Is anyone else tired of: Cel Animation?

Mav23

Swabbie
Banned
Now I know what some of you are thinking. I went through the same thing with the whole Zelda thing. First I was in the "right" camp of Cel haters, until a couple of months passed, and everyone turned on me due to a few screenshots. Now I played The Wind Waker and love it. But I still prefer realistic graphics. To my point though, it seems the success and popularity of Wind Waker has spread astronimically to the point where there are just too many games coming out cel shaded IMO. Anyone agree?
 
The way I remember it, people were saying that there was already way too much cel animation before Zelda came out. Not just after got it popular.

I've never really been a fan of the Zelda games, but I could always watch someone else play them and be entertained.

I think for the most part it depends on the game. Some games are simply fit the technique better. A Simpsons game is way better using cel animation than say WC. Not to say that the game is better, just that the technique is more fitting. If you're doing a game about a bunch of cartoons, then cel animation works great. Looking at the new TMNT games coming out, they look awesome and I'm pretty psyched to play them. I'm not tired of it. It has it's place. It can also be used to give some games a more anime style. I think it works there as well.

Everyone keeps talking about the games with cel animation and how much they hate them, but I still don't feel there are really THAT many of them out there.
 
It really depends on the style you're trying to convey. A realistic sports simulation should not use cel shading, rather they should have realistic looking athletes and stadiums, ect as opposed to having a cartoon look. By contrast, if you make a game based on a piece of animation, then cel shading and making the characters look true to the animation they are from is really the way to go. It would be a bit like making a new Wing Commander game and rather than have live actors or realistic computer generated models look like your wingmen from the Japanese instruction book for the original Wing Commander. (If you don't know, they are drawn in the traditional manga style and only resemble the characters in game. Go through some of the old posts and you'll find them). It's a style that many probably wouldn't think would work. The same as if they made Disney characters look like real mice, real ducks, real dogs, as opposed to their original cartoon look. There are cases where you could get away with doing one style as opposed to another, but you really have to try and go with the grind of what the style of game is. A cartoon world or one that really doesn't set a serious tone, then sure, go with cel shading, but a realistic combat simulation that is intended to convey the seriousness of war, then you probably wouldn't. A few cel shaded works that are serious in tone work very well, such as Jinroh or Batman animated, but again you have to try and work within the realms of what style of game you are making.
 
Yeah, the plague of cel-shaded games out there is horrible... why, there must be half a dozen of them! :p Personally, I think far worse is the plague of game reviewers who moan about "yet another" cel-shaded game coming out. Right now, 99% of the games out there are still going for realism - and that's way too much. What would be wrong with a bit more variety?

(on a sidenote, I think a cel-shaded, though not anime-style Wing Commander game would be neato - it would be like the WCA cartoon)
 
Anime wing commander would be good; as anime and not a game though :p

about cel shading: I think it's the in thing to do at the moment, which means I hate it :p
where apropriate, yes, I like it. Otherwise, I think it's just a reach to stand out from the pack.
 
Quarto said:
Yeah, the plague of cel-shaded games out there is horrible... why, there must be half a dozen of them! :p Personally, I think far worse is the plague of game reviewers who moan about "yet another" cel-shaded game coming out.
Totally agree. There's half a dozen cel-shaded games out there, and reviewers love to bitch about them. I don't know why those reviewers don't bitch about the 324180 plotless FPSs set in a (insert location here) that come out each week instead. FPSs and numerous other types of games have been cloned for decades, both in terms of graphics and gameplay...

Quarto said:
(on a sidenote, I think a cel-shaded, though not anime-style Wing Commander game would be neato - it would be like the WCA cartoon)
I just said this on IRC the other day. If there was a cel-shaded space sim engine out there, it'd be nice to come up with models of the WCATV ships and make it into something like an extra-arcade-ish version of Academy (the game, not the cartoon :p).
 
I hate anime. I really hope there's never a WC anime show or game . . . or comic book . . . or anything. I really, really, really hate anime, with everything that I have in me.
 
It's also showing up in CG t.v. shows now, :(. I thought the point of cel shading was making 3d images look 2dish so videogames could resemble t.v. shows. With t.v. shows, if they want to make it look like a cartoon, make a cartoon!

P.S.- I'm assuming it's still called cel shading on T.V. If you don't know what I'm referring to think the new Spider-Man or that new Gundam show.
 
overmortal said:
I hate anime. I really hope there's never a WC anime show or game . . . or comic book . . . or anything. I really, really, really hate anime, with everything that I have in me.

To be honest, I'm almost the opposite. I don't hate animation or what such made in America, but I do think that some of it is low class and tasteless. I have SBS, and they have on a variaty of American and Japanese works. I look at the stuff America does, shows such as Quads, Crank Yankers and South Park, and I will admit to liking South Park, but to use the words or it's creators, it's not nearly as clever or as refined as something like The Simpsons. Then I look at what comes from Japan, and the Evangelion series, Patlabour, Perfect Blue that was on a couple of weeks ago, at how intelligent and thought provoking they are, and for me the choice is clear. One episode of South Park that stands out revolved around a show that used foul language to impress the kiddies. That I think is true for some of the material done in America, the gross out movies and movies where they try to outswear each other. By contrast, Patlabour is wonderfully crafted and is more a political story than the action movie you might expect it to be. It could almost be called a mystery movie, one which isn't as predictable as some of the movies that have been copying Basic Instinct for the past decade.
 
Mav23 said:
If you don't know what I'm referring to think the new Spider-Man or that new Gundam show.

I think that's just for marketing purposes, it means they can say it's computer animation so people will tune in.
 
Wow, it'd be awesome if they made a cel-shaded Wing Commander game. I can imagine Kilrathis' eyes getting all big and surprised when you blow them up.
 
Cell Shading is just another stupid game fad, like headset microphone support. It'll pass with time.
 
:D :D
 

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Actually, this is real cell-shading, but the textures are sucky so it doesn't look to much like it. :p
 
LeHah said:
Cell Shading is just another stupid game fad, like headset microphone support. It'll pass with time.

Wha? Headset microphone support is an absolutely essential part to multiplayer online gaming. It's really why I do console multiplayer and not PC stuff so much. It was a fad on the PC in 1999, and has fizzled out because of the complexity in setting up additional software and the lack of any standard for headset use. On the XBox everyone doing games online has a headset and every single online game uses it. It's absolutely vital to the experience, especially for cooperative tactical games like Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. The XBox Live service is booming, and as long as it's around headset microphones will be an integral part.
 
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