arcane as a show feels so much more alive and human than most live action movies. the detail in their faces, the imperfections feel so accurate to human expression but not in a 1 :1 way, but more in an impressionist way. their faces FEEL alive rather than reflect real life.
I really enjoy impressionistic art and was really glad to see it in more and more animations. It removes the uncanny valley effect and creates a life of its own.
I wouldn't say that necessarily - Zootopia is a crime film, Lilo & Stitch is a coming of age story, Wreck it Ralph is Adventure... But you are right in that a lot of their movies are pretty similar from each other
@@sotomonte_eventhough the story is manifested in different tropes of storytelling, i think the disney-animation-genre still holds a very key set of characteristics that make them distinct from other genres. In the end it comes down to your definition of genre, i guess 😅
Well this animation is a genre is mostly an American thing. To be honest it's the stuff that gets put out from the States. Most animation projects have a high level of stupidity, humor that's very child-like. Even the so called "adult animation" tend to insult the audience intelligence. In Europe and Japan, animation is used to tell a wide breath of story. It's a very vibrant industry. Hopefully new generation of American artists can elevate the medium like their peers in other countries. I think it's harder in USA just because profits matter more than interesting stories. So you can only tell good story with characters like puss in boots and spiderman. Which becomes very hard to convince casual viewers they're not kid's film.
Strongly disagree. The effort they put into beautiful movies like Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, and Pocahontas. They they moved to 3D animation with Frozen II and Rapunzel and the great detail they put into those movies. They’re used two different forms of art. Many Disney artists inspired the artists on the games. Let’s not pretend they haven’t changed the game. Everyone loves those Disney faces now.
@@jomo2483 partially true partially untrue. paperman and spider verse are both american works. in japan its true that theres a huge variety in subject matter in animation, but in the broader media landscape, anime is largely treated as pulp media and is mostly geared to teen and young adult audiences. animation as a genre is just as real in japan and just like with the US, there are exceptions, but it's unfair to make exceptions the rule for one but not the other
I love this movement of stylized 3D animation. I was getting tired of the same old 3D Disney look, which isn’t BAD but it shouldn’t be our only option. As someone who’s going to school for animation it makes me really excited that more stylized creations are becoming mainstream
As an ilustrator it's always easy to just think of CG as the visible use of 3D while puting animation as where the artistic movement was the principal standpoint. I'm glad to have been educated about how the stylized CGI was more present than I thought.
I’m always worried artists won’t get proper treatment or respect in animation companies like these. Across the spiderverse for example has reportedly had poor working conditions. But hearing that Arcane is owned by an animation studio run by artists is a little more comforting. Just have to hope that artist owned studios mean something
I would have loved to hear what the lady was saying, but her unfortunate audio recording and lack of closed captions had me drop this video since I couldn't follow along. Still, keep it up!
As a technical artist for video game, I approve this video for spreading the knowledge about rendering styles in CGI, even if this is mainly focusing on movies, but many principles and techniques can be applied to games, and vice versa.. Here's hoping the algorithm picking it up further!
This started off and looks like a great video but the spider-verse part is nearly inaudible and i'm struggling to understand what the narrator is saying even with auto-captions. I'd really love to see a more polished version with better audio (and captions) because it is an interesting topic
To put it simply.... People just want to imitate cool stuff from people who makes cool stuff. I got buddies at a design studio and they just imitate the trend that's out there haha
This modern techniques simply gave 3D animation the emotions and feel of a 2D animation. The Pixar style were starting to feel unrealistic even though it is realistic. 2D animation always felt more realistic even though 3D is more realistic.
Because they focus on being expressive over anything else, and can thus carry exactly the feeling they were aiming for without limiting themselves on things that are realist but would not contribute to the readability or the impact of the scene. It's the same reason an impressionist painting of a scenery is generally a lot more moving than a purely technical drawing of the same place. Because it's not just about the actual physical appearance of the place but about the feelings that looking at it brought to the painter.
Awesome video! Animation is so underated and stylized animation more so. Glad big studios like Marvel and Dreamworks are realeasing more stylized animations. Earned a sub :)
When it came to the use of CGI in anime, I'm baffled you guys didn't mention Sunrise. Their CGI compositing compared to Studio Orange looks a lot better. Granted, their early works were very rough, but if you look at the recent love live music videos, it's almost hard to tell what shots use CG. They've been working on this medium for a long time now, and they're getting close to perfecting it. Overall though, this is a great video! Keep up the good work!
I think people prefer Orange studio CGI because their variety in 'what can be CGI' like stone and fur .People talk more about Orange because this studio have a lot techniques to handle many kind of CGI and not only Human form CGI like other studio.
The hand panted texture style started back in 2006 I believe. Around that time I first saw it. This was around the time Gobelins (Can't remember the full name, it's a French animation school) started showing off their students work on youtube and I think the "mac and cheese" tag animated short (either made in 2009-2014 sometime around there, might be able to find the short still on youtube) was the first time the style really took off because after that you kept seeing it all over the place. From still images to animated productions. But then again it's been done before those days also in some form. I will (imo) say that the game studio Arc System Works has peaked with the use of cgi cell shaded lookI haven't seen anything better Don't think there can be. I say this only from watching the Arc Systems GDC of the guilty gear strive.
@@aqualust5016 Texture painting started in the 90's but the stylized look of brush strokes which I'm referring and is the topic of the video was from 2000's. I actually did search back for the Mac and Cheese video too. Nice short. th-cam.com/video/MUwnVA6GNXo/w-d-xo.html
Arcane and spiderverse were definitely fresh air they felt like paintings coming to life the animation was so fluid and lifelike and beautiful which was definitely a good step back from all the Disney stuff that looks exactly the same
Its quite funny that i just recently wrote a bachelor thesis on 3D stylization and how the classic pixar look differentiates from smth like spider-verse.
Hmm, guess i'm not having the same issues as others, because I can understand all narrators just fine. Thanks for such a detailed video. It was very enlightening.
I thought Trigger's CG was almost exclusively handled by Studio Sanzigen? They used to share a building (although i don't know if they do anymore, because Trigger moved offices). The "Making of Kill La Kill" doc has some really cool examples of very stylized CG that initially fooled me into believing it was 2d on top of 3D backgrounds, but that is actually overwhelmingly CG.
@@_ywrthe For some reason, i can only find part 2/3. However, it has the examples of stylized 3d i was talking about, around 8-9 minutes in. th-cam.com/video/P17l7VlWBE8/w-d-xo.html
This is such a well interesting and well-informed video! People tend to focus a lot on the negative side of modern animation and the general perception by mainstream media, as well as the poor treatment the art-form seems to be receiving by the industry of entertainment, so it is incredibly nice and refreshing to stumble upon content that simply sets out to *celebrate* animation as we have it today. There have been so many breathtaking projects in recent years, and I can't wait to see where all of this artistic progress, exploration and experimentation will take us next. I didn't know much about Orange, and I watched both Beastars and Houseki no Kuni (unfinished) without a clue about the studio behind both series. I am now so curious about that latest project from them, it looks amazing!! that's exactly what I've been dreaming CG anime to look like for as long as I can remember Big extra kudos for bringing forward so many remarkable examples. Also, I don't know if it counts, exactly, since it's 2D, but Klaus was also a unique movie in terms of visual stylisation in modern animation, creating a sort of illusive blend of 2D and 3D elements, by rendering with colors in that particularly eye-catching way. Between that and everything else on this list, as well as upcoming movies and series that look very promising (like that Mutant Ninja Turtles one) it certainly feels like a new golden age in animation. PS: nice Revali pfp, I won't say that alone won over my like.... but it did play a part lol
(Honest feedback) The essay is great, but some of the voiceovers are rather distracting (at least, for me). I can get over the heavy accents, but the low volume and soft female voices are so.... distinctive, they required a bit too much mental effort to understand what they were saying.
Great to see you upload Soto! I am really happy with your coverage of 3D in anime. I think loads of people discard 3D all together because they only remember the bad examples. I like that you pointed out the examples where it works really well.
It's because of the infamy of 3D why there are fewer trash in the market, it's a wasted opportunity, Did you ever see a remake of berserk or Ajin? On average 3D is usually seen as lazy and is automated by the computer, if anyone can get their models and render settings, anyone can make them with some trial and error. There are already tons of assets for Unity and Blender that mimics NPR, Ghibli, anime if not stylized look. Lastly it's arrogance and presumptuous to say everyone only remembered the bad examples.
@@MangaGamified Apologies if I came off as arrogant. However, I didn’t say “everyone only remembers the bad examples”. I instead said “I think loads of people discard 3D all together because they only remember the bad examples”. I’m not sure if we actually disagree on anything, as I wasn’t sure if the first half of your comment was critical of something I said or if you were just informing me. Do let me know if I am missing something ❤️
@@cameron2538 I mean atleast from what I understood for years, people give extra hate and mention to 3D cause it's usually "touch move" a term for chess in my country were you touch a piece, you need to move it. It means as I've tried to say before, it will never have another anime of it, it's like the complete total opposite of western studious/industry, they remake already good if not perfect movies, while in the east they never remake/remaster bad ones, say Ajin and Berserk. This may be presumptuous but I can even say, mentioning bad ones was really intentional cause of the "one touch one move" thing in the eastern studios, one makes an anime/movie out of it, no one studio will ever take it again(even if the anime is good or bad) Some of us also understood that it's not all the animators fault, it's mostly the decision-maker's fault keeping pushing deadlines, so the fastest way is thru 3D, it's kinda funny, why anime sells cause it's hand drawn and the like and not cartoons made by like Cartoon Animator 5 by Reallusion, etc, now they push automation into it. They just want to push mass production mass shortcut wherever people flock tired from mass produced mass shortcut lazy 3D, decision maker deadline pushers stuff.
9:42 I had assumed mocap was central to the production of this music video in particular, its really eye opening to learn that it wasnt!! Even if it were rotoscoped, the animation really hits a sweet spot of being fluid and sharp edit: i made this comment in the middle of watching this video, and keep learning new things about project I felt relatively familiar with. Beastars for example using facial mocap software to help animate their *animal* characters is really interesting!!
Thank you so much for this video - it's so in-depth and thorough. You really have brought out a lot of the thought and ideas behind production choices in a way that is easy to understand and very well illustrated. I will def. be researching the references that you have put in there. Thank you again for such a well put together and thought provoking video - excellent, just excellent video.
There's a great video from New Frame Plus about animation of ArcSystemworks videogames, absolutely recommending checking that since Guilty Gear Xrd feels like a massive milestone in stylized 3D.
Amazing and super informative video, I enjoyed every second. and i loved the narration, it was very calm and humble sounding, unlike the rest of the internet.
I’m calling it right now. Disney will start working its way back to the look and feel of “One Hundred and One Dalmations” (1961). Not necessarily full 2D animation, of course. But the thick black Xerox outlines mashed up with 3D animation. You’ll see….
As a follow up question, what are your thoughts on the advent of Generative AI and the impact it might have on modern animation going forward? I feel as if it’s not going away, and not just because several industries currently see Generative AI as potential time-savers, but also because the newest generation of the world will probably grow up surrounded by Generative AI and will most likely be very accepting of its uses.
2D animation & practical effects did wonder's for creative storytelling. From the 80's-00's we had such well made stories & animation. We had creative ways to show expressions, emotions, give the audience feelings without overly explaining it. I really miss it all. So much now is just bland green screen CGI disconnected hollow movie's/TV shows. *(If you would have told kid me back in the early 90s that most animation in media would basically disappear. I wouldn't have believed you and gone back to watching X-Men the animated series. That was just 1 of many animated shows that was so well crafted. The story of mutants was so universally relatable. Media abstractly taught me life lessons, touched on difficult situations, found intelligent ways to tell stories. So much so that when I've gone back & rewatched them as a adult. I realized how well they told & crafted stories that anyone can enjoy & appreciate them no matter what age they are. Great examples are (Pretty much anything created by Don Bluth or Written by Roald Dahl) The Brave little toaster, James and the giant peach, The never ending story, Rocko's modern life, Jumanji, Hook, The secret of the Nimh, Sword and the stone, black cauldron, Little Nemo and the adventures of Slumberland, beetle juice, Alice in wonderland, Rock-a-doodle, Captain Planet, Thundercats, He-man, Spawn, Batman, Batman beyond, toxic crusaders, Matilda, The BFG, Ren and stimpy, courage the cowardly dog, magic school bus, Dexter's laboratory, pinky and the brain, I am weasel, IR Baboon, Ah! Real monster's, goosebumps, are you afraid of the dark, pee wee's playhouse, she-ra warrior princess, cow & chicken, gargoyle's, power rangers, TMNT, the Indian in the cupboard, Addams family, toy soldier's, honey I shrunk the kid's, wild thornberries, hey Arnold, angry beaver's, Flintstones, the Jetsons, Kablam, So many more I won't list them all but they had such creative range. So many ways of telling stories. So many types of creatures, unique worlds, weird things, macabre things. I loved how we used to embrace those things. Nowadays everything is so bland or Shallow live action version's filed with nonsense & hollowness because it wants to be "realistic" I miss the Era of creativity, of animated series, of things that made us utilize our intelligence. Artistic depictions of the Human condition that connects us on a deeper level. No matter what kind of character, creature, specie's they are. I seriously don't understand who can enjoy these modern live action movies. Filled with so much disconnected CGI. Cheap cop out writing, acting, storytelling that is treating our entire audience like they are 2 yr olds that just need a pair of shiney keys waved in front of them for entertainment... it's a very bland & soulless way to entertain... Seeing how things are nowadays, i feel so lucky that i got to grow up in the 90's. Back then I never could have guessed that things would have changed the ways they did. It was such a great time to be a kid. The world seemed to have so many creative ways kids, teens and adults could all enjoy themselves. Entertaining movies with practical effects. Animated movies/shows galore. If they used CGI it was used intelligently. I really miss the Vibe of that Era. The creativity that came from that era. I really hope we find a way to reconnect with it because the world seems like it really needs it right now. I mean just look at the aesthetics compared to now? Things have somehow become so bland, bleek, and minimalism that it doesn't even make since. Most Old house's/building's/uúnique shop's are gone. Interesting oddities like drive in movies, indoor fun zones, arcade's, magazines that came with a demo disc to try out game's, blockbuster/Hollywood video, McDonald's had N64's, you could preview music before buying it, they had great kid's toy's, Roller Rink's, Garbage pale kid's card's. You get the point. I want to reignite that feel sort of like Retro-Futurism or that Y2K Vibe compared to this current Dystopian pessimism that seems solely focused purely on capitalistic agendas. Our Quality of Life should be better than this.
so you like things just because they're old, if The Secrets of NIMH would have released today i bet you would hate it just because its recent even though it's the same thing
It’s more than a little frustrating to see people mention arcane when bringing up the rise of more distinct styles in 3d animation, league has been doing cinematic in that exact style for the better part of near decade with the same studio at the helm before taking on arcane as a more ambitious project.
This Is so Informative, but where did you guy's get your Info? I tried looking for a Wikipedia link In your description, but didn't see anything. I really find this style captivating, and just want to learn more. Thank you for the video : P
This is a great video, but the second narrator is really hard to understand. They have a really wispy and friendly voice, but it's really hard to understand. :(
It wasn’t until the video title that I thought National Public Radio and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Two things that don’t mix well. Random share. I’m enjoying this video :)
I cannot get behind the new Spiderverse/Puss in Boots/TMNT animation style. Changing up frame rates constantly is really distracting and doesn't read well to some, myself definitely included. I think it's overplayed by the media to keep people in seats at the theaters.
I'll be honest, the script might be interesting, but I think you need a better microphone, because I have trouble focusing on your voice, or there might be too much echo where you're recording. Your current microphone registers pops (you could fix it by putting a bit of a sponge in top of the microphone, if you use a microphone from a phone or headphones, for example, and then using noise removal filters while editing the video/audio. If you're recording the audio on Windows, you could record it using OBS (Open Broadcast System), which is mainly used for livestreaming and recording videos for free, which has a way to add noise-removal filters to the microphone, which might help a bit. Just click on the 3 dots to the right of the volume slider of the Mic/Aux, click Filters, click the plus sign + in the bottom-left corner, click Noise Suppression, and either use the Method setting without a slider, or the Method setting with the slider all the way to the left (i.e. showing -60 dB), then you can go to the settings to choose where to save the recording, then you can start recording (and even pause the recording and resume it, when you need to). For the echo, you could try recording on your bed with a blanket over you, so the blanket dampens the sound of the echo.
@@sotomonte_ I understand. But even without the best setups, there are methods of editing the audio which makes easier to understand what you're saying.
Also, I’ve been scrolling through the comments and I’m surprised by the negativity. don’t let dumbass comments get to you. I know exactly how it feels. Like no matter what, talking about art in general will bring some of the most insane people. On my last video for example, I got plenty of comments attacking me personally, rather than the content of the art. Anyways, AMAZING video. Truly the most in depth video about animation I’ve seen and lots of work went into it. One of my favorite video essays.
Arc System works recently have also put an emphasis on stylized CGI, their first venture into this was Guilty Gear XRD and later down the line Dragon Ball FighterZ, and then you have their most recent game Guilty Gear Strive. Have you made a video discussing their animation techniques? I think they are worth noting.
Well as a 90s kid, who grew up on everything except League of Legends and forced up media-brushes. Arcane is not my taste. I think studios betrayed classical animation and many years it will take for mastery of the old techniques to re-emerge. Even though 3d has its benefits and it is one of my bread earners, I still understand classic techniques outclass it in an artistic sense. To me though, it's not about layering stylized brush effects and seeking realism that makes a good animation, it's about mood, tonality and appeal. Stylized doesn't mean it will appeal all the time. For instance I would rather watch a classic cartoon animation like The Secrets of NIMH (1982) over Arcane. The masters of old were just that great, and no amount of tech can buy context, circumstances and living in a different time period for an author, it just makes it hit that much harder. Much like videogames of the late 90s hit the emotional center a lot more than 2020s games do to older fans, you were there so you kind of feel them.
so you like things just because they're old, if The Secrets of NIMH would have released today i bet you would hate it just because its recent even though it's the same thing
stop talking about Spiderman OMG the animation looks absolutely terrible? if you think that's good animation ... there is no hope for you
Thanks for sharing Jessica
Why is it terrible exactly?
@@dwight_animations6742 it look too different from realism therefore badd
@@antran2057 Yeah that is what she is definetley thinking
We have a karen.
arcane as a show feels so much more alive and human than most live action movies. the detail in their faces, the imperfections feel so accurate to human expression but not in a 1 :1 way, but more in an impressionist way. their faces FEEL alive rather than reflect real life.
Agreed, that show is phenomenal
I really enjoy impressionistic art and was really glad to see it in more and more animations. It removes the uncanny valley effect and creates a life of its own.
Post-realism is a more accurate description for Arcane; making things look like real life with an extra flare.
Disney treats animation as a genre, whereas Sony, Fortiche, and a growing number of other studios treat it as a medium
I wouldn't say that necessarily - Zootopia is a crime film, Lilo & Stitch is a coming of age story, Wreck it Ralph is Adventure... But you are right in that a lot of their movies are pretty similar from each other
@@sotomonte_eventhough the story is manifested in different tropes of storytelling, i think the disney-animation-genre still holds a very key set of characteristics that make them distinct from other genres. In the end it comes down to your definition of genre, i guess 😅
Well this animation is a genre is mostly an American thing. To be honest it's the stuff that gets put out from the States. Most animation projects have a high level of stupidity, humor that's very child-like. Even the so called "adult animation" tend to insult the audience intelligence. In Europe and Japan, animation is used to tell a wide breath of story. It's a very vibrant industry. Hopefully new generation of American artists can elevate the medium like their peers in other countries. I think it's harder in USA just because profits matter more than interesting stories. So you can only tell good story with characters like puss in boots and spiderman. Which becomes very hard to convince casual viewers they're not kid's film.
Strongly disagree. The effort they put into beautiful movies like Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, and Pocahontas. They they moved to 3D animation with Frozen II and Rapunzel and the great detail they put into those movies. They’re used two different forms of art. Many Disney artists inspired the artists on the games. Let’s not pretend they haven’t changed the game. Everyone loves those Disney faces now.
@@jomo2483 partially true partially untrue. paperman and spider verse are both american works. in japan its true that theres a huge variety in subject matter in animation, but in the broader media landscape, anime is largely treated as pulp media and is mostly geared to teen and young adult audiences. animation as a genre is just as real in japan and just like with the US, there are exceptions, but it's unfair to make exceptions the rule for one but not the other
I love this movement of stylized 3D animation. I was getting tired of the same old 3D Disney look, which isn’t BAD but it shouldn’t be our only option. As someone who’s going to school for animation it makes me really excited that more stylized creations are becoming mainstream
I'm on the same boat! very exciting indeed :)
As an ilustrator it's always easy to just think of CG as the visible use of 3D while puting animation as where the artistic movement was the principal standpoint. I'm glad to have been educated about how the stylized CGI was more present than I thought.
I’m always worried artists won’t get proper treatment or respect in animation companies like these. Across the spiderverse for example has reportedly had poor working conditions. But hearing that Arcane is owned by an animation studio run by artists is a little more comforting. Just have to hope that artist owned studios mean something
Yeah, I agree
I would have loved to hear what the lady was saying, but her unfortunate audio recording and lack of closed captions had me drop this video since I couldn't follow along. Still, keep it up!
20:40 Trigun Stampede was such a marvel 😭 I loved watching it a lot and hadn’t had that much fun with an anime in a long time. ❤
As a technical artist for video game, I approve this video for spreading the knowledge about rendering styles in CGI, even if this is mainly focusing on movies, but many principles and techniques can be applied to games, and vice versa.. Here's hoping the algorithm picking it up further!
This started off and looks like a great video but the spider-verse part is nearly inaudible and i'm struggling to understand what the narrator is saying even with auto-captions. I'd really love to see a more polished version with better audio (and captions) because it is an interesting topic
This. Had to stop watching.
To put it simply....
People just want to imitate cool stuff from people who makes cool stuff. I got buddies at a design studio and they just imitate the trend that's out there haha
Squash and stretch and smear frames are always fun to watch when done right?
One thing we always lacked in 3D animation
Reading all of these comments is so encouraging, thanks for all of the kind words!! 💖
THIS VIDEO IS CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED
Thanks!!😁
The thumbnail and title don't do this video justice.
Hence it's criminally underrated.
This modern techniques simply gave 3D animation the emotions and feel of a 2D animation.
The Pixar style were starting to feel unrealistic even though it is realistic. 2D animation always felt more realistic even though 3D is more realistic.
Because they focus on being expressive over anything else, and can thus carry exactly the feeling they were aiming for without limiting themselves on things that are realist but would not contribute to the readability or the impact of the scene.
It's the same reason an impressionist painting of a scenery is generally a lot more moving than a purely technical drawing of the same place. Because it's not just about the actual physical appearance of the place but about the feelings that looking at it brought to the painter.
Thank you for putting subtitles on this!
Awesome video! Animation is so underated and stylized animation more so. Glad big studios like Marvel and Dreamworks are realeasing more stylized animations. Earned a sub :)
When it came to the use of CGI in anime, I'm baffled you guys didn't mention Sunrise. Their CGI compositing compared to Studio Orange looks a lot better. Granted, their early works were very rough, but if you look at the recent love live music videos, it's almost hard to tell what shots use CG. They've been working on this medium for a long time now, and they're getting close to perfecting it.
Overall though, this is a great video! Keep up the good work!
I think people prefer Orange studio CGI because their variety in 'what can be CGI' like stone and fur .People talk more about Orange because this studio have a lot techniques to handle many kind of CGI and not only Human form CGI like other studio.
Really awesome and educational video! I'm happy 3D animation is going towards this stylized route and this video really helped explain it in depth! :D
Belle is another anime film, whose 3d style was very expressive.
arcane and spider-verse changed the game and started a new era
Get ready across the spiderverse coming to grace us with more stylized animation goodness
Great video but the voiceover's audio quality for the spiderverse part was horrible I couldn't watch all the way through
one of the best if not the best video essay currently on the topic, keep it up
This has become my new favorite essay on animation. you filled all the boxes thank you very much.
woah, this means a lot, thanks Henrik!!
The hand panted texture style started back in 2006 I believe. Around that time I first saw it. This was around the time Gobelins (Can't remember the full name, it's a French animation school) started showing off their students work on youtube and I think the "mac and cheese" tag animated short (either made in 2009-2014 sometime around there, might be able to find the short still on youtube) was the first time the style really took off because after that you kept seeing it all over the place. From still images to animated productions. But then again it's been done before those days also in some form. I will (imo) say that the game studio Arc System Works has peaked with the use of cgi cell shaded lookI haven't seen anything better Don't think there can be. I say this only from watching the Arc Systems GDC of the guilty gear strive.
It started in video games back in the 90s
@@aqualust5016 Texture painting started in the 90's but the stylized look of brush strokes which I'm referring and is the topic of the video was from 2000's. I actually did search back for the Mac and Cheese video too. Nice short.
th-cam.com/video/MUwnVA6GNXo/w-d-xo.html
Arcane and spiderverse were definitely fresh air they felt like paintings coming to life the animation was so fluid and lifelike and beautiful which was definitely a good step back from all the Disney stuff that looks exactly the same
Its quite funny that i just recently wrote a bachelor thesis on 3D stylization and how the classic pixar look differentiates from smth like spider-verse.
Oh! I would love to check it out if possible. Thanks for the comment!
@@sotomonte_ oh! Thats very nice to hear, but its in german sadly :v (also no idea yet if its even is any good lmao)
@@DandeDingus Ah, gotcha :) no worries!
Hmm, guess i'm not having the same issues as others, because I can understand all narrators just fine. Thanks for such a detailed video. It was very enlightening.
while this was interesting, i couldn't understand all of what the female speaker said
Lol glad to see I’m not the only one. Her audio is pretty muffled.
Yeah, sorry for that!
@@sotomonte_ happens lol. Not the end of the world and you guys can catch it next time 🙂
I thought Trigger's CG was almost exclusively handled by Studio Sanzigen? They used to share a building (although i don't know if they do anymore, because Trigger moved offices). The "Making of Kill La Kill" doc has some really cool examples of very stylized CG that initially fooled me into believing it was 2d on top of 3D backgrounds, but that is actually overwhelmingly CG.
Oh, that's really interesting, do you have links to the documentaries or sources for that? I would like to dig deeper into the topic
@@_ywrthe For some reason, i can only find part 2/3. However, it has the examples of stylized 3d i was talking about, around 8-9 minutes in.
th-cam.com/video/P17l7VlWBE8/w-d-xo.html
This is such a well interesting and well-informed video! People tend to focus a lot on the negative side of modern animation and the general perception by mainstream media, as well as the poor treatment the art-form seems to be receiving by the industry of entertainment, so it is incredibly nice and refreshing to stumble upon content that simply sets out to *celebrate* animation as we have it today. There have been so many breathtaking projects in recent years, and I can't wait to see where all of this artistic progress, exploration and experimentation will take us next. I didn't know much about Orange, and I watched both Beastars and Houseki no Kuni (unfinished) without a clue about the studio behind both series. I am now so curious about that latest project from them, it looks amazing!! that's exactly what I've been dreaming CG anime to look like for as long as I can remember
Big extra kudos for bringing forward so many remarkable examples. Also, I don't know if it counts, exactly, since it's 2D, but Klaus was also a unique movie in terms of visual stylisation in modern animation, creating a sort of illusive blend of 2D and 3D elements, by rendering with colors in that particularly eye-catching way. Between that and everything else on this list, as well as upcoming movies and series that look very promising (like that Mutant Ninja Turtles one) it certainly feels like a new golden age in animation.
PS: nice Revali pfp, I won't say that alone won over my like.... but it did play a part lol
This video deserves much much more views, I swear
This is freaking pure gold, I can not believe it's free on TH-cam, damn mman👁️👄👁️
Arcane and Beastars Is my favorites. Beastars was amazing in CGI I love the us of shadow and lighting. Arcane was beautiful.
Love your video essay❤❤❤ definitely have put a lot of effort into it
Looking forward for more
(Honest feedback) The essay is great, but some of the voiceovers are rather distracting (at least, for me). I can get over the heavy accents, but the low volume and soft female voices are so.... distinctive, they required a bit too much mental effort to understand what they were saying.
Great to see you upload Soto! I am really happy with your coverage of 3D in anime. I think loads of people discard 3D all together because they only remember the bad examples. I like that you pointed out the examples where it works really well.
Thanks for the kind words!
It's because of the infamy of 3D why there are fewer trash in the market, it's a wasted opportunity, Did you ever see a remake of berserk or Ajin? On average 3D is usually seen as lazy and is automated by the computer, if anyone can get their models and render settings, anyone can make them with some trial and error. There are already tons of assets for Unity and Blender that mimics NPR, Ghibli, anime if not stylized look.
Lastly it's arrogance and presumptuous to say everyone only remembered the bad examples.
@@MangaGamified Apologies if I came off as arrogant. However, I didn’t say “everyone only remembers the bad examples”. I instead said “I think loads of people discard 3D all together because they only remember the bad examples”.
I’m not sure if we actually disagree on anything, as I wasn’t sure if the first half of your comment was critical of something I said or if you were just informing me. Do let me know if I am missing something ❤️
@@cameron2538 I mean atleast from what I understood for years, people give extra hate and mention to 3D cause it's usually "touch move" a term for chess in my country were you touch a piece, you need to move it. It means as I've tried to say before, it will never have another anime of it, it's like the complete total opposite of western studious/industry, they remake already good if not perfect movies, while in the east they never remake/remaster bad ones, say Ajin and Berserk.
This may be presumptuous but I can even say, mentioning bad ones was really intentional cause of the "one touch one move" thing in the eastern studios, one makes an anime/movie out of it, no one studio will ever take it again(even if the anime is good or bad)
Some of us also understood that it's not all the animators fault, it's mostly the decision-maker's fault keeping pushing deadlines, so the fastest way is thru 3D, it's kinda funny, why anime sells cause it's hand drawn and the like and not cartoons made by like Cartoon Animator 5 by Reallusion, etc, now they push automation into it.
They just want to push mass production mass shortcut wherever people flock tired from mass produced mass shortcut lazy 3D, decision maker deadline pushers stuff.
Excellent video. I was expecting a mention for Paperman.
9:42 I had assumed mocap was central to the production of this music video in particular, its really eye opening to learn that it wasnt!! Even if it were rotoscoped, the animation really hits a sweet spot of being fluid and sharp
edit: i made this comment in the middle of watching this video, and keep learning new things about project I felt relatively familiar with. Beastars for example using facial mocap software to help animate their *animal* characters is really interesting!!
it is! Thanks for sharing your thoughts 😄
it's definitely interesting how hard it is to make a 3d animation feel the way traditional 2d does.
So good this video, i love being part of this generation that`is living this revolution in the animation, love the video
Thank you so much for this video - it's so in-depth and thorough. You really have brought out a lot of the thought and ideas behind production choices in a way that is easy to understand and very well illustrated.
I will def. be researching the references that you have put in there.
Thank you again for such a well put together and thought provoking video - excellent, just excellent video.
oh man, that's awesome to read!! Thanks for the compliment and I'm glad it peaked your interest
Big Arcane fan mate, well done
There's a great video from New Frame Plus about animation of ArcSystemworks videogames, absolutely recommending checking that since Guilty Gear Xrd feels like a massive milestone in stylized 3D.
Entergalactic and arcane were released before spider verse and in my opinion they were the precursor of that kind of style
no, this is not true. Spiderverse came out in 2018, Arcane in 2021, and Entertalactic in 2022
@@sotomonte_ my bad, didint know that
A very great video! I've seen many videos about npr but none that go so in depth about it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing and super informative video, I enjoyed every second. and i loved the narration, it was very calm and humble sounding, unlike the rest of the internet.
Thanks so much!! Appreciate the comment :)
job well done. watched it in one breath
Thanks so much!
Dude your content is dope...love it
Thanks!
the jojo effect
omg this video is a banger congrats guys!!
cant believe i finished this 25 mintues video, quite informative and inspirational
I love this video! Hope it gets more love!!!
that opening animation😭
wow this was so insightful and actually informative💜
This video essay could really use some credits in the description for all the people that worked on this!
Thanks for explaining the difference between PBR and NPR. I definitely prefer the more stylized look of NPR.
I love both, but yeah, recently I'm diggin' NPR!! It's just refreshing to see after so many movies choosing the other style
Greg told us about your video essay doing good in TH-cam lmao
Say hi to Greg! 💫✨
I’m calling it right now. Disney will start working its way back to the look and feel of “One Hundred and One Dalmations” (1961). Not necessarily full 2D animation, of course. But the thick black Xerox outlines mashed up with 3D animation. You’ll see….
22:10 I just couldn't find this software(Camera-o-matic) does anyone where I can find that ?
Highly informative video. Thank you so much for providing this content!
As a follow up question, what are your thoughts on the advent of Generative AI and the impact it might have on modern animation going forward? I feel as if it’s not going away, and not just because several industries currently see Generative AI as potential time-savers, but also because the newest generation of the world will probably grow up surrounded by Generative AI and will most likely be very accepting of its uses.
2:50 It's written as "Phenomenon", not "Fenomenon".
what shader did they use in 3ds max? they didnt use arnold shader, did they? (i am an animator myself but just 2 years in the industry)
2D animation & practical effects did wonder's for creative storytelling. From the 80's-00's we had such well made stories & animation. We had creative ways to show expressions, emotions, give the audience feelings without overly explaining it. I really miss it all. So much now is just bland green screen CGI disconnected hollow movie's/TV shows. *(If you would have told kid me back in the early 90s that most animation in media would basically disappear. I wouldn't have believed you and gone back to watching X-Men the animated series. That was just 1 of many animated shows that was so well crafted. The story of mutants was so universally relatable. Media abstractly taught me life lessons, touched on difficult situations, found intelligent ways to tell stories. So much so that when I've gone back & rewatched them as a adult. I realized how well they told & crafted stories that anyone can enjoy & appreciate them no matter what age they are. Great examples are (Pretty much anything created by Don Bluth or Written by Roald Dahl) The Brave little toaster, James and the giant peach, The never ending story, Rocko's modern life, Jumanji, Hook, The secret of the Nimh, Sword and the stone, black cauldron, Little Nemo and the adventures of Slumberland, beetle juice, Alice in wonderland, Rock-a-doodle, Captain Planet, Thundercats, He-man, Spawn, Batman, Batman beyond, toxic crusaders, Matilda, The BFG, Ren and stimpy, courage the cowardly dog, magic school bus, Dexter's laboratory, pinky and the brain, I am weasel, IR Baboon, Ah! Real monster's, goosebumps, are you afraid of the dark, pee wee's playhouse, she-ra warrior princess, cow & chicken, gargoyle's, power rangers, TMNT, the Indian in the cupboard, Addams family, toy soldier's, honey I shrunk the kid's, wild thornberries, hey Arnold, angry beaver's, Flintstones, the Jetsons, Kablam, So many more I won't list them all but they had such creative range. So many ways of telling stories. So many types of creatures, unique worlds, weird things, macabre things. I loved how we used to embrace those things. Nowadays everything is so bland or Shallow live action version's filed with nonsense & hollowness because it wants to be "realistic" I miss the Era of creativity, of animated series, of things that made us utilize our intelligence. Artistic depictions of the Human condition that connects us on a deeper level. No matter what kind of character, creature, specie's they are. I seriously don't understand who can enjoy these modern live action movies. Filled with so much disconnected CGI. Cheap cop out writing, acting, storytelling that is treating our entire audience like they are 2 yr olds that just need a pair of shiney keys waved in front of them for entertainment... it's a very bland & soulless way to entertain... Seeing how things are nowadays, i feel so lucky that i got to grow up in the 90's. Back then I never could have guessed that things would have changed the ways they did. It was such a great time to be a kid. The world seemed to have so many creative ways kids, teens and adults could all enjoy themselves. Entertaining movies with practical effects. Animated movies/shows galore. If they used CGI it was used intelligently. I really miss the Vibe of that Era. The creativity that came from that era. I really hope we find a way to reconnect with it because the world seems like it really needs it right now. I mean just look at the aesthetics compared to now? Things have somehow become so bland, bleek, and minimalism that it doesn't even make since. Most Old house's/building's/uúnique shop's are gone. Interesting oddities like drive in movies, indoor fun zones, arcade's, magazines that came with a demo disc to try out game's, blockbuster/Hollywood video, McDonald's had N64's, you could preview music before buying it, they had great kid's toy's, Roller Rink's, Garbage pale kid's card's. You get the point. I want to reignite that feel sort of like Retro-Futurism or that Y2K Vibe compared to this current Dystopian pessimism that seems solely focused purely on capitalistic agendas. Our Quality of Life should be better than this.
so you like things just because they're old, if The Secrets of NIMH would have released today i bet you would hate it just because its recent even though it's the same thing
It’s more than a little frustrating to see people mention arcane when bringing up the rise of more distinct styles in 3d animation, league has been doing cinematic in that exact style for the better part of near decade with the same studio at the helm before taking on arcane as a more ambitious project.
This Is so Informative, but where did you guy's get your Info? I tried looking for a Wikipedia link In your description, but didn't see anything. I really find this style captivating, and just want to learn more. Thank you for the video : P
This is a great video, but the second narrator is really hard to understand. They have a really wispy and friendly voice, but it's really hard to understand. :(
It wasn’t until the video title that I thought National Public Radio and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Two things that don’t mix well. Random share. I’m enjoying this video :)
I cannot get behind the new Spiderverse/Puss in Boots/TMNT animation style. Changing up frame rates constantly is really distracting and doesn't read well to some, myself definitely included. I think it's overplayed by the media to keep people in seats at the theaters.
I'll be honest, the script might be interesting, but I think you need a better microphone, because I have trouble focusing on your voice, or there might be too much echo where you're recording. Your current microphone registers pops (you could fix it by putting a bit of a sponge in top of the microphone, if you use a microphone from a phone or headphones, for example, and then using noise removal filters while editing the video/audio. If you're recording the audio on Windows, you could record it using OBS (Open Broadcast System), which is mainly used for livestreaming and recording videos for free, which has a way to add noise-removal filters to the microphone, which might help a bit. Just click on the 3 dots to the right of the volume slider of the Mic/Aux, click Filters, click the plus sign + in the bottom-left corner, click Noise Suppression, and either use the Method setting without a slider, or the Method setting with the slider all the way to the left (i.e. showing -60 dB), then you can go to the settings to choose where to save the recording, then you can start recording (and even pause the recording and resume it, when you need to). For the echo, you could try recording on your bed with a blanket over you, so the blanket dampens the sound of the echo.
Thanks for the feedback, each person in the video had their own setups and unfortunately some of us didn't have the best sound quality.
@@sotomonte_ I understand. But even without the best setups, there are methods of editing the audio which makes easier to understand what you're saying.
Kamikaze Douga's Batman Ninja and StarWars VISIONS didn't get mention?
because people see Arcane and Spiderverse and think "hey i can ape this shit"
good things get copied for all the wrong reasons a lot of the time sadly
very nice soto :]
NEW technology of drawing 2d lines in 3D [laughs in blender]
Also, I’ve been scrolling through the comments and I’m surprised by the negativity. don’t let dumbass comments get to you. I know exactly how it feels. Like no matter what, talking about art in general will bring some of the most insane people. On my last video for example, I got plenty of comments attacking me personally, rather than the content of the art.
Anyways, AMAZING video. Truly the most in depth video about animation I’ve seen and lots of work went into it. One of my favorite video essays.
Arc System works recently have also put an emphasis on stylized CGI, their first venture into this was Guilty Gear XRD and later down the line Dragon Ball FighterZ, and then you have their most recent game Guilty Gear Strive. Have you made a video discussing their animation techniques? I think they are worth noting.
I haven't but it sounds interesting!
and then there's the 2d shading fom fortnite...
Amazing Video!!
I am shocked this only has 478 views
It's a small channel :) thanks for the comment!!
Wii homebrew channel lets gooooo
good catch!! ;)
youtube recommender W for poppin this up on my feed
I end up with video on girl part. It's imposible to understand
вери рашен войс-оверс
This was awesome
Thanks for the video !
Thank YOU!!!
anyone knows the animation at 7:11 . Can't find it anywhere. Thanks in advance!
Crazy Video keep it going 🔥🔥🔥
It took them 25 years to realize that cartoons should look like cartoons
Such an informative video. Thank you
Well as a 90s kid, who grew up on everything except League of Legends and forced up media-brushes. Arcane is not my taste. I think studios betrayed classical animation and many years it will take for mastery of the old techniques to re-emerge. Even though 3d has its benefits and it is one of my bread earners, I still understand classic techniques outclass it in an artistic sense. To me though, it's not about layering stylized brush effects and seeking realism that makes a good animation, it's about mood, tonality and appeal. Stylized doesn't mean it will appeal all the time.
For instance I would rather watch a classic cartoon animation like The Secrets of NIMH (1982) over Arcane. The masters of old were just that great, and no amount of tech can buy context, circumstances and living in a different time period for an author, it just makes it hit that much harder.
Much like videogames of the late 90s hit the emotional center a lot more than 2020s games do to older fans, you were there so you kind of feel them.
This is an interesting perspective. Thanks for the comment!
so you like things just because they're old, if The Secrets of NIMH would have released today i bet you would hate it just because its recent even though it's the same thing
good video 🙏🏼
what an excellent video!
It's a really good video but please work on the sound in your videos, every voice was muffled it's really hard to listen
*4:25** I can't understand what she is saying. Am I the only one having hard time understanding the female voiceover.*
sorry 😅
You’re not the only one lol. Her audio is pretty muffled in this section of the video
super muffled and her speech cadence is very hard to follow
Spiderverse and Arcane
Hi nice video ! 🔥 I wonder why this video is underrated 😔🤙
pov: you notice that this channel has 300 subs
no Doroheadorro ?
Awesome essay, but the bit about Spiderverse was unwatchable because of the narrator incoherent voice.
sorry about that!