Yo, new around here, now let's get to business... everything you are about to read has been written by John Kricfalusi on his personal blog where he does awesome rants about animation and teaches awesome shit for free. Now you can check out everything in original here if you want to, or simply continue reading...
I suggest you read the text in its entirety, not skim through it, since it's a good read and you'll definitely find something to titillate your gray matter, especially if you took interest in the Artwork in Western Games thread.
[Article has now also been posted here: http://insomnia.ac/commentary/how_carto ... ff_course/ --ed.]
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How Cartoon Animation Steered Off Course
Moderator: JC Denton
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How Cartoon Animation Steered Off Course
by Nervicide » 08 Mar 2009 16:43
- Nervicide
- Joined: 08 Mar 2009 11:43
by icycalm » 08 Mar 2009 18:14
The parallels between the above and the current state of videogames are striking. I'll see if I can get that guy's permission to repost his article on the frontpage. Thanks for bringing it to my attention -- and welcome to the forum (best self-introduction post yet, by the way -- I lolled).
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icycalm - Hyperborean
- Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
- Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands
by Molloy » 22 Mar 2009 03:45
I remember watching a documentary about Alfred Hitchcock a couple of years ago and there were obvious parallels with gaming too. When he arrived in Hollywood everybody involved in film had an inferiority complex. Movie making was still a new medium that wasn't considered to have any real artistic merit.
This was the period where producers had all the power and the director was dismissed as a lowly technician. The producers were obsessed with creating something worthy and went about this by insisting directors work on novel and play adaptations. Hitchcock argued that the directors during the silent era had developed a language of cinema driven by technical limitations. Cinema didn't have the capacity to ape other mediums in the early days so it played to its own strenghts and became something unique unto itself.
You only have to look at the Oscar nominee list nowadays and see that this line of thinking is still pervasive. This suggests that game publishers wanting to create 'cinematic gaming experiences' is a phenomenon that's not going to dissapear anytime soon.
Perhaps if the revenue model for film, animation and games collapses as sharply as it has for the music industry we'll see a more direct relationship between auteur and consumer with less money and middle men diluting the process. If money is scarce in the future there will be another set of tight limitations that might focus content makers to play to each respective mediums strengths. Only time will tell.
This was the period where producers had all the power and the director was dismissed as a lowly technician. The producers were obsessed with creating something worthy and went about this by insisting directors work on novel and play adaptations. Hitchcock argued that the directors during the silent era had developed a language of cinema driven by technical limitations. Cinema didn't have the capacity to ape other mediums in the early days so it played to its own strenghts and became something unique unto itself.
You only have to look at the Oscar nominee list nowadays and see that this line of thinking is still pervasive. This suggests that game publishers wanting to create 'cinematic gaming experiences' is a phenomenon that's not going to dissapear anytime soon.
Perhaps if the revenue model for film, animation and games collapses as sharply as it has for the music industry we'll see a more direct relationship between auteur and consumer with less money and middle men diluting the process. If money is scarce in the future there will be another set of tight limitations that might focus content makers to play to each respective mediums strengths. Only time will tell.
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Molloy - Joined: 29 Mar 2006 20:40
- Location: Ireland
4 posts
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