As Flixist’s resident animation expert Jenika Katz said, motion capture has a tendency to produce rather creepy results. Steven Spielberg will be using the technology for his upcoming adaptation of Belgian artist Hergé’s Tintin comics though, so has been enthusing about the results to Hero Complex:
“I just adored it. It made me more like a painter than ever before. […] When Captain Haddock runs across the volume, the cameras capture all the information of his physical and emotional moves. So as Andy Serkis runs across the stage, there’s Captain Haddock on the monitor, in full anime, running along the streets of Belgium. Not only are the actors represented in real time, they enter into a three-dimensional world.”
I grew up with Tintin and still own several of the books. Despite some questionable racial politics (they were written in the ’30s after all), it’s an amazing old-fashioned adventure series bursting with mystery, action, fantastic characters and a touch of satire. Spielberg has said that live action couldn’t convey the charm of the character designs and I agree with him, but while the characters revealed so far might be designed around Hergé’s drawings, they look very weird in a pseudo-realistic rather than illustrated style.
Check the gallery after the jump to make up your own damn mind, and be sure to watch the video from the brilliant 1991 animated TV series if you’re not too au-fait on your Tintin.
[Hero Complex via Collider]
