No Right Answer: Puppets vs CGI

[Azuaron]

The Fantastic Mr. Fox was stop animation, which is basically puppets, and no CGI. Good job.

I guess that shit claymation looks a lot like shit CGI in motion. Straight puppetry would have looked better.

It takes a human touch to get the movements right.

Right, because shit puppetry is any better. I think the point you should be getting from Fantastic Mr. Fox is that shit looks like shit no matter what the format.

Well done CGI (Pixar), well done puppetry (Henson), and well done stop animation (Coraline) can all look beautiful. They all require different goals and aesthetics to work properly, and will never look good when used poorly.

 

[BgRdMchne]

The Fantastic Mr. Fox was stop animation, which is basically puppets, and no CGI. Good job.

I guess that shit claymation looks a lot like shit CGI in motion. Straight puppetry would have looked better.

It takes a human touch to get the movements right.

It's not claymation either. Just...stop.

And stop-motion is not puppetry, either. This stop motion is essentially claymation with dolls.

 

[leviadragon99]

Mmm, it is very much a question of finding the balance, of which to use for a particular situation and of pouring the effort into whichever choice you go with.

 

[BrotherRool]

CGI needed to win, How To Train Your Dragon and the Incredibles couldn't exist otherwise. Puppets have a good niche though, just as Wallace and Gromit does. Both would lose their charm if too many other things tried to steal their niche

 

[ViciousTide]

What! No mention of CG Yoda Kicing some ass on the big screen in Episode 2 and 3!

 

[RTR]

I think I speak for everyone when I say that Jim Henson left us too soon.

 

[SoopaSte123]

"I nominate Avitar, just to see it loose." *cringe*

OT: Puppet Yoda beats CGI Yoda any day, but Andy Serkis is definitely kickass.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

Farscape was a great example of how puppets can deliver excellent performances.

 

[Blind Sight]

Everyone's mentioning The Thing, yet no one has mentioned the epicness that is David Cronenberg's The Fly remake:

WARNING: Many layers of WTF incoming:

 

[mronoc]

What! No mention of CG Yoda Kicing some ass on the big screen in Episode 2 and 3!

Which then raises the point that the CGI model only looks any good when they have an excuse to apply a liberal amount motion blur.

 

[esperandote]

I was sure they were going to mention the hulk movies. Imagine the last one with a puppet... yeah, i thought so.

 

[trilbynorton]

Stop-motion beats both puppets and CGI.

http://youtu.be/U9kmjW73-v4

 

[Monty McDougal]

One of the reasons the new movie version of Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy was so great was because a large portion of the creatures were puppets/giant suits.

 

[mionic]

CGI, the possibilities are endless. And are often way more believable then puppets, I believe.

 

[therandombear]

Damnit...now I want too re-watch Muppets: Treasure Island. xD

OT: Bit of both really, some movies are good with puppets, Nightmare Before Christmas and some are good CGI movies, like Shrek....I like Shrek movies...not the third so much though.

 

[Aureliano]

If you didn't say creatures, I would have to go with Kyle. But no. CGI monsters could always be improved by being terrible puppets.

Extra points for Chris' Kermit impression. That was frighteningly accurate.

 

[Jaebird]

Where the Wild Things Are. Nuff said.

 

[ckeymel]

Gollum was the perfect combination of puppet and CGI. Gollum was amazing. This should have been a tie.

Yes, I was wondering why he didn't make the argument that Gollum was just the next step in puppetry!

 

[Carboncrown]

Wait, don't we all agree that when something can be made by puppets, it should be?

So the question is, was CGI taking over a good thing? Or more so, have we achieved more by stopping to push the limitations of puppets and forfeiting to CGI?
Well, in the long run CGI will be perfect someday, but I just feel we're missing out on some madly cool animatronics... I guess that's now up to the indie-market of the future.

Oh, and righty should have lost a point for the things Yoda did on the prequels.

 

[Lancer873]

Holy crap. That was an incredible Kermit the frog impersonation ._.