The Art of Pixel Performers

scriptedfun writes "The BBC features the growing role of computer graphics in movies, but points out that it is still the human actors behind the CG characters which make them alive. From the article: 'It seems that the performance artist can still bring something to a performance, which [ a CG ] artist cannot.'"

Comments

Cartoons and pixels

[Henry V .009]

John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy, keeps an awesome blog that deals with this topic from time to time. I think that he'd suggest that artistic craft and technique can add a whole lot of reality to the performances of cartoon criters. The golden age of all this stuff, 1930s and 1940s Warner Bros, demonstrates that the state of the art can get pretty high.

The Uncanny Valley

[evilsofa]

That "something" is natural movement which doesn't trigger the Uncanny Valley reaction in viewers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

Re:Oh yeah

[Ucklak]

I'll take Frank Welker over Tom Hanks any day.

In case you're too lazy to folow the link or read through the 518 entries he has, some of his notable characters:

Fred from Scooby Doo - and now that Messick has passed away, Scooby Doo as well.
Boo Boo Bear from yogi Bear
Jabberjaw
Dynomutt
All the other Gremlins and Mogwai that weren't Gizmo/Howie Mandel
The following Transformers Blades/Buzzsaw/Chromedome/Frenzy/Galvatron/Groove/ Laserbeak/Megatron/Mirage/Mixmaster/Ratbat/Ravage/ Rumble/Skywarp/Sludge/Soundwave/Steeljaw/Superion
Abu the Monkey from Aladdin
Curious George ...and I'm sure there are plenty more that mey strike a chord.

Re:Larry The Cable Guy is not actually a tow truck

[LocoMan]

The main difference between Pixar (from what I've read around) is that most companies get the famous actors first and build the characters around them (see Shark Tale), while Pixar seems to go the other way around, they set the character and personality first, and then they start looking for an actor whose voice would fit the character.

Re:Realism

[nelsonal]

As an example take a close look at your hand. I'm sure as a child you stuck a flash light in the web between your thumb and hand and noticed the glow. Your skin color comes from a mix of light reflecting off the melanin in several layers of skin of various stages of life, blood near the surface and if you make a fist skin pulled tight over the bone. In addition, there are creases and hair. To make a good skin model you would need to account for all of these items and humans have unbelievably sophisticated IFF (systems mostly used for sexual selection) to spot any flaw in any of those items (because they might have indicated a less healthy or fertile partner). If we could model all of that, we could probably model virtual voices and Sim0ne will be an A list star.