No matter how many times I try to watch one of these shows that use this clunky, low polygon count GCI, I just end up disgusted and feel like these studios just consider us all suckers.
Netflix seems to be the biggest purveyor of this, but it seems to be cropping up everywhere. I can think of only one reason they would peddle this is that it’s considerably cheaper to produce.
I’d like to that if the story is good enough that you could look past the bad animation, but I am constantly ripped from the story because it, no matter how hard I try. Because it’s so prevalent now, it makes me wonder if most people just aren’t bothered by it, or maybe even actually like it.
Here are some of the shows I’ve tried watching.
- The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh
- Trigun Stampede
- Exception
- Godzilla Singular Point
- The Dragon Prince
Am I being over critical?
What I tend to notice when they go for an all-3D look is that it gets a more consistent look. A lot of the time that’s consistently bad, but when they start mixing it to have an occasional sequence that moves the camera or shows a vehicle it’s way more jarring.
Rotoscoped CGI actually shows up quite a bit these days. When the director wants to use very high or low camera angles that wouldn’t be on the model sheets, I’ll often notice that suddenly, the characters that aren’t moving are now in identical stiff poses. I don’t really mind because with TV animation, it’s often just barely getting through the story - a lot of production to make it just a little bit more complete than an animatic. Even manga production now is on the CG train in some cases, but there’s some expectation of just making it a starter reference to add onto, instead of something you trace, since there isn’t a need to hold the forms together as strongly between frames.