On computer graphics and TV shows

PsychoFish

PsychoFish

New member
So I've been watching a lot of animated TV shows with the mini-fish and I'm wondering how some of the animated kids shows can get away with CGI so poor that if it was featured in a AAA title 10 years ago it would have been ripped to shreds.

I mean the texturing is crappy, the animations are wonky sometimes. Although clipping and other anomalies don't exist.

Any ideas?
 
Well, the hand animated cartoons I watched as a kid were completely horrible at times. They're low budget.
 
From watching some shows with my daughter, she prefers the look of better graphics but as long as the story finishes off where it started and everyone is laughing at the end she is happy to watch it.

I also changed the rule about ovhd that day.
She is only allowed to watch Da Vinci learning during the week now.
 
Yeah I don't think kids in the age-group the shows are marketed towards would really pick up on those kinda things. Low budget CG is easy to crank out, and like mentioned above, the 2d handrawn shows we used to watch as kids were also pretty bad compared to the big budget 2d cinema releases.
 
brendanvb said:
Yeah I don't think kids in the age-group the shows are marketed towards would really pick up on those kinda things. Low budget CG is easy to crank out, and like mentioned above, the 2d handrawn shows we used to watch as kids were also pretty bad compared to the big budget 2d cinema releases.
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Likely very true, the target audience really doesn't care (it's all flashy and loud with music and stuff).
 
Anyone remember Captain Powers and the soldiers of the future? This was in 1987 and almost looks on par with some of today's shows. :p

Soaron-solo.png
 
brendanvb said:
Yeah I don't think kids in the age-group the shows are marketed towards would really pick up on those kinda things. Low budget CG is easy to crank out, and like mentioned above, the 2d handrawn shows we used to watch as kids were also pretty bad compared to the big budget 2d cinema releases.
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I put Cartoons on for my daughter (barbie, sparkles etc) and she becomes a little melodramatic princess.
With My little pony she actually behaves better.
But put Davinci on and she is doing everything from magic tricks to explaining to me how to make stuff (and actually making stuff herself).
So yea, some she is welcome to watch, others not so much.

She also enjoys DBZ but that is my fault...
 
Ok, here are some examples of what I'm talking about
211279411f5e0f4f055cb3d54ca7023c414ce123.jpg
1025570-nick-jr-orders-second-season-zack-and-quack.jpg
2403141_Blaze_Ep202_Pegwheel_ProductionStill.jpg
 
AstroTurf said:
Krikey, you think those are bad?

Try the animations in Cool cats
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Can't say I've seen that. I can let hand drawn animated shows slide, because it's a bloody art to do hand drawn animations. It just irks me that they reuse the same models and animations multiple times, yet completely skimp on background texturing and everything else.

1280x720-ABs.jpg

I'm not expecting award winning voice acting, animation or post-processing. it just irks me that the ground texture basically looks like something from the early 2000s

It looks like Half-Life textures and environments with Disney Infinity character models to me.
 
PsychoFish said:
View attachment 19788
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With reference to this example, the plain textures fit the aesthetic but also for young children you don't want the environments to be too busy. As we get older we learn how to subconsciously filter our environment so as to only gather the information we need, children don't have this filter straight away as it is something that is developed over time. This is why kids get so easily distracted but also notice small details that we adults tend to miss. So for kids shows it's better to have simple, bright colours and textures as it is easier for the kids to follow and not get overwhelmed by all the details.

So in many ways it is a budget related thing but there is some intentionality behind the sparse aesthetic. (This is all my opinion, I'm not an expert in the field other than my wife teaches pre-school)

Edit: The shadowing in the pic is pretty decent and there may even be a degree of ambient occlusion :cool:
 
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