What is Animation

RESPONSE TO:
Why Beowulf is Good for Animation
Friday, November 09, 2007 (Animation Magazine)
By: Ryan Ball

Ryan Ball says that Beowulf is good for animation. And he may be right. I have not seen all of Beowulf yet. So I can`t rightly say.

I have very little to argue with Ryan in his statements. At least until I see the full film. But here is something that I will take him to task for.

Was Jim Henson any less of an animator than Chuck Jones just because he chose to work in real-time versus tiny increments? Did his characters feel any less real?

I am afraid that the answer is yes. At least to the first part of the question. Jim Henson was not an animator at all and for that very reason that he worked in real time. He did not create film a frame at a time. For that is what animation is, creating film one frame at a time not recording it.

This does not mean that I hate Jim Henson or his films. In fact I love them because his characters are so real. I wore black for a week when Jim died and I went around singing Its Not Easy Being Green. But that still does not make him an animator.

So the question with motion capture is: was the raw data the last step in the process or did someone use it as a starting point for animation? I like Monster House a lot. Polar Express I can not watch. It comes down to how the tool is used not what the tool is if I will call it animation.

Oh and story. Leave us not forget story. It does not have to be animated to be good it just has to be a good film. Good storytelling is good storytelling. And that is how I plan on looking at Beowulf.