Why do some movies look better?

[mikieson]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask? BUT im wondering why animated movies look better than a normal "live people" movie?

[42041]

edited. animation is painstakingly assembled over years, and is not limited by the requirement of capturing light on film. live-action photography has many challenges and is done in a period of weeks.

[slumcat]

Originally Posted by mikieson

Not sure if this is the right place to ask? BUT im wondering why animated movies look better than a normal "live people" movie?

Animation is digital. So when a Blu-ray is made, the source is directly taken from digital. There can be no scratches or any other damages that can occur on film.

And as animation is done inside a computer, you have complete control over the intended look, blurring, sharpness, contrast, lighting, framing, it is all in your hands and can be readily tweaked. You don't even remotely have so much control with live action films, hence animated movies will always look better than live action films on blu-ray.

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by slumcat

Animation is digital. So when a Blu-ray is made, the source is directly taken from digital. There can be no scratches or any other damages that can occur on film.

And as animation is done inside a computer, you have complete control over the intended look, blurring, sharpness, contrast, lighting, framing, it is all in your hands and can be readily tweaked. You don't even remotely have so much control with live action films, hence animated movies will always look better than live action films on blu-ray.

Hand drawn animation looks awesome too on Blu-ray

It's not just the CGI stuff that looks good. Ponyo, Snow White, and most animation released looks amazing

[wilky61]

Don't forget titles like Coraline/Nightmare Before Christmas.

The color palettes on animated BRs are also very vibrant. Real life is not necessarily so, and many live-action films (Snatch-blue, Constantine-sepia, Traffic, etc.) have muted color palettes anyway.

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by wilky61

Don't forget titles like Coraline/Nightmare Before Christmas.

The color palettes on animated BRs are also very vibrant. Real life is not necessarily so, and many live-action films (Snatch-blue, Constantine-sepia, Traffic, etc.) have muted color palettes anyway.

Coraline looks amazing on Blu as does the just released Fantastic Mr. Fox.

[Beta Man]

I know the OP didn't state this phenomena was Blu-ray specific..... but I would just like to point out that what he is noticing is no different on Blu-ray than it was/is on DVD......

Also, saying animation "looks" better, is a statement of opinion, and not fact

[KubrickFan]

Animation has less detail than real life, so it automatically looks better. That was the case even on dvd.

[slumcat]

Originally Posted by KubrickFan

Animation has less detail than real life, so it automatically looks better. That was the case even on dvd.

I wont be too sure of that. Animation today is magnificently detailed. Take Up, you can see the fabric of the clothes they are wearing, the surface of furniture etc. In Wall-E each and every scratch is distinctly rendered on metallic objects.

And Avatar has achieved photo-realism. You can see pores on the skin of the Navi.

I believe animation has taken a giant leap and is today as detailed as live action.

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by slumcat

I wont be too sure of that. Animation today is magnificently detailed. Take Up, you can see the fabric of the clothes they are wearing, the surface of furniture etc. In Wall-E each and every scratch is distinctly rendered on metallic objects.

And Avatar has achieved photo-realism. You can see pores on the skin of the Navi.

I believe animation has taken a giant leap and is today as detailed as live action.

But they still have to add every texture, which takes time and money to render. Stuff that any live-action movie gets for free. And I don't agree that Avatar has achieved photo-realism, but that's just my opinion.

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

Originally Posted by mikejet

Hand drawn animation looks awesome too on Blu-ray

It's not just the CGI stuff that looks good. Ponyo, Snow White, and most animation released looks amazing

afro samurai, hulk vs etc etc

[toef]

As someone else pointed out, I think it's mostly due to the color saturation, more than anything else.

Naturally when something looks more colorful, as opposed to faded, or washed out, or whatever, it probably looks "better".

The aging/condition of film obviously contributes some to the loss of color in "live-people" movies, but there are inherent limitation to begin with (whereas with animation, you can pretty much get the colors exactly as you want them).

I think that's why you can take a black and white animated movie, like most of Persepolis, and even though it looks great, people may not think it looks as good as something like Princess and the Frog, or some other animated movie in color.

[ascendedcobra]

Still thats not always true, look at Quantum of solace or Transformers 2 how about Crank 2 or Apocalypto. They all look as good as the best animation imo.