOST anime licensing companies have the following plan

Comments

[moezilla]

Um. I really don't want to burst bubbles, but having tried to watched Tiger&Bunny... I want say something about the animation: it isn't really high quality.

It's faux quality, since Sunrise uses short-cuts to make it appear that they've gone ahead and went the extra mile. Using blur and effects with the lighting, Sunrise makes it appear that they're producing a high frame rate. Unfortunately, to an animator or someone who is sensitive to movement and light can immediately tell that there are short-cuts.

It's well made, yes. But the animation is standard fair.

[vikki]

I'm not talking about frame rates and whatnot, to be perfectly honest. :) What I'm noticing is body language (especially in the hero suits, which are of course heavily computer animated), attention to detail (Tiger's arm swings a little when he turns, Barnaby's hair bounces when he walks), background (colorful, but more importantly everyone in background scenes has distinctive appearances).

Of course they still have a budget they have to follow, but on the whole the overall quality of the animation is higher: usually as much movement as possible is stripped from scenes that don't need movement, resulting in talking head syndrome, etc etc. In Tiger & Bunny I generally feel as though a lot of attention has been paid to every scene's movement.

Now that being said, I don't know the first thing about animation, so feel free to punch me in the gut with more bad news whenever you read this, haha.

[moezilla]

The art itself is good! And that is the art of the characters moving, which means their animation director is paying attention and correcting their in-betweeners. But the actual animation, the art of making those characters move is standard for Japanese animation shown on television, which is three frames per second. For reference, Disney shoots on ones (uses one frame per second). Most animation that people consider good done by hand in America, with the exception of Hanna-Barbara, shoots on twos (uses two frames per second).

[moezilla]

I realized my terminology is a bit weird, because that's how I was taught but let me take a minute to explain this so I'm matching up to everyone's standard definition of FPS

[vikki]

oh, no, absolutely - it's not a surprise that their frame rate is normal. But again, I'm not talking about the frame rate: I'm talking about the attention to detail in the in-betweens and every frame they do animate.

[moezilla]

Then you're not really talking about the animation.

[vikki]

You're right; I'm talking about the art. =/ oh well.

[moezilla]

But what I've been trying to say is that it's not high quality animation, it's standard. I'm not trying to be an old fogey animator who can't shut up about Fleischer, I enjoy shows that have absolutely horrid values myself.

You can have a good story and good art with absolutely horrible animation. But Tiger&Bunny doesn't have horrible animation which is something I haven't been saying, it has the standard.

And that's the point I've been trying to make. It's not high quality, but the art is good. That's what I meant "it's well-made."

I have to admit that I'm one of those who fall into the "sensitive to movement and light" groups. The light and blur effects actually gave me a headache because frames in-between a character's movement were skipped and they used that to hide it. This happens to me frequently with a lot of shows, Tiger&Bunny isn't an exception.

[moezilla]

I understand what you're trying to tell me now. I apologize because that's how I do come off in this thread.

But I ask that you don't make implications of what I have and haven't learned. You don't really know me, and that's not fair.

[moezilla]

I meant your comment of showing off about first-year animation, but if you aren't making conclusions there really isn't a problem.

Thank you, I'll keep in mind what you've said.