Editor's Note: In the April 1996 issue of Animation World Magazine, Barry Purves brought us, " The Emporer's New Clothes. " Nearly two years later Barry's article is still one of the most popular. With his latest installment we find that maybe he's not a Luddite after all.

Download a Quicktime movie clip from Barry Purves' most recent short film, Achilles. © 1995 Bare Boards/Channel 4.

"Hey, didn't you used to be in animation?" "I still am....it's the animation that got...computerized!"

Apologies to Norma Desmond, but that was the rough theme of the last article I wrote here, nearly two years ago. I'd just returned to England after the unique experience that was Mars Attacks! and was facing a struggle to get established and funded in the UK again. In some respects, things have not changed. In practical terms, the only animation I have done has been as an `understudy' covering animators on holidays and such. I have written and developed about ten films, and though there is interest in some, nothing specific has been signed and sealed. I am itching to get behind a camera again.

Just what has Barry Purves been doing for the last two years? Swimming with dolphins in Australia, among other things! Photo courtesy of and © Barry Purves.

But fear not, this article will hopefully not be as bitter or as angry as the last one. Two years has given me plenty of time to be philosophical about all the changes around me. Norma Desmond may never have worked again in the `new' sound era, and who knows, I may never get to direct and animate puppets again in this new `CG' era, but at least I have admitted that CG animation is pretty damn amazing. There are things being produced tha really could not be done with puppets; Jurassic Park - The Lost World, Alien: Resurrection and Men in Black bear witness to that. Titanic is the perfect example of breathtaking CG effects working for a film and not the other way around.

Room for CG
Given the chance I would not say `no' to working with CG characters. (Hey, I would not say `no' to working!) I certainly would not have said that two years ago, when I was totally haughty about CG. The main reason for this change of attitude is that this spectacular hiatus in my career has given me the chance to accept some very generous offers to go `round the world doing talks, workshops and being on the jury of many festivals. One of these offers came from Blue Sky in New York. Very kindly, Henry Anderson asked me to lead some acting classes with his computer class. In return, I got to spend some time working closely with his CG animators on Alien: Resurrection. I clearly had the better bargain there. This was a real Road to Damascus conversion for me, as I could see that the animators and I shared the same goal, which was to get a good acting performance out of the characters. We may have shared the same goal, but not the same language. Terms tripped easily off their tongues and had me rushing to my CG translation dictionary! I did feel very at home at this studio, unlike another nameless studio, who seemed overjoyed at having spent months developing the software to reproduce the exact texture of a pencil. "Hang on a minute," I felt like saying. What was wrong with the pencil itself?

So, I have generally come to the conclusion that it is horses for courses. The wonderful characters in James and the Giant Peach would not have worked as well in CG, and I don't think after Jurassic Park that we can, or should, ever accept a model animated dinosaur again. The only worry is if CG becomes the exclusive form of animation. Perhaps, it's as easy as saying CG is good for making the fantastic seem real, whereas puppets are more suited for making the fantastic seem credible, which is not the same at all.