The Big Picture: The Collar

[Genixma]

I was actually expecting bold white letters to flash at the bottom of the screen at the end reading "EPIC FORESHADOWING"

 

[Korolev]

Extremely interesting bob. Those old animators were really clever, working with tight resources, deadlines and spiralling costs..... hey, do you think we'll start seeing this sort of cost-cutting ingenuity in other mediums suffering from bloated costs? You know what I'm talking about.

Reused animations?
Ports?
Re-used music?
Re-used environments?

Video games are starting to go down this dark path. I can think of numerous "collar" like devices used in Dragon Age II (I stress that I enjoyed DAII, but you can't overlook the cost-cutting, time saving measures that game used).

 

[teisjm]

Well, it defies the godlen rules [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation] of good character animation worded out by the 9 old men from disney [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Nine_Old_Men] many years ago, which are still taught to this day, but it follows another rule of thumb concernign animation very well: cheat whenever possible.

I guess if the audience is small kids, they won't really care about such things, and therefor it is a great place to save time, and thereby money.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Nice history lesson on "Limited Animation", Bob.
It's rather ironic how the industry had to downgrade from feature-cartoons to limited animation as time went on; history repeated itself when anime became popular in the West.

Economics trumped quality.

 

[Umpa Lumpa]

I just happen to have learnt this a few days ago listening to the Stuff you should know podcast. They even mentioned Clutch Cargo. What are the odds.

 

[RTR]

My first experience with Syncro-vox was a spoof of it on The Simpsons. Had no idea what it was back when I first saw it. Then came Pulp Fiction and Robot Chicken and I still had no idea.
Now, thanks to Bob, I do. Also, I didn't know it was William and Joe who INVENTED Tom and Jerry, so therefore by association, a killer template for cartoon violence.

It's pretty amazing how a premise so simple (Why DOES he have a collar?) can have such a mind-blowing follow-through.

Also,on 4:49, is Top Cat hitting on Penelope Pitstop?!

 

[-Dragmire-]

Heh, it's a good thing nobody does this any more. I mean, can you imagine how distracting it would be if you suddenly realised that none of the characters in one your favourite games had necks attached to their heads?

Spoiler: Oh...

Spoiler: Wait...

Yeah. My mum ruined Mass Effect for me when she pointed that out...

Ah, texture seams. Once you see it, you can't unsee it, and therefore, you hide it.

Depending on the model, the head might not be attached to the body and you have to hide the missing/penetrating geometry or if it is attached, you still have to hide the texture seam.

I think the models in your examples are just hiding the texture seam, though I'd need the source model file to be sure.

OT: The comics/hollywood stuff was alright but this is more in my field of interest. I'm really looking forward to the next show.

 

[ace_of_something]

Maaaan, you're from new england. 'Drawring.'

Also, that was a neat thing to find about. So is the fact that robots are just easier to animate.

 

[uberhippy]

Typical Animation vs real live!

If I walked down the street with nothing on but a collar & tie, then attempted to steal food from people in park, people would be less than approving!! (damn double standards)

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

Wow, i'm an animation student and i never knew that. Thanks Bob!

 

[TWEWER]

Isn't gundam and voltron japanese animation and one of the more older franchises no less? What do you consider early anime huh?

He started out by showing Gigantor, which was made in the early 60's, and Mazinger Z, which was made later in the early 70's. The original Mobile Suit Gundam came out in the later 70's and Voltron came even later. Those two anime came out much later, comparably speaking.

 

[Nimcha]

Now I know why the quality of the Tom and Jerry shorts declined so much in the 60s when compared to the 40s and 50s (besides the fact Hanna and Barbera weren't making them anymore).

 

[The Random One]

This was the most interesting thing I've ever seen on this show which recently covered one century's worth of movie history.

 

[Saltyk]

While I have noticed the things like repeating backgrounds, I never noticed the issue with the heads. That's both interesting and amazing that they came up with such an innovative and simple solution.

Good show, Bob!
What's on the schedule for next week? Jabberjaw? Hong Kong Fuey?

 

[GarouX]

Heh, it's a good thing nobody does this any more. I mean, can you imagine how distracting it would be if you suddenly realised that none of the characters in one your favourite games had necks attached to their heads?

Yeah. My mum ruined Mass Effect for me when she pointed that out...

That's what I was going to say, but since you beat me to it, I guess I'll just add that it's MUCH easier to see when your texture quality is lower, because their torsos are all pixelated and their faces aren't.

 

[Craazhy]

Holy crap, Bob. Ho... ly... Crap.

You are the geek to end all geeks.

 

[Seamus8]

Preceded by means something cam first, followed by is what you're aiming for there I think... either that or I missed the point of that block.

 

[SFR]

And this, Mr. Bob, is why you have two shows.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

At first I was like "ugh, this is gonna be a stinker". Then... I was pleasantly surprised. Good work as always Bob.

 

[DustyDrB]

Bob...it's taken a while, but I'm warming up to you. This was damn interesting. You had my rapt attention, and not just because I still (at 24 years old as of last week) love many of those old cartoons.