Nugget of Awesome

[tealin]

opening 2D scene - now in Quicktime!

WARNING: You may go blind from sheer awesomeness. (My eyes! It's too awesome!)

I was extremely lucky that I got to see this come together (though I didn't work on it myself). It's astonishing how much it looks like the original concept artwork, but moving. Those flags at the beginning, for example, were gestural paint strokes, but they animate like flags and still look the same! And if anyone needs a lesson in arcs they just have to look at the swooshy kung fu bits because they are perfect. All the 2D character animation and, I think, most of the effects, were done by James Baxter; the rest is AfterEffects which was animated by a very small group of likewise very talented people. I am in deepest awe.

There's also the closing credits animation (in lovely big Quicktime which you can stopframe) which I think was done after they all moved to Dreamworks.

I have to wait till next weekend to see the rest of the movie, though...

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Umm... honestly, I don't think it's been around long enough to have a designated name. Sometimes it's called 2D, or 'digital 2D,' but usually 2D refers to something where every frame is drawn - so something like the Brackenwood (http://www.biteycastle.com/) shorts is basically 2D even though they're done in Flash. If it's more typical Flash or AfterEffects it's usually called by the program name; e.g. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is a 'Flash cartoon.' They are technically 2D, I suppose, but stop-motion animation is technically 3D (even more 3D than CG is because it actually exists in space) but no one calls it that.