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Anime camera angles.


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Jih2



Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Posts: 403
Location: East coast
PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:01 pm Reply with quote
I've been noticing as I watch film in my high school film study class and as I watch films as they are re-released on the Criterion Collection that typical anime isn't very inventive with its camera angles. Only one film comes to mind that does various different shots and that is Jin-Roh but I can't think of any other anime films, OVAs or TV series that I've seen which work on making really cool shots. It really bothers me that something which is so often argues about as art doesn't want to treat itself as art. I feel like too many anime TV series simply have the same generic "camera angles." We get the characters faces as they're talking, their reactions, if there are numerous characters, we get a shot that captures all of them, etc. On the other end of the spectrum we get way too much camera movement as seen in Blame! where it feels like the creators had way too much time and money and were able to do some strange albeit cool "camera angles." Is this just one of those things animation doesn't do well or is it just me?
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Vortextk



Joined: 10 Jan 2006
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Location: Orlando, Fl
PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:28 pm Reply with quote
I would say this is something exceedingly hard to capture in animation. Atleast, on a budget. It's just easier to do a straight on shot of the character's face to show emotion, right?

Look at Haruhi's ep 00(or 12 I think chronologically) for lots of fun with camera angles if you haven't seen it before. Of course it's there for a purpose, a "student film", but Haruhi does have this other places as well. A funny one was always watching Mikuru being undressed by Haruhi and getting the shot from the locker/bookshelves(could be either, I forget).

Chalk this up to being as powerful as having extremely fluid animation or detailed backgrounds, I guess. It takes talent, time and budget to do this. So no, it's probably anime and not you.
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Animastryfe



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 152
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:05 pm Reply with quote
Try Ef- A Tale of Memories, although the character designs in that show annoys me. I think they have use some interesting effects that really helps the scenes portray whatever it is they are portraying.

Camera angles are not the only artistic things about video media.
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
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Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:30 pm Reply with quote
I think series like Texhnolyze, Yukikaze, Ergo Proxy and movies like Patlabor 1+2 or GitS had some very interesting camera angles. There are others as well(those just came to mind), so I wouldn't say that the "standard angles" are always used. Also another thing to look out for is a mix of both standard and non-standard angles. I think a lot more than you think do use non-standard angles, it's just that they use the normal ones as well.
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selenta
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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:08 pm Reply with quote
I'm gonna agree with the budget idea. Some anime definitely have some non-standard camera angles, but it's gonna be difficult to really produce those crazy camera angles in a reasonable manner for a TV show. It's hard enough to draw detailed scenes in a standard frame, much less a moving shot from an odd camera angle with a fisheye lens of a million man fight scene. Their first priority is to make the show obviously, once they can be sure the show will be made on budget, then they can consider adding more detailed animation styles.
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Veoryn87



Joined: 14 Nov 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:00 pm Reply with quote
You'll see more inventive camera angles in high budget movies than series. Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust has plenty of them. I see quite a few good camera movements in Kyoto Animation anime like Haruhi or Kanon.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
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Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:58 pm Reply with quote
Having a limited budget, I stay away from the more generic Anime, so the production values of the Anime I watch are usually of sufficient quality. However, I would have thought that advanced camera work would have been easy with Anime, since it is not restrained like live productions. So I am therefore surprised at the prevalence of generic perspectives among lower-budget Anime. A small budget should not necessarily hurt creativity in that way, so I can only put it down to less gifted production staff.

I would say FLCL used some VERY nice camera work, which belies the gifted staff at GAINAX rather than the high budget. Neon Genesis Evangelion (from GAINAX as well) also used some interesting angles, and (slightly off topic) liberally used the "fish lense" perspective to great effect.
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Xenofan 29A



Joined: 09 Aug 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 12:14 am Reply with quote
Ah, someone beat me to mentioning Evangelion. Yeah, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hideaki Anno is an incredible director, and everything he does has his very unique "camera work" (which is really a matter of storyboarding). Note in Gunbuster, Episode 5, how a back shot of Noriko and Amano cuts directly to Noriko's chair as she stands up. We see the chair move back as she stands, from a low-to-the-ground angle. Shots like this run throughout Anno's work and give it a distinctive look and feel.

There were some excellent examples of storyboarding in RahXephon, Eureka SeveN, and Ouran High School Host Club, all done by Tomoki Kyoda. I enjoyed his work on those shows.

Of course, Satoshi Kon does amazing work on his own films. Watch the many graphic match cuts in Millennium Actress, or the tense cuts in Perfect Blue. (Even better, watch the documentary on the DVD for Paprika, and see him drawing those meticulously detailed storyboards.)

Contrary to what has been said here, the budget is pretty inconsequential to whether or not the show uses artistic camera angles to depict. You can see great artistry in TV shows, OVAs, or movies, and it really isn't related to monetary concerns. It depends much more on the director and storyboarder(s) than it does on money.
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:15 am Reply with quote
Xenofan 29A:

Although I don't toot Anno's horn as much as you do, I do have to whole heartily agree with you about his "camera work". Including the ones you mentioned, another example I would give is his work on His and Hers. And no I am not talking about the "cheap tricks" and obvious budget shortcuts, but actual camera work. I haven't read the manga yet, so I don't know how much carried over from that, but I was impressed by the different views in that anime as well.


-------------------------
On another note, I have question since the fish-eyed view has been mentioned twice, and I know there are plenty of people who know about making animation around. First, I am not sure if I would call the fish-eyed lens a camera angle per se, but more of an effect of the actual angle. Anyway that's off of what I want to ask. What I want to know is, when that effect is used, do they just draw the picture normally, and then run it through a filter? Or do they actually draw it that way?
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:42 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
A small budget should not necessarily hurt creativity in that way, so I can only put it down to less gifted production staff.


Xenofan 29A wrote:
Contrary to what has been said here, the budget is pretty inconsequential to whether or not the show uses artistic camera angles to depict. You can see great artistry in TV shows, OVAs, or movies, and it really isn't related to monetary concerns. It depends much more on the director and storyboarder(s) than it does on money.


Way ahead of you there. Please do not make blanket statements when in reality there were clear differences of opinions.

Having said that, I agree with you that it is the key staff that drive the creative process, not the animators. Low-budget productions that are lucky enough to attract gifted staff look almost as good as high-budget productions.

@Dargonxtc: I have always wondered that too. I suggest this.

Sounds like it had to be done by straight by hand for shows like Escaflowne and Eva, but now they have a computer to distort the image.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:51 am Reply with quote
A lot of series produced by Madhouse have some interesting ones, Black Lagoon, Claymore, and Monster for example I think I remember seeing some that stood out. I don't really pay attention to that sort of thing, however.
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Cloe
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:22 am Reply with quote
Dargonxtc wrote:
On another note, I have question since the fish-eyed view has been mentioned twice, and I know there are plenty of people who know about making animation around. First, I am not sure if I would call the fish-eyed lens a camera angle per se, but more of an effect of the actual angle. Anyway that's off of what I want to ask. What I want to know is, when that effect is used, do they just draw the picture normally, and then run it through a filter? Or do they actually draw it that way?

I'm sure there are some instances where fake camera effects have been applied to this sort of angle with the aid of computers, especially in more recent and/or low budget situations, but for the most part the animation is drawn that way on paper, the animator most likely working with live-action reference footage. Studio 4°C and GAINAX animators in particular are skilled at creating this fish-eye faux-perspective in their keyframes.

Also, I'm going to agree with the people who say that budget's pretty much a non-issue. It has much more to do with the talent and creativity of the storyboard artist than anything else. One must also take into account the fact that the majority of anime is adapted from pre-existing manga, and many angles are simply lifted from the comic pages when it comes time for storyboard/layout. I don't mean to sound too much like a broken record here, but Studio 4°C animation is consistently wildly imaginative in every aspect of production, from layout to storyboard to key animation to editing, particularly in their masterpiece Mind Game, which was created on a small budget.


Last edited by Cloe on Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
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rti9



Joined: 08 Jul 2007
Posts: 1241
PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 9:15 am Reply with quote
Jih2 wrote:
I've been noticing as I watch film in my high school film study class and as I watch films as they are re-released on the Criterion Collection that typical anime isn't very inventive with its camera angles.
The same can be said about the typical live-action movie or TV series. Just as there are very few directors who can be called inventive, there are very few key animators and directors who are at least trying to do something creative.

Cloe wrote:
I'm sure there are some instances where fake camera effects have been applied to this sort of angle with the aid of computers, especially in more recent and/or low budget situations, but for the most part the animation is drawn that way on paper, the animator most likely working with live-action reference footage. Studio 4°C and GAINAX animators in particular are skilled at creating this fish-eye faux-perspective in their keyframes.
This is a picture from the Groundwork of FLCL book. What I like about Gainax is that if you see the portfolios of the best Japanese animators nowadays, they've all at least worked once with the studio.
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heppu



Joined: 08 Feb 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Tokyo ,Japan
PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 10:03 am Reply with quote
If you watch "Itano circus” or " Kaneda action",you can find something new about the camera angles.
And Japanese animations try a lot of camera angles.
For example,it is famous in Japan that Neon Genesis Evangelion used "Jissouji angle" a lot to creat strained atmostphere.
(I know most foreigners don't know "Jissouji angle")

English is not my mother tongu,so I'm not good at English .
Sorry If you can't understand what I say .


about "Itano circus "from wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itano_Circus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macross_Missile_Massacre

example of "Itano circus"

http://www.stage6.com/user/nack/video/2402/
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=hfQ8sAPGKOE
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=eo0XXnPDMis
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ViaVzYGwQrU
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=MBk0AWsfTF4

example of "kaneda action"

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=0aEmATUt2SY


Enjyoy!!
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Cloe
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 2728
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:31 pm Reply with quote
heppu wrote:
If you watch "Itano circus” or " Kaneda action",you can find something new about the camera angles.
I absolutely LOVE the kanada school of animation, the work of Hiroyuki Imaishi in particular. His work gives me shivers. Smile
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