How important is realism to an animation? We were yelling about this in the pivot section recently so I thought I'd take it up here to be neat and tidy and to get input from the easytoon and flash animators, and from just anyone else who enjoys watching animations.

I think that realism is a sort of extra credit add-on. It's nice if you can throw some in there, but it shouldn't constrain you as long as the animation still looks good anyway.

To clarify, I am talking more about physics than about powers and effects.

To illustrate my point I have some volunteers who are willing to perform for you.

Subject A


Subject A is unrealistic. He jumps higher than it is physically possible for a human to jump. Is that what makes this a bad piece of animation, or is it just the lack of easing?

Subject B


Subject B does not break any laws of physics. He is fully constrained by gravity, momentum, and reaction. Despite this, he could be considered unrealistic. Just you try getting down on one leg with the knee bent more than 90 degrees and the other knee stretched out in front of you, and then push yourself up fast enough to flip over backwards. It's not just you being unfit, it is simply as impossible to do as it is for someone to jump as high as Subject A. Is this still a good animation?

Subject C


Subject C is quite realistic. With a bit of practice, training and the right apparatus someone could actually do this. It's a decent animation, but is it only so because of the fact that it is possible?

Subject D


Subject D is perfectly realistic. Anyone can do this. You've seen people doing it in the street. It's also by far, in my opinion, the best animation I've ever made. Does this fact in itself mean that the viewer is going to sit there for an hour staring in awe at my walk?

Note: I didn't make these animations with this thread in mind. Subject C is not as realistic as maybe I would have made him if I had, but it would have been quite unfair to bring one of my older, worse, animations in to support the realistic side when this one would just aout do.

Realism is not important.

Aww, I was gonna say you were a pretty good animator, but they aren't yours. Realism is essential if parts of your animation are realistic. If you don't genre bend you should be fine.

You're an idiot if you even consider this. You need to know realism before you start messing around with crap OBVIOUSLY. If you want to make a monkey walk like a cat you still need to know how a cat walks, don't you? Learn the basics before you start messing around.

Quote from Myself

Realism is not important.

Allow me to elaborate.

Realism is not important to a certain degree.

I don't think any animation should be bound to any constraints including a level of realism or un...realism. It's an artform, for Christ's sake, just like you wouldn't have gone back in time and told Van Gogh or Rembrandt how to paint their paintings, no one should be telling artists nowadays how to do what they do. It all comes down to what the creator himself wants to make and whether or not he cares about what other people think of his work.

That being said, I don't agree with Bongo. Anyone can make a decent animation with patience and proper art skills, and anyone can make a decent drawing, no matter how well they can draw, if they have a lot of time on their hands for some trial and error. Animation doesn't seem like something you'd have to learn the basics of in order to go out and make something enjoyable to you and your target audience. It's like that old saying with the millions of monkeys pounding on millions of keyboards to eventually write the works of Shakespeare. I don't know why people always look at artistic things with a certain level of skill. When it all comes down to it, how well you can make Optimus Prime break dance isn't what matters.

And at the same time, I think we should continue to ridicule pivoters for making their shitty tests until they eventually get discouraged and give up leaving us with less pivot animations to worry about.

Quote from Gavel

how well you can make Optimus Prime break dance isn't what matters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42tXAzlsH5Y&feature=related

I stand corrected. I hold to the rest of my post, though.

Quote from Gavel

I don't think any animation should be bound to any constraints including a level of realism or un...realism. It's an artform, for Christ's sake, just like you wouldn't have gone back in time and told Van Gogh or Rembrandt how to paint their paintings, no one should be telling artists nowadays how to do what they do. It all comes down to what the creator himself wants to make and whether or not he cares about what other people think of his work.

That being said, I don't agree with Bongo. Anyone can make a decent animation with patience and proper art skills, and anyone can make a decent drawing, no matter how well they can draw, if they have a lot of time on their hands for some trial and error. Animation doesn't seem like something you'd have to learn the basics of in order to go out and make something enjoyable to you and your target audience. It's like that old saying with the millions of monkeys pounding on millions of keyboards to eventually write the works of Shakespeare. I don't know why people always look at artistic things with a certain level of skill. When it all comes down to it, how well you can make Optimus Prime break dance isn't what matters.

And at the same time, I think we should continue to ridicule pivoters for making their shitty tests until they eventually get discouraged and give up leaving us with less pivot animations to worry about.

the black guy stole my words
and then made it longer and better sounding

black people steal alot of things eh

in most cases it i think it is important to be realistic, but when you are animating something specific that you have no intention of making realistic, then so be it.

i always stick to realistic physics, regardless of what kind of inhumanly powerful characters i am animating.

Quote from Myself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42tXAzlsH5Y&feature=related

comments:
"totally fake losers"
"FAKE!!!"

Quote from Scarecrow

comments:
"totally fake losers"
"FAKE!!!"

thats youtube users for you

Quote from Jeremy

Aww, I was gonna say you were a pretty good animator, but they aren't yours. Realism is essential if parts of your animation are realistic. If you don't genre bend you should be fine.

They are my animations actually, and thank you.

I think this post is actually quite interesting, and I love to see how you question stereotypical animation qualities and just open them up, if that makes sense. And I hope none of the volunteers were harmed.

Quote from Myself

black people steal alot of things eh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL7nX9W3aOU

nigga stole my bike....