Will future Disney characters have more realistic eyes?

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Judging by this article, future animated movies (possibly starting with Moana?) will have eyes with more life:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... c-eyeballs

Disney Research delivers hyper-realistic animated eyeballs

Belle. Jasmine. Ariel. What did they all have in common? Aside from a freakishly small waist, each of the Disney heroines also had giant, perfect eyes with expressions ranging from wide-eyed excitement, to narrow-eyed suspicion. Enough's enough, said computer graphics experts at Disney Research Zurich and ETH Zurich.

The Zurich group is duly proud of the progress, saying: "We believe that the findings of this paper will alter our community's current assumptions regarding human eyes, and our work has the potential to significantly impact the way that eyes will be modelled in the future."

"Generically modelled eyes may be sufficient for background characters, but it now takes significant effort to manually create realistic eyes for heroes and other leading characters," commented coauthor on the paper, computer graphics PhD student Pascal Bérard. "Our reconstruction technique can greatly reduce the time spent and help increase the realism of the eye."

[Lady Cluck]

The push for hyper-realistic animation sickens me. Animation defies reality, and that limitless creative and artistic expression is the defining characteristic of the medium. Animation that's too realistic usually comes off creepy, especially now with computer animation :/

The vast majority of animated programs on television have characters with EXTREMELY goofy body proportions and aesthetics. They're cartoon characters and it makes them more dynamic and fun. As usual, Disney gets all the heat.

I have no problem with Disney experimenting with a new aesthetic for their human characters though. They should be doing that, but they should be doing it because they want to creatively, not because people criticize how unrealistic their characters look.



more here:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jenlewis/if-dis ... .oygQdErgn

[DisneyFan09]

Bash me if you will, but I don't see nothing wrong by having realistic eyes for human characters, at least once in a while. But I wouldn't like if it became a habit.

[Disney's Divinity]

I like how the article overlooks Rapunzel, Anna, and Elsa all aping Ariel's design, too, in regards to tiny waists/huge eyes.

I don't really mind that animated characters don't look as realistic as possible, since that's the point. What's more interesting is that it's mostly the female characters that are given impossible, idealistic looks.

[Lady Cluck]

I don't really mind that animated characters don't look as realistic as possible, since that's the point.

Since when?

[Disney's Divinity]

Hasn't animation's draw always been that it depicts things that can't be found in the real world?

[Lady Cluck]

I misread your comment! I thought you said the point was to be as realistic as possible. Sorry!

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Well, I'm not sure if more realistic eyes means smaller eyes or a different design, just that the move in a more realistic way. It also appears they are trying to make computer programs that does the work which so far has required the animators to do everything themselves, which should save some time and effort (it's not cheating as long as it looks just as good or even better). Hopefully they will publish a video test somewhere in the future, showing how it will look on a typical Disney character (hopefully without blood vessels).

[Super Aurora]

The push for hyper-realistic animation sickens me. Animation defies reality, and that limitless creative and artistic expression is the defining characteristic of the medium. Animation that's too realistic usually comes off creepy, especially now with computer animation :/

The vast majority of animated programs on television have characters with EXTREMELY goofy body proportions and aesthetics. They're cartoon characters and it makes them more dynamic and fun. As usual, Disney gets all the heat.

I have no problem with Disney experimenting with a new aesthetic for their human characters though. They should be doing that, but they should be doing it because they want to creatively, not because people criticize how unrealistic their characters look.

In Disney's case I do agree with you, as one of Disney's great key points in their animated movies is the exaggerated and genuine facial expressions. Though I wouldn't say this should be case with ALL animation. There are some fantastic animated movies or tv series with realistic looks that is pulled off well. Jin-Roh comes to mind on that. But I do agree that this guy's reasoning is half-assed and retarded. Besides, they are already tried the "realistic" human features look. It's called Pocahantas.

What's more interesting is that it's mostly the female characters that are given impossible, idealistic looks.

Mainly cause usually female characters are better pulling off the expressions to conveying the emotions. I think cartoony characters like roger rabbit are probably the exception that are better than females on that. thinking back, even during Walt's time the animators always had difficult time drawing males(princes) for their expressions. In the Sleeping Beauty Book they talked about case and how no one wanted to do the prince.

[Vlad]

That Ariel with realistic eyes looks kinda spooky. Now her mouth and nose need to be fixed in order for her to look normal.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Besides, they are already tried the "realistic" human features look. It's called Pocahantas.

Pocahantas is one of the movies where the characters looks a bit more realistic than normally, but that's not a computer animated movie, which is where the new technology will be used.

[DisneyFan09]

Pocahantas is one of the movies where the characters looks a bit more realistic than normally, but that's not a computer animated movie, which is where the new technology will be used.

It's funny that you say that, when Pocahontas is criticized by many for having unrealistic a body.