Blog Entry#2 – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

We tend to recognize animation among films, television shows, or anything we watch, whatever. What about in video games? I’m not saying it’s forgettable but rather it is not as highly appreciated as the ones in films. It is its own separate category.  Games today are trying to become more cinematic making have this film feel to it such as Halo 2, Gears of War, or Bioshock.  From games being in 8-bit format to them being as closely animated as the quality in Pixar. Last year’s 2009 most critically acclaimed was Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The animation brought video games to a whole other level making as if the characters were real. The difference between an animation movie and a video game is instead ofsitting you are playing with several buttons, analog sticks, select, and start.

Sometime last year, Playstation 3 came out with this commercial advertising the game. How the boyfriend tries to tell the PS3 company that his girlfriend think it’s a movie. The head guy says how it has everything of course she would believe that, but it has been two days. “Not an issue”. Even they believe the animation/graphics were so good that it looked like a movie. The developers say that when making this game they used “motion capture” which is something the makers of the film “Avatar” also were using. Naughty Dog got the voice actors to wear motion capture suits so they can capture every single action in their body, faces, everything when making this game. Not only that but they maximized the cells in their game engine making the game have this realistic environment. While comparing it to other games just a few years ago, the advancement on the animation has increased by a lot and IT’S BEEN JUST A FEW YEARS!

From the beginning of the scene there is this master shot where we see the main character Nathan Drake walking in the ice storm. From looking at the camera angle, one could imagine if it was real or not. The facial expressions and the body movements in this game are detailed and ridiculous to how close it looks to the real thing. Animation has advanced not only in the film world, but also to the video game world. The great thing about games like Uncharted 2 is instead of watching it, you’re playing it!

-Chuck

I commented on Nicole A and Mike G.

Blog Entry#1 – Wallace and Gromit

There is always a story about man and man’s best friend, dog. In the animation world, “Wallace and Gromit” is able to show this throughout periods of time. Gromit is a silent dog that grunts, growls, basically he does what a dog does. He is a dog but yet he can build an small airplane and is very useful with electronics. What makes Gromit so peculiar is how he is able to communicate through his facial expressions and body language. It is truly remarkable how the animators is able to get the audience to understand how Gromit feels frame by frame.

In one clip in the film “Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave” Wallace and Gromit are rescuing Wendolene and her sheeps from the evil robot dog Preston. We see how Gromit reacts through his eyes and wherever his eyebrows may be at. When the motorcycle and side car separates Gromit’s eyes risen showing a sign of shock. His eyes especially gets bigger and his head starts to jerk back when hits a sign that says 2,000 feet drop. When the next shot becomes a shot of the bottom of the cliff my reaction is “Oh No!” but yet Gromit reacts fast and presses the buttons on his dashboard in which it becomes an airplane. As for a stop motion animation, it incredible in how they are able to show the characters blink and make it look smooth for it to become a feature film which did receive numerous awards for. To have this story shot frame by frame and for it to hold up with the reactions of Gromit without speaking is a work of art.

Clip from Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave

I commented on Erica and Christen

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!