Cinematography technique · used in 5 films
Bringing live-action camera thinking and fine detail to animation, with realistic landscapes, lenses and varied frame rates. The images feel more physical than a drawing usually does.
Examples
Andrew Stanton · 2008
Roger Deakins worked as visual consultant and advised on lighting and atmosphere. You can see the live-action camera look in the racking focus, the lens flares and the barrel distortion in the ruined Earth scenes. The film was made on computers, but it was designed to feel like it was shot with a real camera.
Where to see it: The ruined Earth scenes. The racking focus, the lens flare and the barrel distortion feel like a live-action camera at work.
Phil Lord, Christopher Miller · 2014
The film was made entirely with computer animation, yet it looks like stop-motion with real plastic. The sets were built from the official Lego brick library, and some minifigures were photographed under microscopes so the textures could show seam lines and grime. The cameras imitate live-action lenses and a Steadicam, so the toys feel like physical objects you could pick up.
Where to see it: The double-decker couch. Emmet's invention saves him and his group as they escape Cloud Cuckoo Land, and it looks like a pile of real bricks clicked together.
Makoto Shinkai · 2016
Shinkai's backgrounds are painted with so much glow and detail that Tokyo's buildings and Itomori's mountains feel more beautiful than any photograph. This hyperrealism, a style more detailed than real life, is trying to outdo reality. I feel like the goal is a world as vivid as it is in memory and longing.
Where to see it: The Tokyo skyline sequences and the Itomori mountain shots. These backgrounds are accurate, and they are also full of feeling.
Makoto Shinkai · 2019
Shinkai used both computer graphics and hand-drawn animation to make the rain. Tokyo is drawn with enough detail that you recognize its skies and its streets.
Where to see it: The rain over Tokyo. Rain falls through the city on nearly every day Hodaka lives there, so the weather is part of every scene.
Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson · 2023
Most characters are animated on 2s, a new pose every 2 frames, which gives a slightly choppy comic-book feel. Spider-Punk goes further. His body and his guitar move at different rates, so he looks like a cut-and-paste punk poster that came to life.
Where to see it: Hobie in action. Spider-Punk's jittery collage movement clashes with the smoother characters fighting next to him.
Questions