Leaves!
Saturday I got up ealier and took Meg out for a surprise viewing of The Incredibles. I'd write a review of the story (Wonderful!) and of the voice acting (Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee, how can you go wrong?) but my problem with seeing Pixar movies, is I have to see them at least twice before I can appreciate them as movies. The first time I watch them, I'm too amazed at how much further they've come at animating (simulating?) whatever it is that they've decided to focus on. Toy Story, Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2 were all about getting simple character animation down. Monsters, Inc showed a clear emphasis on learning how to simulate the movement of hair. Finding Nemo was all about getting their use of light down, but even watching Nemo, you could see movement of hair that they learned from Monsters really paid off in the way they animated the anenenmeneone. The Incredibles was all about perfecting the hair work they started in Monsters and showing off the light work they got right in Nemo. Not only can we see the hair move when the characters move, we can see the hair get wet, we see each individual strand of hair, and how it has a unique coloration. Moving beyond just hair, you could see light reflected off of their uniforms in a distractingly real way to me. I'll definitely need to see it again so I'll be more prepared to pay attention to the story instead of staring in awe at the background and minutiae of character design.
More writing below, none about the above topics though. (more…)
