Defiant1

While watching Avatar for the second time, I started thinking that the movie was for all intents and purposes, an animated movie with a smaller amount of live-action. I wondered if the movie would be eligible for the Best Animated Film category. I found this article which addressed my questions exactly. Basically, the film does qualify but it was not submitted into that category as it's considered a lesser award compared to Best Picture.

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 is on the shortlist and anyone would easily say that Avatar has much more animation than that movie. An interesting question posed is where does animation (say, in a Pixar movie) end and CGI visual effects begin? Pixar's computers create a virtual world in Up while WETA's computers create a virtual world in Avatar. For that matter, every Transformer in Transformers: ROTF is an animated character. So how do we define the difference?

Solid Snake

...I think we had a thread on this.

Defiant1

My apologies. Please close this thread if the original can be found.

hardercore

I posed a question along the same lines in the Avatar review thread.

Solid Snake

Nvm in that case. It seemed like a thread on it's own.

OT: I think the difference defined in what you mean is whether an actual on-screen "physically" visible performance is involved. Avatar I don't think can be an animated film though much of it is CGI MoCap or in some cases not that. A still good chunk of it is Live-Action (though a smaller amount in comparison to the MoCap CGI performances). Pixar films are totally animated, even counting that little bit of Live-action bit where that guy (his name escapes me but you've seen him before) comes on those screens in Wall-E wouldn't deter it from counting as an animated feature. That's the way I see it. Your question did also come up to me when I saw Avatar on a repeat viewing though..but..I still think it's a Live-Action performed film for the most part considering (and this is where the controversy can start as well) that the CGI part is still performed by an actor. Again..this can be a bit tricky to define but that's the way I see it at the moment.

GuessWho

Not a new question, either.

Is The Incredible Mr Limpet an animated movie with some live action thrown in or vice versa?

Blu Man

Avatar is a live action film with CGI, not a animated film with live action.

Draven

It's actually a CGI film with live action. Far more CGI than real stuff in that movie.

toddly6666

There may be a lot of animation/CGI in the following movies, but they wouldn't be put in the "Best Animated Film" section of some awards show...They are just labeled as regular, creative films.

Avatar
Bednob and Broomsticks
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Star Wars prequels
Osmosis Jones
Scanner Darkly
Waking Life
Cool World

Blu Man

10% more CGI then live action, at least that is what Cameron has stated.

Draven

Do you have a link for that? Because that cannot be right. Nearly every shot in the movie had some CGI in it, and there were lengthy sequences without any human actors at all.

Defiant1

But A Christmas Carol is on the shortlist for Best Animated Film and that was a MoCap movie.

Teremei

Animated ends at the Lion King and CGI begins at Pixar movies. I don't call anything with computer generated graphics animated.

So Avatar would deffinately be a live action movie, just with alot of CGI.

Drop

What is Stop-motion then, if CGI isn't animation?

Patman

I think it was in the Popular Mechanics interview (on Youtube) that he said it was 60% CGI and 40% live action.

But I could be wrong, and you'd spend about 27 minutes waiting to see if he said it in this interview, but nonetheless, it's an interesting interview on the making of Avatar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aao0Y...layer_embedded

BJacks

That's a stretch to say the Pixar films aren't animated. They are still drawn and animated, it's just done in the computer.

Solid Snake

Yes, but what I meant is that you actually saw physical performances on screen ie Live-action on screen.

yeah totally agree. To not call digitally animated films animated is a bitch-slap to the artists on those films.

Ash Ketchum

The New York Times called the new CHRISTMAS CAROL "live-action." So confusion reigns among journalists who are supposed to cover this stuff.

Blu Man

Yeah, he stated it in a interview that another poster listed, and it is also on the IMDB trivia page. 5th one down.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/trivia