At the studio, I was looking over the shoulder of Kali. She was doing some great work hand animating the shadows created by wrinkles in fabric of one of my characters. I thought about how CG animation has all these very creative people working, but the very medium removes this kind of personal artistic interpretation of how a shadow should fall.

John Lennon was asked once:
When you record, do you go for feeling or precision?

I like both, but I go for feeling.

When I watch a Bakshi, Nick Park, Selnick, Peter Chung piece, I can see their hands in the work. Though I love Nemo and some of the other Pixar and Dreamworks animation, it is the story I’m engaged with. The writing is great. Editing precise. Pacing near perfection. The characters well conceived and excellently acted, but I can’t see the animator’s hand in the work. There is some element of feeling missing. There is a sterility that bothers me. I remember someone saying that modern CG animation is more akin to puppetry or marionettes, but in those traditional versions the hand is so directly tied to the movement the humanity is readily apparent.

I’m not saying there is a lack of artistry in CG. On the contrary, there is so much art and creativity that goes into the process and some of the top animators are working in this form yielding incredible imagery.

Your thoughts?