Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the series Make It Real.

Stephen Barnes, a classically trained artist who has worked for Pixar and CORE Digital, weighs in on the intersection of 2D, 3D and CG.

New technologies straddle old technologies in their early phases but new technologies also put old ones in a new light. And visa versa.

Coke was just Coke until New Coke came along and made the old one “classic.” And a clock was just a clock until technology made us reconsider time as either digital or analog. Of course, it’s still just time being expressed in different ways. But think of how digital clocks make us newly aware of the properties of the analog ones — digital clocks may be more accurate and easier to learn to read but analog gives us a more graphic picture of time — a way to visualize a half hour, for example, that makes it more real.

So what can we learn from the beams reflecting off 2D, commercial CG-3D and new approaches to CG?

I continued my talk with Charlie Bonifacio about this subject and also sought an opinion from another angle — while Bonifacio has deep roots in 2D classical — Stephen Barnes trained in classical but has spent most of his career working in CG-3D at such studios as Pixar and CORE Digital.

We talked with the assumption that no one way is better than the other. In looking at everything in a new light, though, we have a chance to see new possibilities.

The first big question, of course, is the quality of the acting. How it is affected by new and old technologies and what role new and old technologies can play in making performance better?

For example, what about the issue of staging for clarity with voice, facial expression and body pose all communicating the same emotion? The alternative that Chris Landreth suggests treats the emotions expressed in voice, face and body in layers. Even within the body, Landreth talks about having different parts expressing different emotions with some parts being ahead of the others, rather than moving in emotional unison. Can any of this be applied to 2D or would this be, as some suggest, like comparing apples and oranges?

WB cartoons, graphic and flashy animation are comprised of poses while subtle animation, like Disney human beings move less from pose to pose. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs © Disney.

Bonifacio feels that the key distinction that needs to be made is one of context. “Acting for cartoons has been pretty straightforward — what a character expresses is what they feel,” says Bonifacio. “Disney has probably done some exploration into text and subtext- the words come out but they mean something different inside — but it’s hard with drawings to communicate that sort of acting. Disney has done some work which is more subtle but the animation in the Warner Bros.’ shorts, for example, is really from the broad, cartoony school of acting. So the acting style relates to, more than anything, what genre you’re working in.””In terms of training the artist, regardless of genre or technique, I believe it is important for someone to first master the ability to say what they mean. There is a rigor in that which is a learning mirror. Once I am able to say what I mean clearly and succinctly, then perhaps I will be able to add the subtle nuances and layers of personality that make a more complex statement.”

How does pose-to-pose animation fit into this?

“When you get into WB’s cartoony approach,” says Bonifacio, “It really is pose to pose. Graphic and flashy animation uses pose-to-pose more. Subtle animation, like Disney human beings, uses pose-to-pose less. It’s the degree with which you hit poses that makes the difference. For example, in cartoon, you’re hitting broad and strong.”

Landreth also talked about the lack of poses in parts of Citizen Kane.

“But there are sections of Snow White, particularly with the seven dwarves, where I defy you to find a pose. Look at Tytla’s hand-washing sequence, for example. They were working straight ahead as well,” says Bonifacio, “And at some level Landreth, himself, is analyzing and selecting poses. There are fewer poses because it’s just two characters sitting at a table talking but when Ryan when gets mad and stands up and leans over the table that’s a choice in pose that any good animator would do, classical or not.”