CG vs Hand Drawn Animation - Nostalgia Critic

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello I'm the Nostalgia Critic guy remember it so you don't have to in the profitable world of animation there's a battle going on between hand-drawn and CG maybe not a battle but a conversation which one is better first off let's clarify the difference hand-drawn or 2d animation is a series of drawings given motion by quickly displaying one after another computer-generated or 3d animation is the same idea except it's not drawn but rather created in the computer so you don't have to draw every single frame you can just put all your energy into one model and move it as you please both of these are amazing art forms have changed the way people look at cinema and are a buttload of work however where hand-drawn animation used to be the dominant art form in both film and television in G slowly worked its way in and eventually took over while hand drawn is far from being extinct it's no question CG is being utilized far far more there's two areas I like to explore with this how did cg beat out hand-drawn in terms of popularity and what are the strengths and weaknesses of those styles let's see where it all started arguably the first anime film was Gertie the dinosaur in 1914 a still amazing feat when you consider its animator Winsor McCay had to redraw everything in every single frame the rocks the trees the specks of water all of it had to be redrawn every time Gertie would move this groundbreaking film would lead to other animations like Felix the Cat dinky doodle and of course Mickey Mouse as the popularity of animated shorts grew so did the art form using cel animation so they didn't have to draw the background in every frame adding sound so people can finally hear the characters talk and naturally evolving to color there was no question the biggest envelope pusher was Walt Disney not only creating insanely popular shorts and characters with state-of-the-art ingenuity but also producing one of his biggest Gamble's a fully animated feature Snow White in the Seven Dwarves the film was a smash and soon other studios would try to cash in on creating animated features on the other side of the world Japan was also breaking new ground to despite Disney's work entertaining kids and adults it no doubt had a family friendly lien to them I own several Japanese studios would go on to create anime movies in shorts with a very distinct style usually incorporating more grown-up themes and imagery America would dabble in this with films like Fritz the Cat and fantastic planet but many Americans still saw animation as kid stuff but a new form of animation was slowly sneaking into our consciousness in art form that could make dinosaurs come alive other worlds look breathable and even cartoons a bit more realistic computer animation gained popularity as a means to create better special effects for live-action films it wasn't long before it was more utilized not only in cinema but in television to specifically hand-drawn animation you see people were still used to their 2d mascots but 3d was offering a convenient time saver instead of drawing and moving background for every single frame just create a once-in-a computer and you can move it however you like on top of that the backgrounds looked more realistic which suck too many viewers in even more but this wasn't a big worry for 2d sure a 3d can make realistic backgrounds that move but they can't capture the soul of a living character that feels 100 percent believe but well [ __ ] Toy Story was one of the first feature-length CG animated films and not only was it a hit with kids but a hit with adults as well the writing had a lot more modern talk that both children and adults could relate to and on top of that it just looked more realistic I know so many adults who said they couldn't get into Lion King or hunchback because despite their heavy themes it still looked kiddush to them probably because they grew up with so much animation being aimed at children but with CG not only are the lines gone but the style Toy Story created would be duplicated countless times with dialogue centered on pulling in just as many adults as kids but again big deal CG still wasn't as universal as hand-drawn if you were to turn a 2d character like say Belle into a 3d character it wouldn't be too tricky but if you turn a 3d character like say Andy into a 2d character what look pretty awkward the quick simplicity of the drawn line wasn't there's we couldn't really cross mediums you can take three circles lined up a certain way and no that's Mickey Mouse it's that kind of clever simplicity CG just didn't have if anything they were focusing on being more realistic and within a few years they would often look dated so unless this hurdle was jumped CG would never wipe out hand drop well [ __ ] again The Incredibles made a breakthrough that in my opinion isn't talked about nearly enough but it's still hugely influential you see its director Brad Bird did hand-drawn animation first and he figured out how to turn his 2d drawings into 3d models after that will smart animated films designed their characters so that they can look good in both 3d and 2d to make things worse Disney's hand-drawn studio the leading animation studio at the time was not turning out the hits they used to the audience for 2d cinematic films just wasn't as prominent anymore and most of their efforts were going to straight to video releases well I see a Disney Princess that looks good but less realistic when you can see a Disney princess that looks good and more realistic don't get me wrong this one fool anybody that this is a real person but it certainly looks more three-dimensional than a beautiful but still flat drawing the art form that once combined bow 2d and 3d animation was now giving all this focus to 3d and shutting down most 2d Studios including Disney 2d still pops up in many places particularly on television but nine out of ten times they're in an industry where CG is massively dominant one other places they still do mix half-and-half though is Japan while there's more than enough 3d animation there - there's still countless anime being created every day often utilizing both line work and computer technology could it be they have more time to accept hand-drawn for the variety of genres it offered as opposed to just family-friendly could it be the constant exposure made them appreciate the simple line just as much as complicated technology we can't say for sure but whatever the reason it's still alive and well while in many other countries particularly America it continues to fade even when you do see something that looks 2d it's usually over a 3d model only once in a while do you see frame by frame drawings to create life so is this the better way does it make sense to put more effort into animation that looks more realistic and three-dimensional than animation that looks more simple and flat [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't forget to check us out on Twitch playing some games telling some jokes and overall just having a good time hope to see you there [Music] [Applause] she's certainly won out between these two types of animation we naturally have to look at their pros and cons both of them have created masterpieces of cinema while others have sinned but what are the unique strengths and weaknesses of each art form alright let's start with what CG has that hand-drawn doesn't too soon on top of being more realistic like I've said before CG is wonderful at making breathtaking landscapes make no mistake hand-drawn has created some amazing backgrounds even utilizing amazing technological breakthroughs to achieve them but however much detail hand-drawn can create CG can almost always add more I know a lot of it depends on the style and yes we'll get to that in a bit but most animation wants the backgrounds to look nice and detailed but not distracting and CG is good at adding a lot of detail without taking away from the focus of the foreground with that said the characters in the foreground also have a ton of detail I'm always amazed at the freckles the hairs even the pores you can see on a character in CGI if you were to add all this detail and hand-drawn animation it would look like a mess but in the 3d realm it looks amazing CG also allows a lot more time to get something right what I mean is if you get say a reaction wrong and hand-drawn animation you have to go back and redraw the reaction all over again from the top with CG though the phase texture practically everything is still there all you have to do is tweak the details and the timing the same goes for coloring and hansung filters erasing unwanted elements all of these are improved in a way that hand-drawn animation either couldn't do as well or couldn't do as quickly obviously like with any art form there's no doubt other elements but we're focusing on the main ones and in my opinion those are the biggest so with what seems like a huge advantage how can hand-drawn anime compete well they're powerful in a different way you see what CG feels more realistic hand-drawn feels more honest that is to say its strength is in one of the simplest forms of artistic expression the line CG often focuses on trying to fit in everything we're hand drawn is more about cutting out what is it needed you ever notice if you have a smiley face and you simply just put a line under each eye it suddenly looks exhausted one small line placed under a dot can completely alter your take on a character if a small line is put on a CG image it's unlikely it would have that big reaction but put it on any of these different hand-drawn characters and it changes the way you look at them this means whenever a drawing is done an artist has to ask what is the most essential line to convey a reality imagine that mindset going into every single drawing in a piece of animation now don't get me wrong a lot of animators workaround is to save time by just having a character stand still it's a common practice but that just makes the line work even more crucial take something like the proud family they didn't have an amazing animation budget or anything but whenever a character wasn't moving they had to strike a pose that still gave the illusion they were alive so even in stillness the correct line work is essential CG couldn't get away with that if a character is still he just looks dead there has to be some breathing or reaction or some form of movement wherein hand-drawn even if just the eyes move that's enough to convey life now you don't see this kind of stillness much in CG because it is so easy to move the character once it's created it still takes time and effort to do it well but it's almost like puppetry you make one detail model and you move it as you like hand-drawn surprisingly takes more life to create though as each drawing has to be done from scratch the majority of the time so each frame is somebody breathing life into a character it's not just moving a CG puppet it's creating light from the ground up in every frame you may not be aware of it but chances are you can still feel it take for example this scene from Princess Kaguya when the main character gets upset the artwork reflects it it becomes more sketchy and rough but it's somehow still beautiful the reason is you can see and feel every stroke every line every raw hand movement you practically have charcoal pencil on your fingers while watching it while it doesn't look real it feels genuine an artist on paper can draw something in seconds and leave an emotional impact an artist on a computer would need a lot more time probably hours yes more time and detail can definitely lead to a lot of emotion but sometimes the fast raw brushstroke can be even more powerful I think the best way to prove this is not necessarily to look at the best what each artform has to offer but maybe the worst let's compare some of the shittiest 3d animation with some of the shittiest 2d animation on the side of the Ring rat City Street kids one of the ugliest CG cartoons ever made by man on the other side the worst Christmas special I've ever seen the Christmas tree both of these are abysmal but between these two bowls of [ __ ] semen which one is more appealing if you're like me even though it looks awful you went with the Christmas tree because a shitty drawing has more life in it than shitty CGI there's just something simpler and more relatable to it not everyone has drawn something great but everyone has drawn something at some point so we recognized the importance and the difficulty of the simple line even when you look at the process which of these looks more engaging these unfinished CG shots are these unfinished hand-drawn shots even the pencil sketches are bursting with more life because it had to be created in every frame there's something simple even primal about 2d animation that he simply doesn't have its life balloons from a hand drawing a line not a hand typing on a keyboard moving around a mouse and figuring out code but the most people a very direct and understandable question arises what does it matter it's knit all about what what's best in the end the final product and yeah yeah it is and the final product shows that cg has more detail more realism and you can make a lot more of them in a timely fashion so it seems like whatever style you go with you're gonna be gaining something and you're gonna be sacrificing something with hand-drawn you sacrifice more complex beauty and with CG you sacrifice more simple beauty both can excel and being complicated and simple but it's obvious where their natural strengths are so you may think I'm pissed off at 3d beat out to D in this fight but honestly what I'm trying to say is why is there even have to be a fight both of these are amazing art forms and both of them still find ways to experiment and cross paths into the spider-verse cleverly combine the world of 2d and 3d as well as video games like cuphead japan like i mentioned before is still mixing the two beautifully as well I guess what I'm saying is in a world where one is clearly more popular than the other it might make sense to look back and see the benefits of the one being ignored yes hand-drawn animation is still around here and there and it looks great but my fear is it's going to become like stop motion or puppetry something that still exists but it's only recognized for its genius and beauty once in a while that will stop motion and puppetry are art forms that could certainly fill up their own videos in terms of how underutilized they are I wanted to focus on hand-drawn because it's the one I feel like I understand the most not everyone grew up with CG animation but everyone grew up with hand-drawn animation and somewhere we decided it's not as important as it once was I think it's even more important now seeing how we have new technology and styles of animation that can be experimented with sometimes when there's several options as opposed to just one you realize how much more certain one standout and how much more it could be you lines from whatever style you prefer there's a goldmine of creativity that deserves to be dug in more well both are breathtaking in their own way and I can't definitively say one is better than the other I can say there's a beauty and complexity of beauty and simplicity and both of them either on their own or together have a ton more to offer I'm the Nostalgia Critic I remember it so you don't have to [Music] hey Doug Walker here doing the charity shout out once again we're trying to do a charity that somewhat ties into the coronavirus the pandemic and everything and this is one attitude we haven't done before but has a very good title is pretty straightforward a it's food for the hungry it has four star rating on Charity Navigator and specifically what they're doing for Cove 8:19 Lee before I'll read out laughs from their site they're actively monitoring the Cova 19 pandemic and strengthening promotion of health and hygiene practices in all areas of operation so communities can remain healthy and virus free as you probably guessed a lot of this is getting food to communities and places that don't have much food and right now that's gonna be you know increasing it's already increasing so they're very much trying to keep on track of that their ongoing community level programming in Africa Asia and Latin America places their staff in a unique position to pivot quickly to best meet the needs of vulnerable communities that could be impacted by the coronavirus their programs also enable community leaders to quickly mobilize and respond to threats or hazards such as disaster or disease so I mean this is something in many respects they've kind of already been preparing for you know their we have like people can't upon the ground ready to feed people or something like this happens so like I said they have a four star rating on Charity Navigator you go there say you can see all the good they do and this is another one where if you know you want to volunteer there are opportunities for that as well or if you just want to donate that can go a long way to you know there's a lot of people as as there is past several months here you know they're just going through so much pain and hunger should not be among those pains so please definitely check it out see what you can do and just all my best to you man thanks so much you

Channel: Channel Awesome

Views: 390,137

Keywords: channel awesome, nostalgia critic, cg vs hand drawn animations, movie, film, the lion king, 2d animations, 3d animations, best animated movies, live action movies, doug walker, movie editorial, editorial, film discussion, movie discussion, spongebob squarepants, frozen, disney animations, disney, pixar, animation, toy story, film analysis, movie analysis, best animated movie, worst live action movie, worst cg movie

Id: Ou452bGZPQc

Length: 18min 44sec (1124 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020