My CG FAQ

About

Based on my love for animation (especially computer animation, a.k.a, CG), I have watched, collected, and reviewed thousands of CG works. I even created/managed a CG Corner site from 2010 to 2019. This page has a collection of my thoughts regarding CG animation.

Which Mediums Have CG Works?

The primary source mediums that I consider when categorizing something as a CG work:

• Movie. Movies (and series) are being created with more and more visual effects - especially those including CG-animated characters.
  • Fully animated and partially animated CG works come in many forms in movies/series. Of all the genres, sci-fi/fantasy movies/series utilize (CG) animation the most -- this includes most fully animated movies/series. But in every genre, you will find lots of partially animated works where the animation can be in the form of isolated visual effects (e.g., a quick shot with a digital double, a replacement of a body part on a live-action actor, etc.). Increasingly, live-action movies/series take this to the next level where the animation can be in the form of fully animated characters that interact with the live-action actors.
  • With such a variety of animated works, I must consider a work has major animation to be a CG work. Thus, even though the Best Animated Feature category of the Academy Awards must meet a certain criteria relative to the percentage of animated minutes, a fully CG work for me involves a significant amount of fully computer-animated sequences (i.e., no integration with live-action actors, but possibly with filmed backgrounds).
  • Even though I love visual effects, I consider a CG work must involve major animation versus isolated visual effects. Thus, for partially animated works, I primarily only consider for this movies/series that have at least one significant fully animated character integrated with the live-action. I have also subjectively considered some works which only have one scene (of a decent length) with this type of live-action integrated animation.
• Series. Virtually all the movie medium notes above apply to this medium, although normally with a lesser budget (per episode). Note the generic term series covers any work designed to span over multiple episodes, and thus not only includes TV series, but also other series like those released directly to video. While I typically refer to all seasons when I refer to a series as a general work, in the UK, a series typically refers to just a specific season of the general work.
• Short. These are works normally just a few minutes long made by creative animation students, fledgling animation studios trying to make a name, or established animation studios trying to maintain their name (by winning Academy Awards for their shorts).
• Cinematic (a.k.a., video game cinematic, cutscene, in-game movie, full motion video or FMV). Cinematics (i.e., the short videos that appear between gameplay levels) are not only the longer productions, but also the shorter productions created as teasers and trailers.
• Commercial (a.k.a., TV commercial): There are many commercials with great CG animation.
• Music Video: There are many music videos with awesome animation.
• Documentary: There are some great documentaries (primarily relative to dinosaurs) that take advantage of quality CG animation.
• Visualization: These are short videos created with mostly/all interesting/beautiful animated visuals and no real story. The goal is to stimulate the visual senses like any visual work of art, so I do not evaluate them as CG works.

When Did the Proliferation of CG Begin?

Since around 2005, CG animation has proliferated in the movie and TV industry. While this created many awesome sci-fi/fantasy movies and TV series since then, it also opened the door to many mediocre movies and TV series. With the hardware/software finally becoming accessible to so many, low-talent/low-budget companies tried to profit from colorful, eye-catching animated works for children without employing true creative artists to write, animate, and direct the works - and trying to rush out the works in unreasonable timeframes. While since 2005 I tried to view and rank all CG-based movies and TV series at one point, I had to give up around 2010, since there were so many inferior works being released due to the reasons listed above.

Are All Animated Works Equal Quality?

The following chart compares expected quality levels across various mediums:

While there are many exceptions to the rules (e.g., low-quality blockbuster movies, high-quality low-budget indie shorts), it mostly holds true that the longer the duration of the piece, the larger the budget, and the higher the quality. However, a relatively good size budget is often provided for a video game cinematic or a commercial to obtain high quality for a relatively short duration. Even so, while the animation and action/comedy may be high quality for a cinematic or commercial, the overall work is normally not of the quality of a feature movie, since the characters and story can not be well developed within the limited duration. Also, while each episode of an animated TV series is not of the quality of a feature movie, the series as a whole spans many hours of duration and allows for much better development of the characters and story.

The reason why bigger budgets and longer production timeframes typically translate to higher quality is that the bigger budgets give better access to top talent across all disciplines (writing, animation, music, voice actors, pre-production planning, etc.) and to state-of-the-art computing power that renders more elaborate animations, while longer timeframes allow implementation of innovative techniques (to visually outdo previous productions) and iterative refinements of the work.

What Is Involved in Making a Good Short?

I have seen hundreds of shorts, and have found that the most common flaws relate to good animation with weak writing and weak animation with good writing. It is such a shame to see great designs/animation or great concepts/writing largely go to waste due to the other aspect being so weak. I believe this typically happens with one of the following situations:

• Talented animation students create their own work yet have very limited writing talent (especially comedic writing)
• Creative writers venture into animation with limited animation talent
• Talented designers create beautiful environments (and vehicles) with limited character animation talent

Since it is no surprise that the best works often come from shops where great animators collaborate with great writers (each artist focusing on their own skill), I recommend an artist to focus on their best talent (e.g., animation) and to collaborate with other talented artists (e.g., writer, designer, music composer) to complete their vision. As a director, the project can be focused on their vision while gaining value from others that know certain areas better than they do.

When Was the Indie Coming of Age?

I am in awe with how today the independent artist ("indie") has the tools and the skills to create amazing shorts that can rival the top animation shops ... consider that at least 75% of my absolute favorite shorts are indie works! The ever-increasing affordable/powerful hardware and software have put high quality production tools in the hands of the consumer, and the ever-increasing collaborative nature of the internet has helped eager newbies learn the ropes 😀.

But, there clearly is some cut-off point when the average indie did not have the tools or skills to produce quality work anywhere near the level of the top animation shops. Having reviewed so many works over the years, I would say that 2005 was a pivotal release year for the indie when their work finally came of age. While there was some good indie work released before then, it was really not until 2005 that the overall quality of indie work really started shining. With indie works taking from one to five years or so to create, this would suggest that the tools and skills were being developed between 2000 and 2004.

When looking at indie work before 2005, one may consider that they were at least 10 years behind the top animation shops, and thus, the indie work would appear much cruder. This is especially true, since the corresponding early 1990's were still developmental years for computer animation. However, the reality is that the time, effort, and attention to detail that top animation shops (and animators) put into their works in the developmental years was far greater than what the average indie artist put into their developmental years. I have seen enough works to get the impression that most early indie artists were just excited to play with a new toy, instead of putting on an entertaining show - this was evident with the little attention to detail that was put in the character walk cycles and many of the other key parts of the animation. Because of this, most of these indie works will not survive the test of time, since dated animation designs (and technology) can only be saved by great animation artistry.

Since this makes it harder for me to appreciate most dated indie animation, my collection and reviews exclude most indie shorts that I consider Weak and were released before 2005.

How Do You Maintain Your Short Video Collection?

What I Collect. In addition to my physical disc collection, I maintain a collection of short videos that I watch at home on my HD TV. These videos do NOT include full-length movies or TV series episodes, but INSTEAD include shorter-length works like animation shorts, video game cinematics, animation commercials, funny videos, home movies, music videos, and trailers (or cool select scenes) from movies and TV series.

How I Obtain The Videos. The sources for the videos are BD / DVD's with compilations of short works, digital purchases, and various legitimate websites. I then go through a process to standardize the formats and get them onto my media server.

• Ripping. If the video is on a BD / DVD, then I first rip it onto the iMac using MakeMKV. If the video is clearly isolated as its own title, then I only have to rip that portion (manually identified by the time of the title). However, if it is integrated into a bigger title (e.g., a scene from a movie), then I must rip the whole disk first.
• Converting. If at this point, the video is not a good standard file format, then I use HandBrake to convert it to the .mp4 container format with the H.264 video codec. If I had to rip the whole disk in the previous step, then I make sure to select the applicable chapter in HandBrake (and maybe follow that with a scene trim).
• Tagging. I use my media player's Categories to tag them in special categories different than movies/TV series: CG Cinematics, CG Commercials, and CG Shorts.