Animation

I'll take a break from talking about writing to talk about my other interests. I miss animation.

I watch a ton of anime, and I love Disney movies and animated TV shows. But there has been a subtle (or not so subtle considering how good of an eye you have) shift in animation, especially in anime-from hand drawn to digital.

Hand drawn animation is just that-cels hand drawn by animators, one at a time. Digital animation is computer generated animation-most people think of things like Pixar movies, but 2D animation can be computer generated as well. Most animated shows these days are digitally animated-think Power Puff Girls or the new My Little Pony, which are animated in Flash.

I like digital animation, but somehow, especially during action scenes, I feel like digital animation has been somewhat lacking. If you watch old anime, especially older martial arts like Dragon Ball Z, sure there aren't a lot of static, "pretty pictures," but when the characters fight they really move. Animation in most shows nowadays seems to have a lot more shortcuts-even in a martial arts anime, you rarely actually see the characters move while fighting. It's usually a few shots of poses that make up a complex movement, but you don't see the actual movement.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, despite only being 25, but I liked seeing the harsh speed lines of hand drawn animation. You could see the effort. With digital, its pretty, but not quite there. The movements are stereotyped, and much less flowy than in hand drawn animation.

For good examples of hand drawn animation, check out the movies by Hayao Miyazaki. He and his studio persist in hand drawn animation, even today.