MovieChat Forums > Resident Evil: Damnation (2012) Discussion > Really impressed with the animation

Really impressed with the animation


Now I've never watched a movie like this before. I've obviously seen completely computer-animated movies, but they are always striving for a cartoon look (Pixar, Dreamworks movies), so I'm not sure what the quality standard for movies like this one is.

This one seemed to be shooting for a look of photo-realism and I gotta say I thought it was great. I'm still in the midst of it, but there was just an over-the-shoulder shot of a couple soldiers and I thought they looked like real people. I like the fact that because of this, they can make Leon look exactly like he did in RE4 and capture the monsters in the same way.

Are there any other movies that look like this with the photo-realistic cg?

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It was very good, but they sorta killed it with the little unrealistic things, like people keep shaking their head back and forth while talking just so the animators can show how the hair is moving.

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No, jzmtl. That's just how Japanese people talk. If you see a live action Japanese shows, especially if it's action or comedy, they're very animated with their heads.

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Yeah! At least Ada's hair had more movement than the 8,000 dollars wig Ms Bingbing wore in the Retribution! The only thing I didn't like is that both Ada and Leon share the same hair stylist... could they be brother and sister and not knowing?

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Definitely impressive considering that this movie probably had 1/10th the budget of a Hollywood CG movie. I wish there were more movies that had the realistic look, but Americans seem to have the idea ingrained in their heads that animated movies = kiddie fare.

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Resident Evil Degeneration and Final Fantasy Spirits Within have great photorealistic CG, although I didnt like the story of FF:SW. FF Advent Children has a great storyline but the animation is not as great as RE Damn or Deg.

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Resident Evil Degeneration is not better than Final Fantasy Advent Children that released in 2005, the motion capture, lip syncing and all those details were done better than Deg, Degeneration was released in 2008 but it looked more like a gameplay real-time than a photorealistic CG.
Advent Children did not has great storyline, but they have very stunning action sequences.
Damnation is A LOT better than Deg, but if you compare the animation to the latest works from Square-Enix's Visual Works(the studio that made FF Advent Children and all other cgi cinematic for FF series), it didn't surpass it.
Checkout Hitman Absolution Saint trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65gcndvshAY

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My only issue with this and Degeneration is that you can still see the trademark (in my opinion) of Capcom's Animation.

I call it Capcom Leg. It's mostly prevelant in their modeling from Dead Rising onward, but their legs are always kind of wonky. They seem stiff and wooden at times... it's hard to describe properly, and hopefully I'm not the only one who has noticed it. Doesn't ruin what they're doing, but it's definitely a side-effect of their modeling software/graphics engine.

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Yes, there is something... off with that, I saw that, too.
Plus sometimes the characters lack weight, when they move or run, but it is a tiny thing. All in all, for such a well done cgi movie, I don't have many qualms.
This is the best RE movie yet, and of what I've seen, the best CGI movie so far.
Not like there are many good and well made CGI action movies anyway.

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Go watch Steven Spielberg's The Adventure of Tintin.

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I have watched and what I have to say is Tintin is not better.
When considering the budget and efficiency, it is poor.
But Spielberg is good at turning tiny little things to interesting action and entertainment.
But still the Tintin 2D cartoon is better.
I would rather go for Puss in Boots as it is visually better. The puss is a great piece of art!...

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Usually most of these realistic cgi movie were produced in Japan.

Final Fantasy The Spirits Within:
Written and directed the creator of the Final Fantasy game series, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the first photorealistic full length cgi film, a US-Japan movie, released in 2001.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children:
From the CGI studio of Square-Enix, based on the Final Fantasy VII game, also a sequel to the game, directed by Tetsuya Nomura, released in 2005, a director's cut were released in 2009.

Resident Evil Degeneration:
Based upon Capcom's Resident Evil video game series, a prequel to Resident Evil 5 game, from Digital Frontier studio, directed by Makoto Kamiya, released in 2008.

Tekken Blood Vengeance:
From Digital Frontier, the studio that produced the cgi intro for Shin-Onimusha game, Resident Evil Degeneration and Damnation. Based on the Tekken video game series, directed by Youichi Mori, released in 2011.

Starship Troopers Invasion:
Fromm Sola Digital Arts Studio, based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, written by Edward Neumeier and directed by Shinji Aramaki, the director of Appleseed, released in 2012.

The Polar Express:
Based on the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, released in 2004.

Beowulf:
Inspired by the Old English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, released in 2007.

Mars Needs Moms:
Based on the Berkeley Breathed book, co-written and directed by Simon Wells, released in 2011.

Upcoming:
Space Pirate Captain Harlock(2013), Toei animation, director - Shinji Aramaki.
Saint Seiya (unknown release date), Toei Animation.


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The animation was remarkably inconsistent in quality. Some scenes were absolutely stunning, others were hilariously bad. The textures were uniformly awesome, the fight scenes were animated beautifully...and then we got Leon's giant assed mannequin-like moving model (seriously, they gave his model an ass bigger than Kim Kardashian's, and he was supposed to be a very fit MALE, wtf was that?!), the president uber short hands and the massive uncanny valley of all faces. Except Sasha's, his was awesome.

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Well, looking at Leon's ass I assumed he had his back pockets stuffed with something, because they sure protruded, they were like pads, or maybe it was a part of his mission uniform - even normal looking jeans were padded here and there. LOL
Generally, his jeans looked bad, suited him badly, he looked bad in them, too baggy, too padded, nothing like the sleek looking ones in RE4 for example.
Some face animations in all characters bothered me a bit here and there, but overall, the job was well done here.
And one more thing that I've noticed - Leon's face looks nothing like in RE6, but if you see his profile, he looks the same in RE:Degen and RE6, that's weird.
From the front - totally different faces, from the side - they look alike.

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To me Leon looks like The Prince from,
Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time (2003)
Difference is here Leon is photorealistic :)

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Regarding Leon's weird ass:

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maxu7dmbh91qd7pv4.gif

There's just something not right with this model.

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Goddamn it, I hate seeing Leon with a second-rate ass. Capcom should try and copy Nathan Drake's ass, at least they do it right.
Examples:
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx60/ballintine3/Uncharted2_AmongTh ieves_47.jpg
http://media.psu.com/media/uncharted22_04.jpg

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For me they have tried to be too realistic and it affected the movie badly.
Lip movements are not realistic. Not quick and Smoother or flowing or than normal lips.
It look like they have extra teeth.
And I do not like the glow of their faces.
But still does not inferior to high budget movies like photo-realistic Tintin or cartoonish Tangled :)

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Have in mind that it's possible they animated the lip movements to fit Japanese speech, rather than English.

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No it's not.

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im not sure but here I don't think so!
But it's true for some movies like Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, but I have no problem with it even though I did not understand it properly and also haven't played a single FF game :)

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