Bugs Bunny! No!
September 5, 2007 9:39 PM   Subscribe

 
It needs to be much shittier to qualify as BOTW, Astro.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:43 PM on September 5, 2007 [4 favorites]


Once again, I am not high enough.
posted by tula at 9:44 PM on September 5, 2007


Once again, I must resort to self-favoriting.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:46 PM on September 5, 2007 [5 favorites]


I dont know about hideously wrong,

the editing, sound and lack of any kind of entertainment/script value is what makes it complete crap - i thought the actual motion capture seemed to replicate human movement quite realistically. In the hands of a proper director and animator this motion capture tool could probably be used quite nicely.
posted by benny at 9:55 PM on September 5, 2007


I kinda liked it, actually.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:56 PM on September 5, 2007


Some of the things Disney sticks in the vault won't be missed.
posted by Tuwa at 9:59 PM on September 5, 2007


The third video is like watching The Holy Mountain after binging on helium. The music at 3:10, the original Macpaint woman-combing-her-hair rendered into the background at 2:28, the open-mouthed primate still image at 0:10. Amazing.
posted by ftrain at 9:59 PM on September 5, 2007 [2 favorites]


As ghastly as these are, I'm sure there were executives who watched and nodded approvingly, because these looked real. Not like those cartoony cartoons with all the expensive stretching and bouncing and expressions and stuff. Really, who's gonna tell the difference?
posted by maryh at 10:10 PM on September 5, 2007


The models are hideous, but I thought the motion capture was pretty good.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:12 PM on September 5, 2007


I actually don't get what was meant to be funny, or even entertaining, about this. Unintentionally, intentionally, whatever. I feel old.
posted by Epenthesis at 10:15 PM on September 5, 2007


Hello nightmares.
posted by unmake at 10:21 PM on September 5, 2007


Someone needs to die for this.
posted by stavrogin at 10:24 PM on September 5, 2007


The test results appear to be what happens when Polar Express collides with the customized furry-style RealDoll harem of a dotcom millionaire who had a formative sexual experience at Chuck-E-Cheese during his eleventh birthday party. It's animatronic, It's chilling, and it's smiling at me; I fully expect it to have retractable flesh-rending claws and, within a decade, come to a well-intentioned reception area near me that I will never, ever visit again.
posted by adipocere at 10:29 PM on September 5, 2007 [3 favorites]


Why do the cartoon characters have muscles?
posted by ryoshu at 10:31 PM on September 5, 2007


I was on Second Life earlier. This holds no terror for me.
posted by darksasami at 10:57 PM on September 5, 2007 [3 favorites]


Well, we don't really know the backstory. I've made a lot of crap stuff when I've been experimenting with some new technology, techniques, software. Stuff which I thought was pretty cool because I'd "figured it out", but which was definitely not meant for general human consumption. When I first discovered POVRay, I was emailing everyone I knew with pictures I made with it. Pictures of...spheres. Chequered planes. Blobs floating in space. I thought they were cool, anyway...

But, I guess, these days it's so easy to upload anything you do to the net, maybe some people don't have that barrier of "Hmm this is crap, I won't share it..."

We keep hearing about how all the young folks (getoffamylawn) these days are unconcerned about privacy, how they'll put any of their information online, share their photos for all to see. I guess this also extends to crappy attempts at animation.

Why do the cartoon characters have muscles?

Ask the furries.
posted by Jimbob at 11:02 PM on September 5, 2007


The Donald Duck one is somehow the most hypnotic thing I've ever seen.
posted by shadow vector at 11:03 PM on September 5, 2007


I thought the same thing as SCDB - the motion capture was quite good. The models, especially that hideously malformed Donald Duck Thing, were horrific.
posted by lekvar at 11:03 PM on September 5, 2007


What I want is context. Who made these? Why? And at whose request? There's obviously some money involved; from what I understand motion capture isn't cheap.
posted by lekvar at 11:06 PM on September 5, 2007


It's Donald Duck in tighty-whities dancing to the Chimpmunks singing Elvis. I imagine that kind of thing goes on in Second Life all the time.
posted by jefbla at 11:13 PM on September 5, 2007


Reminded me instantly of Worker and Parasite

Especially the "What the hell was that?" part.
posted by Clave at 11:15 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]


There's obviously some money involved; from what I understand motion capture isn't cheap.

I'll be the first to admit I know next to nothing about motion capture, but I imagine that if you did do motion capture on the cheap (say, dancing around your living room in front of a webcam with fluorescent stickers stuck to your joints) it would look something very much like this...
posted by Jimbob at 11:19 PM on September 5, 2007


I'm just glad to know I'm not the only one shrugging at these and saying "Meh." Meh.
posted by barnacles at 11:22 PM on September 5, 2007


from what I understand motion capture isn't cheap

10s of thousands these days. Doing it well...
posted by ryoshu at 11:27 PM on September 5, 2007


This is hideous and disturbing. I've never seen such grotesque renditions of Disney characters. What kind of horrible brain damage do you have to have to think that these look good?

... he even made a version of Pavarotti. Timely, and still horrible. (He did it 4 months ago, though.)

.... Why???
posted by blacklite at 11:41 PM on September 5, 2007


(shaking head) ... and they said Pixar would save Disney.
posted by rob511 at 11:43 PM on September 5, 2007


I thought the start of the bugs bunny one was hilarious - the motion-capture version of "is this microphone working?" as the guy looks at the mo-cap camera then leans out to adjust some settings on the recording computer. The rest was meh, but I loved that part.
(But if that first bit was intentional, then crap, but I prefer my interpretation of what was going on :-p )
posted by -harlequin- at 11:47 PM on September 5, 2007


That's it, I'm outta here.
posted by LinusMines at 11:51 PM on September 5, 2007


Okay, snarky Second Life remark from above aside, it's pretty clear what this guy (I'm stereotyping and assuming male; sue me) did. I guess if you haven't done that sort of thing in the past, it's not as readily apparent as I would have thought.

First of all, dances and other animations that can be applied to J. Random Wireframe are everywhere. So that's why the motion capture is good--it's not his.

Second, rather than taking a wireframe and building a model around it, he's taken human models and distorted them horrifically, adding extra bits only when he absolutely has to, in order to make them as close to the cartoon characters as he can. That's why they're so creepy--he took the direct approach into the uncanny valley. That's why the cartoons have muscles. That's why Donald Duck has toes. And I don't even want to talk about Mickey.

Okay, these things are forgivable for someone new to 3D animation and the things you can do with it. But the part that makes this so weird and horrible is that the creator thought that these were really neato, so much so that he published them on YouTube for the world to see. This MeFi post is the price of hubris. Or at least hubris combined with lousy taste. Don't think there's a need to worry, though--he's no Star Wars Kid.
posted by darksasami at 12:02 AM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]


That's one buff rabbit.
posted by trondant at 12:04 AM on September 6, 2007


fftrain mentions "The music at 3:10" in the third video. That was exactly my favorite bit. WTF is that? It has a Russian feel (both the music and accent)... If anyone knows what it is, I'd love to know.

I'm really partial to the duck, though. That was wicked!
posted by symbioid at 12:26 AM on September 6, 2007


The same user has made a lot of these. The newest video is "Lady shy in sexy dance", which will certainly not disappoint. But the Mel Gibson zombie in Braveheart in 3D isn't bad either. I'm not sure which one my favourite is.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:01 AM on September 6, 2007


Topical and tasteful.
posted by klaatu at 2:40 AM on September 6, 2007


Oh. Sorry, I'm all bleary with fluish stuff. Makes me move like bugs bunny.
posted by klaatu at 2:42 AM on September 6, 2007


When did Donald start wearing underpants?
posted by MtDewd at 3:02 AM on September 6, 2007


Luckily the video where beefed-up Bugs wears a dress and wetly kisses Elmer Fudd has not been motion-captured... yet...
posted by slimepuppy at 3:41 AM on September 6, 2007


Donald's muscular thighs are the creepiest thing I've seen all week.
posted by EarBucket at 4:23 AM on September 6, 2007


The Mickey video is sort of brilliantly weird, though.
posted by EarBucket at 4:25 AM on September 6, 2007


Goddamn furries.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:35 AM on September 6, 2007


I think it may have been more appropriate if they presented Roger Rabit performing his eponymous dance.
posted by Pollomacho at 4:41 AM on September 6, 2007


I can't say I found it amusing, but watching that bizarre , misshapen homunculus that was vaguely dressed like donald duck thrust and jerk about made me doubt the existence of God more than Dawkins and Hitchens combined ever could. I... I can still see it when I close my eyes.

I would say this post is noteworthy for that alone.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 5:07 AM on September 6, 2007 [5 favorites]


One thing's for sure: Donald is packing.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:13 AM on September 6, 2007


Gee, until today I thought a full set of fingers and toes was a mark of high-quality animation. This does make one appreciate the Pixar guarantee in the end-credits of Ratatouille: "100% genuine animation. No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film."
posted by ubiquity at 5:52 AM on September 6, 2007


I don't know, Uther, I've never quite understood the word blasphemy before watching these videos, but it takes on a whole new meaning now. I feel unclean.
posted by picea at 5:56 AM on September 6, 2007


There's a lot wrong with those, but not so much with the mocap itself. Think wildly spinning hands and epileptic convulsions for that.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:32 AM on September 6, 2007


I assumed they were school projects from several different people composed by a teacher, could even be elementary students or something.
posted by delmoi at 6:40 AM on September 6, 2007


It is an amused writing desk.

BTW, no money was spent on any of these. The software is called iClone.
posted by damehex at 6:44 AM on September 6, 2007


I want my innocence back.
posted by sidereal at 8:51 AM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]


The motion capture, as has been said, is fine. The keyframing, however, is smoothing the motion so that the characters float and bounce unrealistically. And the motions don't loop cleanly. This is about what a high school student would produce on a first try.

The oddity of choice of characters to map the motion onto is a little weird, but is just a first-timer's quick patch. The unrelated cruddy background is the same. And so is the music.
posted by lothar at 9:19 AM on September 6, 2007


Someone has masturbated to this.
posted by graventy at 10:48 AM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]


I'll admit that I was weirded out by Donald's legs, and the music, and the faces, and the twitchy movements. But I'm ok with that. I was able to keep myself under control. It was the giant headed break-dancing baby that was too much; that's what pushed me over the edge.

And that is why I needed to repeatedly stab that person, your honor. It was that fucking baby. I saw it and just snapped.
posted by quin at 10:50 AM on September 6, 2007


Mickey looks like he's being interviewed by Charlie Rose.
posted by evilcolonel at 12:06 PM on September 6, 2007


Someone has masturbated to this.

Hold on, I'm almost there. Disco. Disco Duck.
posted by Peter H at 12:39 PM on September 6, 2007


that was so bad I think it gave me cancer....
posted by subaruwrx at 12:40 AM on September 7, 2007


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