"To phrase that another way, if you saw this character moving or emoting, the slightest false-step in the animation will stick out like a sore thumb and ruin the illusion."

I think "ruin the illusion" is a bit harsh. It all depends on if your goal is to fool the audience into thinking what they are seeing is live action footage (ie., using CG for things like stunt doubles,etc. where you want everything SEEMLESS), or if your audience already knows that everything they see is not real from the start (for example, animated shorts and game cinematics). If it's the latter, then you get some latitude in the accuracy of the animation, and if history holds true, then the more photorealistic the appearance, the more people will like it. Granted, the motion is still very important in keeping things cohesive.

Then there are people who bring up FinalFantasy as an example of the FAILURE of photorealism in animation, but in reality, the movie just sucked, and it had little to do with the rendering style. In fact, that's probably what drove 50% of the moviegoers into the theatre to begin with. The other 50% being FF enthusiasts. ;-)

In the example in this thread, I am willing to bet it will be a HUGE success, and game consumers are gonna go bonkers over the visual effects. In the case, the photorealism will make kids love it more! That was the case with Blur's awesome Warhammer 40K cinematic, and I expect that will be the case here. Message edited on: 03/15/2006 21:48

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