Expressive Movement and Physical Model Animation Improvements
Required of the Captain Scarlet Television Series
Sequence Time 7:55-8:10
Lindsay Grace
University of Illinois, Chicago
PhD Student
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Debuted in 2005, the original animated series, Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet, demonstrates the continued progress of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to produce fantastic images of fictional worlds. The techniques employed by the staff at Centurion are familiar, effective methods for animating worlds in the low budgets and short production cycles of the television animation world. While upon first glance the CGI is convincing, the attention to the natural physics of every day life are highly lacking. As with the animation of the 1960’s and 1970’s Anderson’s animation supplements broad-brush strokes for intimate details that convince an audience to believe in the fiction he has created. This is complimentary to Anderson’s original Supermarionation effect, which, while technically interesting, required suspension of disbelief to immerse the audience.
In this paper I have chosen to evaluate a single scene that exemplifies the need to allocate more resources toward the integration and animation of characters, props, and models in composited scenes. This paper serves to illuminate the successes and failure of two non-contiguous character animations sequences of 15 seconds length. The first is between 7:55 and 8:10, while the second, located at 11:30 to 11:45 serves only to emphasize the demonstrated in the first sequence. Both sequences are taken from Captain Scarlet Series 2, Episode two entitled Duel. I posit that a few technological and artistic production changes available in 2005 could have greatly enhanced the quality of the production without significantly increasing budget or time to production.
Video Sequence 1 | Sliding and Movement | Video Sequence 2
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