Attack on Titan
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May 7, 2017 1:31 AM
#1
After binge watching season 1 before season 2; its really clear that there is a drop in animation quality in season 2. Im not saying season 2 has BAD animation; but im saying its less crisp and clean compared to season 1? Why is this? I thought having 4 years in the works with only 12 episodes would have everyone blown off their seats with insane animation. Im not disappointed, just confused... |
May 7, 2017 1:51 AM
#2
Do you have screens showing us a drop in the quality of animation? Apart from two or three moments when the staff use the CGI (a bit unpleasant for the eyes) to animate the horses when they gallop, I didn't notice any significant flaw. |
May 7, 2017 2:34 AM
#3
Haven't watched the second season, but i think they probably just trying to milk the entire serie, nothing new |
May 7, 2017 2:37 AM
#4
May 7, 2017 2:40 AM
#5
No I haven't noticed any significant drop in quality, what I've noticed instead is a lot of people whining about 4 seconds of CGI Colossal Titan. 1. If we get a CGI fight next week then I'll understand the complaints, but now it's just overreacting - it was just 4 second and in the meanwhile the Armored Titan was looking great as always 2. Chances are they'll just fix that Titan in BD release 3. If you're talking about CGI horses they were there since the 1st season |
May 7, 2017 3:08 AM
#6
May 7, 2017 3:15 AM
#7
The SNK is a great anime and season 2 just keeps exceeding my expectations XD |
May 7, 2017 4:00 AM
#8
Maybe you binge watched the Blu-Ray version of the show and are now in awe of how bad TV animation looks because the producers only truly care when they can get the money straight out of you. Common happening, surprised no one pointed that out. |
May 7, 2017 4:03 AM
#9
If anything, animation is one thing that Shingeki's second season has going for it. |
May 7, 2017 4:06 AM
#10
May 7, 2017 4:20 AM
#11
Sorry but the show wasn't 4 years in the works. It was just planned in 4 years. Most anime start production like 8 months before it airs. Second, I haven't noticed a dip in quality but if there is then it is because of the lack of new animators in the business (the same reason for why there will only be 12 eps of this season) |
May 7, 2017 4:24 AM
#12
Wasn't a thread like this already made before? People just looovvve to vent without even using forum search(or posting in the right subforum) |
May 7, 2017 4:26 AM
#13
Bourmegar said: Sorry but the show wasn't 4 years in the works. It was just planned in 4 years. Most anime start production like 8 months before it airs. Second, I haven't noticed a dip in quality but if there is then it is because of the lack of new animators in the business (the same reason for why there will only be 12 eps of this season) That Plus I really think that it has pretty much the same quality as the animation in first season had. Also I find the second season better than first one storywise so I´m really enjoying it. |
May 7, 2017 4:48 AM
#14
May 7, 2017 6:35 AM
#15
Honey, art =/= animation. And AoT's art is better, crisper, more beautiful and detailed than ever before. The only thing annoying me are those CGI shots of the horse riding scenes and the CGI raw meat-looking Colossal Titan. |
May 8, 2017 4:03 AM
#16
Episode 6 has probably been the most evident of their budget issues so far; Hange's animation was abyssmal, they did a great job depicting her as autistic. It's like they needed an epic ending to bring back the series and hence blew the budget on a 2 min scene + a cool soundtrack. This series is just piggybacking on the manga tbh |
~ |
May 8, 2017 6:56 AM
#17
Thread moved to Anime sub-board. |
May 8, 2017 9:11 AM
#18
Oh boiz here we are again On_the_Lam said: The CGI raw meat-looking Colossal Titan. I laughed more than I should have |
May 17, 2017 6:40 PM
#19
Season 2 absolutely does have bad animation. Nothing hand drawn looks bad, but the 3D is unbearably awful and completely breaks my suspense of disbelief, it's ruining the show for me. How long did we wait for s2 of this show and this is what we got? I understand crappy 3D on shows with very tight budgets, but AoT is like, hot-topic merch popular, there's absolutely no excuse for why so little effort was put into some of the sequences. All of the scenes with the 3D horses stick out like a sore thumb, and the sequences in episode 7 were unforgivably atrocious. I feel like I just got Berzerk'd edit: was bitching about wrong episode no. |
NastyNaptimeMay 17, 2017 6:44 PM
May 17, 2017 9:45 PM
#20
NastyNaptime, Dude, did someone gave u money to talk SHIT about aot season 2's animation???? In fact, season 2's animation has improved so much even the CGI was also not that bad. If u really think that this is bad, then what about dbz, dbs, naruto, bleach, one piece, code geass etc? they have the same art style nothing special, but look closely at aot!!!!!! WIT STUDIO worked day n night to give us high quality animation and why 12 eps? cause of this. U should understand that. |
May 18, 2017 2:14 AM
#21
Nah the animation hasn't dropped, season 2 has much more fluid animation. The Colossal Titan was probably a bitch to draw at the time so they did CGI while they focused more on Eren vs Armored Titan and all those 3DMG scenes. |
May 18, 2017 3:18 AM
#22
It's not like every CGI Colossal Titan scene was bad, this one was amazing https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/34353 |
May 18, 2017 8:23 AM
#23
Touka__Kirishima said: Episode 6 has probably been the most evident of their budget issues so far; Hange's animation was abyssmal, they did a great job depicting her as autistic. It's like they needed an epic ending to bring back the series and hence blew the budget on a 2 min scene + a cool soundtrack. This series is just piggybacking on the manga tbh Out of literally everything you could've nitpicked from arguably one of the best directed episodes in the entire series, you pick the lack of mouth-flapping from Hange as an actual flaw? Are people really this desperate to try and brand season 2 as shit? |
May 18, 2017 5:29 PM
#24
Modernoir said: Touka__Kirishima said: Episode 6 has probably been the most evident of their budget issues so far; Hange's animation was abyssmal, they did a great job depicting her as autistic. It's like they needed an epic ending to bring back the series and hence blew the budget on a 2 min scene + a cool soundtrack. This series is just piggybacking on the manga tbh Out of literally everything you could've nitpicked from arguably one of the best directed episodes in the entire series, you pick the lack of mouth-flapping from Hange as an actual flaw? Are people really this desperate to try and brand season 2 as shit? Lol it's time for you to wake up from your dream. Special snowflakes like you shouldn't lurk these threads. |
~ |
May 19, 2017 3:37 AM
#25
Touka__Kirishima said: Modernoir said: Touka__Kirishima said: Episode 6 has probably been the most evident of their budget issues so far; Hange's animation was abyssmal, they did a great job depicting her as autistic. It's like they needed an epic ending to bring back the series and hence blew the budget on a 2 min scene + a cool soundtrack. This series is just piggybacking on the manga tbh Out of literally everything you could've nitpicked from arguably one of the best directed episodes in the entire series, you pick the lack of mouth-flapping from Hange as an actual flaw? Are people really this desperate to try and brand season 2 as shit? Lol it's time for you to wake up from your dream. Special snowflakes like you shouldn't lurk these threads. Of course, the special snowflake is me since I'm the only one who thinks season 2 has great animation and am the only person that is voicing this opinion here. Hell, I'm also the only person who thinks the show is great, which is why it's got such a low ranking and isn't being talked about anywhere else, damn. Do you by any chance read your posts before you post them? Might help you sometimes. |
ModernoirMay 19, 2017 3:41 AM
May 19, 2017 5:04 AM
#26
Modernoir said: Touka__Kirishima said: Modernoir said: Touka__Kirishima said: Episode 6 has probably been the most evident of their budget issues so far; Hange's animation was abyssmal, they did a great job depicting her as autistic. It's like they needed an epic ending to bring back the series and hence blew the budget on a 2 min scene + a cool soundtrack. This series is just piggybacking on the manga tbh Out of literally everything you could've nitpicked from arguably one of the best directed episodes in the entire series, you pick the lack of mouth-flapping from Hange as an actual flaw? Are people really this desperate to try and brand season 2 as shit? Lol it's time for you to wake up from your dream. Special snowflakes like you shouldn't lurk these threads. Of course, the special snowflake is me since I'm the only one who thinks season 2 has great animation and am the only person that is voicing this opinion here. Hell, I'm also the only person who thinks the show is great, which is why it's got such a low ranking and isn't being talked about anywhere else, damn. Do you by any chance read your posts before you post them? Might help you sometimes. Once again trying to discredit criticism with your subjectivity. Let me elaborate once more; you probably shouldn't be here if you're triggered by harmless opinions. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
~ |
May 19, 2017 5:18 AM
#27
Touka__Kirishima said: Modernoir said: Touka__Kirishima said: Modernoir said: Touka__Kirishima said: Episode 6 has probably been the most evident of their budget issues so far; Hange's animation was abyssmal, they did a great job depicting her as autistic. It's like they needed an epic ending to bring back the series and hence blew the budget on a 2 min scene + a cool soundtrack. This series is just piggybacking on the manga tbh Out of literally everything you could've nitpicked from arguably one of the best directed episodes in the entire series, you pick the lack of mouth-flapping from Hange as an actual flaw? Are people really this desperate to try and brand season 2 as shit? Lol it's time for you to wake up from your dream. Special snowflakes like you shouldn't lurk these threads. Of course, the special snowflake is me since I'm the only one who thinks season 2 has great animation and am the only person that is voicing this opinion here. Hell, I'm also the only person who thinks the show is great, which is why it's got such a low ranking and isn't being talked about anywhere else, damn. Do you by any chance read your posts before you post them? Might help you sometimes. Once again trying to discredit criticism with your subjectivity. Let me elaborate once more; you probably shouldn't be here if you're triggered by harmless opinions. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ There's criticism and then there's nit-picking, I'd hardly discredit the entirety of episode 6 for as something as small as Hange's lack of animations. I wouldn't call it me getting "triggered" either, I'm just surprised that you feel that way. Though then again I'm not surprised if you have to rely on ad hominem attacks when you've barely got any proper criticisms. |
May 19, 2017 7:59 AM
#28
The use of Bad CGI is very apparent in alot of the horseback scenes. In season one, only the horses were rendered in cgi while the actual characters where animated normally. In this season, there are many scenes where both are rendered in cgi......They thought I wouldn't notice but I definitely caught that. That being said, this season makes up for the bad cgi by adding some breathtaking character art/designs for the close-up emotional scenes |
May 19, 2017 10:33 AM
#29
In term of art/design this season is obviously better than the first one, you can see how detailed the characters are drawn, not just the main characters even the minor ones, in the other side the characters looked off a lot of time in season 1 here's some examples http://imgur.com/a/sMqaZ |
May 19, 2017 12:27 PM
#30
X-Hunter said: In term of art/design this season is obviously better than the first one, you can see how detailed the characters are drawn, not just the main characters even the minor ones, in the other side the characters looked off a lot of time in season 1 here's some examples http://imgur.com/a/sMqaZ I thought the exact same, there was a surprising amount of weird "QUALITY" in season 1, but in season 2 I honestly haven't noticed any that aren't nit-picked inbetween frames of moving animation. |
Jun 4, 2017 2:58 PM
#31
iyeraditya560 said: NastyNaptime, Dude, did someone gave u money to talk SHIT about aot season 2's animation???? In fact, season 2's animation has improved so much even the CGI was also not that bad. If u really think that this is bad, then what about dbz, dbs, naruto, bleach, one piece, code geass etc? they have the same art style nothing special, but look closely at aot!!!!!! WIT STUDIO worked day n night to give us high quality animation and why 12 eps? cause of this. U should understand that. No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. |
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Jun 4, 2017 4:03 PM
#32
Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. |
Jun 5, 2017 1:08 AM
#33
On_the_Lam said: Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. Maybe not unlimited, but their budget should be extremely high. I mean, this series was a huge sucess. They should be getting all the support they need. It would be really weird if they didn't.. I heard something about lack of staff as well, but wasn't that just a rumor? If not, please send me a link because then I've missed that. Yeah I understand what you mean about the flashbacks. The one when Annie teached Eren how to fight was pretty stupid to put right in the middle of the fight.. Kind of killed the mood. It was like in the 2nd season of UBW. |
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Jun 5, 2017 1:14 AM
#34
X-Hunter said: In term of art/design this season is obviously better than the first one, you can see how detailed the characters are drawn, not just the main characters even the minor ones, in the other side the characters looked off a lot of time in season 1 here's some examples http://imgur.com/a/sMqaZ Yeah, I agree about the characters looking much better this season. Some things improved, and some things became bad, which is a shame.. For example, the most important thing (imo) - the movement. Especially in a series like this one. You can see a LOT of scenes in this season when everything in the background is a plain picture. Nothing moves. This episode, for example, right in the beginning when they talk about the horses. Just take a look at that.. The horses doesn't move or do shit, not even their hair or tail moves around. Things like that is what bugs me the most. A person is moving, but the background isn't. So I'd rather prefer S1 art instead of this.. :( |
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Jun 5, 2017 2:20 AM
#35
Julle said: http://goboiano.com/anime-industry-faces-animator-shortage-crisis-that-could-damage-future-productions/On_the_Lam said: Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. Maybe not unlimited, but their budget should be extremely high. I mean, this series was a huge sucess. They should be getting all the support they need. It would be really weird if they didn't.. I heard something about lack of staff as well, but wasn't that just a rumor? If not, please send me a link because then I've missed that. Yeah I understand what you mean about the flashbacks. The one when Annie teached Eren how to fight was pretty stupid to put right in the middle of the fight.. Kind of killed the mood. It was like in the 2nd season of UBW. |
Jun 5, 2017 3:47 AM
#36
Julle said: On_the_Lam said: Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. Maybe not unlimited, but their budget should be extremely high. I mean, this series was a huge sucess. They should be getting all the support they need. It would be really weird if they didn't.. I heard something about lack of staff as well, but wasn't that just a rumor? If not, please send me a link because then I've missed that. Yeah I understand what you mean about the flashbacks. The one when Annie teached Eren how to fight was pretty stupid to put right in the middle of the fight.. Kind of killed the mood. It was like in the 2nd season of UBW. The flashback where Annie taught Eren was one the best, to be honest. If you really think a series' budget is based on its success, then I think you should start watching Naruto. |
Jun 5, 2017 5:40 AM
#37
sim0n2170 said: Julle said: http://goboiano.com/anime-industry-faces-animator-shortage-crisis-that-could-damage-future-productions/On_the_Lam said: Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. Maybe not unlimited, but their budget should be extremely high. I mean, this series was a huge sucess. They should be getting all the support they need. It would be really weird if they didn't.. I heard something about lack of staff as well, but wasn't that just a rumor? If not, please send me a link because then I've missed that. Yeah I understand what you mean about the flashbacks. The one when Annie teached Eren how to fight was pretty stupid to put right in the middle of the fight.. Kind of killed the mood. It was like in the 2nd season of UBW. Thanks! Sad to hear about what he mentioned on twitter.. Wish it was possible to share money directly to the workers.. |
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Jun 5, 2017 5:42 AM
#38
Schopenhauer1 said: Julle said: On_the_Lam said: Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. Maybe not unlimited, but their budget should be extremely high. I mean, this series was a huge sucess. They should be getting all the support they need. It would be really weird if they didn't.. I heard something about lack of staff as well, but wasn't that just a rumor? If not, please send me a link because then I've missed that. Yeah I understand what you mean about the flashbacks. The one when Annie teached Eren how to fight was pretty stupid to put right in the middle of the fight.. Kind of killed the mood. It was like in the 2nd season of UBW. The studio only get a small part of the earnings. Yeah, I just read the article.. That's just stupid. Why are they not dividing it?.. The studio is doing all the work basically.. |
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Jun 5, 2017 5:53 AM
#39
On_the_Lam said: Julle said: On_the_Lam said: Julle said: No, I totally agree with NastyNaptime. The animation quality is way worse in this season compared to the first one. The movement of everything is so much worse and it's honestly killing the series for me as well. It looks great sometimes, in dialogues mostly. But as soon as they move around, you can instantly see the how dull it looks. I'm really disappointed how bad it turned out to be, animation wise, when they had plenty of time for planning and unlimited budget(?). It's such a shame, because this season is great otherwise. They didn't have unlimited budget and they also had limited staff. The animation this season should be the watchers' least concern though, since this season is being butchered by (mostly out of place) flashbacks. Maybe not unlimited, but their budget should be extremely high. I mean, this series was a huge sucess. They should be getting all the support they need. It would be really weird if they didn't.. I heard something about lack of staff as well, but wasn't that just a rumor? If not, please send me a link because then I've missed that. Yeah I understand what you mean about the flashbacks. The one when Annie teached Eren how to fight was pretty stupid to put right in the middle of the fight.. Kind of killed the mood. It was like in the 2nd season of UBW. The flashback where Annie taught Eren was one the best, to be honest. If you really think a series' budget is based on its success, then I think you should start watching Naruto. You think so? I never thought it was bad, just not as good as the others (except the flashback when they were young). The one thing I thought was bad though, was the timing with the flashback. I've seen Naruto. It's a pretty big difference though, compared to Shingeki, with far more episodes. I thought the reason why Naruto looked so bad was because the studio stopped caring. They know that it would sell either way. And it wasn't like people were having big expectations. Shingeki however, is a different story. The pressure is on another level. But yeah, it could have been a money issue as well with Naruto, since the money doesn't seem to go to the animation studio.. |
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Jun 5, 2017 9:33 AM
#40
4 years XD Julle said: I've seen Naruto. It's a pretty big difference though, compared to Shingeki, with far more episodes. I thought the reason why Naruto looked so bad was because the studio stopped caring. Naruto fillers have better animation than snk, the reason for this lower quality is because they are busy with other projects and don't care about snk that much, they delayed it for a year because of that. |
Jun 5, 2017 9:41 AM
#41
ichii_1 said: 4 years XD Julle said: I've seen Naruto. It's a pretty big difference though, compared to Shingeki, with far more episodes. I thought the reason why Naruto looked so bad was because the studio stopped caring. Naruto fillers have better animation than snk, the reason for this lower quality is because they are busy with other projects and don't care about snk that much, they delayed it for a year because of that. To go that far and say that even Naruto fillers have better animation is just bs if you ask me.. Snks animation is great compared to most animes. This season, however, doesn't do the first season justice imo. They don't care about Snk that much? I doubt that. Snk is their biggest project, of course they prioritize it.. Or are you saying that you have a source that confirms they don't? |
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Jun 5, 2017 1:16 PM
#42
ichii_1 said: 4 years XD Julle said: I've seen Naruto. It's a pretty big difference though, compared to Shingeki, with far more episodes. I thought the reason why Naruto looked so bad was because the studio stopped caring. Naruto fillers have better animation than snk, the reason for this lower quality is because they are busy with other projects and don't care about snk that much, they delayed it for a year because of that. For the sake of any of your points being taken seriously at all I'll just presume that was a joke that missed its mark, SnK consistently has some of the most impressive animation this season to begin with. Comparing it to Naruto filler of all things is one of the funniest, yet dumbest comparisons I've seen on this forum. |
Jun 25, 2017 5:52 PM
#43
Do people serious not see a decline in animation quality? I suppose it would be difficult to recall given the first season aired around 4 years ago, but if you look back it shouldn't be hard to discern. I was seriously disappointed with how the animation turned out. I wouldn't even call it a shell of its former self. I'll compare two scenes that displaying the 3d maneuver gear's ability. (Contains minor spoilers.) Mikasa dodging projectile debris from the Female Titan Mikasa targeting Bertolt The difference between these two scenes are the camera angles and their movement. The scene with the Female Titan views a wide shot of the buildings being blurred in the background as Mikasa grapples her way through debris. They highlight fast paced motion in large space to emphasize the dynamism of the scene, as well as the notable size differences between the subject of the scene, the environment, and their target, the Female Titan. Movement is clean and consistent throughout the scene. The second scene finds a way to get past this emphasis of motion. The scene starts by viewing Mikasa in midair. The 'camera' maintains distance for a while and suddenly stops, making her appear still as she turns then suddenly draw back as if in full control of her residual projectile movement, thought she was being flung back the whole time. She lunges forward with the hooks taking initial movement, and just as she makes a close up with the camera, it turns to face Bertolt and begins following Mikasa again with her back at the side. These few seconds alone disregard a sense of depth for the sake of convenience. Camera angles make movement appear rigid, and the scene right after Mikasa's close-up is practically a still image. For this entire scene, the background of the animation is a still image being turned around or zoomed into, causing it to look flat. Mikasa lands as if she had just hopped a couple steps down a stairway and immediately proceeds to running with no body transitioning recoil. The camera continues to pan in a manner that ignores depth and the entire scene ends with another still image bust view of the Armored Titan and Mikasa on his trapezius, which looks so flat they look like paper printouts stacked atop each other. We're talking about a decline animation here, the animation itself might not be entirely bad but in contrast to how it was back then 'convenience' should never be an excuse for animation like that. They were using common techniques used for animating scenes that didn't really call for good animation, but when you consider this is the climatic scene to end the series it's really disappointing. They abused the use of dynamic pictures (still images with moving components) throughout the season 2 as well, and for the most part it only killed any momentum brought by some of the well animated scenes. Mikasa dodges a horde of titans on horseback and leaps towards Bertolt on maneuver gear A personal complaint here is that the titans are given plot armor speeds for the sake of 'realistically' bringing Mikasa through the mayhem. Moving ahead of that complaint, they have a nice angle of animating Mikasa, who is hooked at the Armored Titan's left hand, loop around him (though when compared to scenes like this or this which give so much detail to the aerobatic nature of the maneuver gear, it looks lackluster). But when they transition to her attempting to cut Bertolt, the camera zooms into her eyes once more to ignore the perspective background transitioning and zoom out to show the result of her endeavor, the feel of natural movement given by the preceding scene is absolutely gone. The camera angles and roughly animated body movements make the overall movement seem forced and unnatural. My emphasis on camera angles is to point out what that would mean when animating. It's fairly obvious, the camera angle determines what should be animated. What is going to be the main focus, how the camera angle should move in relation the intention of a scene, how it should move in relation to what is at focus or how much should be revealed. This kind of choreography is based off simple decisions but determines a lot. You had scenes that paid attention to almost everything. This one in particular emphasizes a lot, going into detail the movements of multiple subjects as it pans through the background independently from the subjects of the scene. It practically makes a statement that the people have no control over their environment, yet instead of controlling it they seek to manipulate its presence, in a metaphorical sense. They add equal focus among the human and environmental aspects of the scene, and reach an equilibrium of detail that helps achieve its realism. Then when you have scenes that emphasize an individual character. These parts would emphasize emotion and intention of characters, or go in depth to depict conflict. So what does this have to do with good animation? Well, a good animation is one that is well understood, one that can fabricate reality in moving pictures. Anime in most cases goes on the basis of following real world concepts, unless otherwise implied. Attack on Titan clearly attempts to capture the real world situation, with supernatural traits of predator-ism in a realistic food chain. Certain aspects of anime go against real world aspects, such as dynamic perspective to exaggerate emotion, but we could just dismiss it as being artistic. What makes the second season so dull compared to its predecessor is the lack in depicting traits of real life. Seeing bodily movement outside the control of the user of a 3D maneuver gear dictated its realism, once these slight details are ignored you get the vibe that maneuver gear follows universal laws outside of the real world's and that it's its own independent concept. Scenes of this season were being animated for the sake of being animated. They failed to capture this equilibrium in the second season with the main focus being mostly on the characters, because perhaps that is how the story is being paced. (Regarding the highly controversial use of CGI, that isn't something I'd call bad. Sure, using CGI to model the Colossal Titan, normal titans, and horses was bad, but it is inevitably bad. You don't see many anime properly manipulate the use of CGI everyday. It was leaning more towards the idea that the fact they even considered such decisions was bad. C'mon, you think if they intended on making this better than the first season, or at least on par with, they'd resort to using CGI? In any case, it should be the other way around.) Facial and head structures with characters were disproportionate. Faces at certain angles often looked distorted, and the overall structure of certain characters were inconsistent in size. Eyes would often times deform to shapes that wouldn't fit a specific characters eyes. Jaw lines, horizontal facial length, eye gaps, placement of the nose, eyes, or mouth relative to each other, things like this were inconsistent or at times misrepresented. It made it hard to discern traits because it would contradict the overall definition of human expression that they themselves established by drawing the characters. There are a good amount of exceptions regarding this one, but the lasting impression I had on this was many of the facial structures were slightly off. Sure, most of these were minor mistakes, but when they begin to stack up like they did in the second season its effect becomes exponential. To think that it takes the climax scene just to nail down faces. (Humans and titans both share equal appearances to emphasize their coexistence. Humans have no priority over titans because they are ultimately weaker, but titans aren't any more prioritized as well because they have increased their chances of survival with technology. Season 2 tends to have titans die off in the background just to progress through the story. The concept that even living after a titan encounter is impressive or the heavy burden in the essence of surviving is ultimately thrown away as both titan and human lives are taken away meaninglessly in an ironic attempt to achieving that realism.) One thing that made Attack on Titan so good is the highly evident gaps between the size of humans and their environment, the large-scaled walled cities and the titans. The amazing attention to depth, perspective, and intricate detail on infrastructural design and facial appearances of titans made characters seem so small. It was extremely immersive. It was also very consistent. You had scenes like this to simultaneously highlight the realism of using the maneuver gear AND define the environment for the audience. Scenes like when Eren and Mikasa make their way towards the boulder to boast how well they can animate those scenes and amp up the audience as they anticipate the recovery of the wall, then be shocked when things go awry. That's aside the point. This realism was achieved through consistent attention in proportions. It made it feasible to determine the sizes of everything. There was a general scale the mind could map out. But the second season jacks this up. All sorts of disproportionate scenes make it difficult to comprehend feasible sizes. Animation isn't always just eye candy, it can very well define story pacing, something they fully manipulated in the first season. But the second season kinda forced this. Scenes were over dramatized in hopes of capturing the initial emotion of the scene, but it only made room for an artificial feel. In this case, the second season was mostly eye candy. Eye food. Instant noodles in contrast to real noodles. Dynamic images (still images with 'moving' components) weren't used to highlight certain points in a battle as opposed to the first season. The second season used these to define entire situations and transition into different scenes. The overwhelming sense of depth depicted by a well interpreted sense of perspective was not evident in this season. It lacked understanding. Just take a look at a few of these scenes:
When you say the second season is better than the first season in terms of animation, you have to remember that means topping scenes such as this in quality animation. In fact, I preferred the animation of Koutesujou no Kabaneri over the second season. That one was really well animated. tl;dr With all the life I still have in my body, I refuse to believe that the 2nd season's animation should even be compared to that of the 1st. |
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