Animation

1) What are the Pros and Cons of Computer Generated Imagery?
Pros: look real, inhabited character can not be seen in the movie, can put something which is hard or impossible to control into movie, e.g. ape, monster, still life, CGI can give life to them, cheaper and more convenient that producer doesnt need to build a real setting for shooting.

Cons: look fake, less skill acquired for the filmmaker. rely so much on the technicians, body movement matters more on body movement than acting which can be manufactured by CGI

2) Will Computer Generated Imagery make actors obsolete? Yes or No? Why?
it is imposible that computer generated imagery would totally replace actors. basically, they are different form of thing. our focus would be put on the emotion, acting and expression of the actors. but for CGI character, we focus on the technology used. The technique and the technology earn admiration.
would human being be replaced by robot in the future?

3) Should digital characters be nominated for acting awards competing with humans?
the criteria to judge whether the actors deserves an acting award is most depended on the acting and the performance of the actors. they are highly praised when the actors can incarnate the virtue character created by the script writer convincingly to audience while audience get touched by them. what makes audience get touched should be the familiarity between the character and audience themselves. since human actors live in the same world that audience do, actors can communicate with audience through characters. However, digital characters are created or manipulated by the designer through computer. they can not really experience what human beings do. even the desiner can imput the formular into the digital character so as to acheive the sedired emotion, they are not all rounded and just formular. in this case, how can we put higher value on the mechanical-digital actors than human actors? if we do need to praise the performance of the digital actors, the designer of the digital actors should be awarded rather than the creation. moreover, it is inappropriate to compare human actors and digital actors.

4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of motion capture?

advantages: captures specific style of real people; help create more lively character but inputting real people's motion; can capture all fine details of human motion

disadvantages: expensive for the technique and equipment; time-consuming for post production stage; lots of equipment, spaces, and actors; not easy to edit and generalize

5) Should animation strive for photorealism?
It is hard to say 'should' or 'should not'. it is all about what the director wants for the movie. to strive for photorealism or not depends on the style of the movie. It is no doubt that audience desire realism on animation movie. however, animators should not merely strive for photorealism. they should balance between mimesis film and abstract film. it is unadvisable to pursue photorealism to show the skill on technology. this sometimes happens in 3D film where 3D is not necessary for the film.