Titan A.e - Your Thoughts?

DY357LX · January 2005

<div class="IPBDescription">On Mixing 2D With 3D.</div> Over the past 2/3 months i've become increasingly interesting
in animation and it's many different styles. I've begun work on
a simple robotic character in Softimage|XSI that I hope to learn
to animate.

So, in order to help the learning process i've been watching lots
of different animated films to see what I could learn.
These include: Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within, Garfield, Ice Age,
Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale Titan A.E and many others.

Titan A.E stood out for me as it had the unique mix of 2D characters
on 3D environments. (A little bit like the game XIII)

As far as films go, Titan A.E was good but not great (in my opinion).

<a href='http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120913/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9dGl0YW4gYWV8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=3' target='_blank'>Titan A.E On IMDB</a>

(Take a look at the pictures and the trailer - if you can find a working link.)

I'd like to know what people thought of this title's visual style.
(Yes yes, the plot was weak and predictable, blah blah blah.)
And do you know of any other films that use a unique animation style?

Thoughts, comments, sugestions etc etc?

I await Advent Children eagerly <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' />

DOOManiac · January 2005

I haven't seen that movie, however in general regard to mixing 2D with 3D..

In Ghost In The Shell: Innocense, I didn't like it. Thought it was crappy looking.

In Appleseed and Macross Zero however, it looks omfgpwnonastick. So I guess its down to how its implemented by the artists.

cshank4 · January 2005

I, personally, loved the animation styles done in Titan A.E. and I find myself pining after drawing skills of that calibre every night... and no, crying my self to sleep is a totally unrelated condition... it is... shut up... *runs off, crying*

*Runs back in with tissue shoved up both nostrils*

Other movies... Hm, I would say the Final Fantasy movie, but that was just pure CG, Really, I can't think of any. Besides, maybe, The Ghost in the Shell Movies (and some parts of the Series).

esuna · January 2005

I actually thought Titan AE was a pretty good movie on it's own, the 3d was a bit low budget and not all that modern really, it had odd low framerates and lacked quite a lot of detail a lot of the time, but really, i enjoyed the movie enough anyway.

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is another movie that i can say i really liked. The animation was, and still is, pretty damned stunning, and the realistic look to it all is unique in mainstream animated features. Oh, and Steve Buscemi > *. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

UltimaGecko · January 2005

Futurama used 3d models in parts mixed with the 2d drawings. The giant Bender in the "Anthology of Interest I" (S2E16) short comes to mind, as well as Zapp Brannigan's ship the Nimbus (I know it's in "Love's Labors Lost in Space" (S1E04), and many other episodes.. Along with a type of 3d animation in "My Three Suns" (S1E07).

<a href='http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/FrameGrabs/' target='_blank'>Futurama 'Frame Grabs'</a> - lots of them have 3d models integrated with the 2d drawings. Since it's not really drawn as properly as movies, maybe that's why it's not on the same plane as Titan A.E. or other stuff like that.

Granted it was a television show, but I liked how it was drawn...more with attention to expresions and hidden details (much like Family Guy has), than for the particular drawing style. Maybe it's not quite what you're thinking of, as I haven't seen Titan A.E...but I think I remember a poster or box art with two people and some stony-type "Titan A.E" text...and that's what I'm going off of.

Omegaman · January 2005

I don't know about Titan A.E., but I do know that Disney's Atlantis did a fantastic job of it.

AnarkiThreeXSix · January 2005

I liked titan a.e. I even watched it twice cuz it was one of the first movie's I saw way back ago with good animation, the only new ones i've seen are ghost in the shell 2 and appleseed, ghost in the shell had only some parts where it mixed 2d and 3d (or at least thats how it looked to me) and it worked fine and was a real good movie.

Then on the other hand.. Appleseed... uses more of this 3dness is so mind blowingly amazing to my eyes that they wanna secks the screen O_O

Geminosity · January 2005

Titan AE was a nice little film if you managed to blank out the "Iiiiiiit's myyy tuuuuuurn to flyyyyyyyyy" song bit. ick =s

SloppyKisses · January 2005

Never seen Titan, but there was a few that looked damn nice mixing the two together. I dont remember the names of them though lol

Ratonetwothreetwoone · January 2005

raggedy ann & andy...

mind blowing effects

Rellix · January 2005

Yeh it was a pretty cool film, but isnt it like 5 years old now?
Still the 2D/3D thing worked really well.

BadKarma · January 2005

Wait till that RPG cat gets in here.

RPG_Jssmfulhud · January 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BadKarma @ Jan 17 2005, 01:52 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Wait till that RPG cat gets in here.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
I resent that.

As for Titan A.E., I was pretty hyped about it some time ago. Thought it was a great movie. Didn't care about the plotholes. The only thing that bothered me was the poorly done 2D animation. The 3D was great, though. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

DiscoZombie · January 2005

I liked titan AE... been a long time so I can't be much more descriptive than that =P

and bah, gem, I *liked* that musical number =P

MrRadicalEd · January 2005

I can't comment for Titan A.E, but I bought both GitS: SAC boxset and GitS: Innocence and they both contain modern animation techniques. In the Stand Alone Complex boxset there is a behind the scenes section for each disk discussing the technologies and techniques for each of the episodes, and it was just amazing to see the amount of use computers provide to enhance traditional pencil and ink animation.

Witch Hunter Robin used the same pre-rendered lighting effects that Innocence and Stand Alone Complex uses. I believe it's an Adobe software product, but I can't remember what it was. Stand Alone Complex also uses a lot of prerendered models in addition to the standard animation that matches the character and set designs..

Surge · January 2005

Haven't seen Titan AE, but some people tell me my story setting is similar to it in grittiness.

Steel_Troll · January 2005

I liked it so much i bought it, great movie. Some one famouse did the voices, who was it again?

Surge · January 2005

Matt Damon (sic), right?

Cold_NiTe · January 2005

You know I may just go and rent this one now. I forgot all about this movie.

Vaaryys · January 2005

Loved Titan A.E., great movie. The soundtrack is the <3 But yeah, the blending of 2d and 3d... eh, I guess it was nice. Didn't really stir up any huge "OMG!!1" emotions, but it was nice. I liked the part where Cale rides his space scooter thing through the debris field, great music + nice animation.

Hmm, I wonder if I could get it on dvd, probably wouldn't cost much these days.

jumpingjoda · January 2005

I didn't like Titan so much, but Final Fantasy was nice.
Appleseed is entierly a CG anime, everything done in Softimage XSI.
Here you got a <a href='http://www.softimage.com/community/Xsi/Mag/Cs/VOLUME_5/Issue_1/1.htm' target='_blank'>link</a>.

Cold_NiTe · January 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (jumpingjoda @ Jan 17 2005, 05:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I didn't like Titan so much, but Final Fantasy was nice.
Appleseed is entierly a CG anime, everything done in Softimage XSI.
Here you got a <a href='http://www.softimage.com/community/Xsi/Mag/Cs/VOLUME_5/Issue_1/1.htm' target='_blank'>link</a>.  </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> 
Yeah that was an interesting one to watch. Crazy designs too. Blew my mind.

Spacer · January 2005

Titan AE was awesome, in my opinion. I love Disney style animation mixed with 3d, it just seems to work...
Also: Appleseed looks pretty tacky to be honest, cartoon models in films don't tend to work, and AS hasn't changed that.

esuna · January 2005

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Spacer @ Jan 17 2005, 10:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Titan AE was awesome, in my opinion. I love Disney style animation mixed with 3d, it just seems to work...
Also: Appleseed looks pretty tacky to be honest, cartoon models in films don't tend to work, and AS hasn't changed that. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
I think it works quite well, the cel shaded anime style 3d, the animation is very fluid and it adds a lot more life to the animation than standard 2d animation. I've been interested in 3d anime for some time now, but the only fully CG anime i've seen other than Appleseed is Platonic Chain, a series of short episodes. But that wasn't anywhere near as detailed or sophisticated. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' />

Titan A.e - Your Thoughts?

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