Non-photorealistic rendering has opened up an alternative to the ubiquitous “Pixar look.”
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When you think of CGI animated films, you likely think of Pixar. The studio practically invented the genre with 1995’s Toy Story — the first CGI animated feature film.
After Toy Story, almost all animation studios wanted to follow in Pixar’s successful footsteps, straight down to their style. Many studios sought out “The Pixar Look”: extremely high quality, physically based, and in some cases almost photorealistic.
It’s an appealing approach that remains popular at the box office — but animated movies started looking kind of homogeneous. And while studios and independent artists tested out more stylized approaches in short films, no studio would commit to a feature-length animated movie that looked so different.
That is, until Sony Pictures/Imageworks took on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Instead of chasing the look everyone was after, the team wanted to create something visually new. They did it with “non-photorealistic rendering.”
And since Spider-Verse, non-photorealism has taken off, with almost every studio set to incorporate it in the next five years. Check out our video to learn more about how non-photorealism works.
Note: A version of this was previously published with a spelling error. The error has since been corrected.
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let 'cartoons' be cartoons again! im excited for this new era, absolutely loved spiderverse's visuals
Great video, and not just because the spider verse movies are MY FAVORITE!
"How "Spider-Verse" forced animation to evolve"
– People who only watch American animations.
arcane
I think The Lego Movie, The Peanuts Movie, Captain Underpants, and Klaus deserve a mention as stepping stones that lead up to Spiderverse. Spiderverse didn't come out of nowhere but it was def game changer for the industry.
It baffles me how underrated "Klaus" is, in terms of animation and story😔
Best
Really? Studio Ghibli is lightyears ahead in animation and storyline. Please don't try to convince me that NRP is new stuff.
With 12 fps Spiderman is far from the fluidity of Pixar !
Into the Spider-Verse and Klaus where a revolution in animated movies
I truly love the Pixar look, but ONLY for Pixar. Other studios trying to emulate the success of Pixar's style only makes animation obsolete with no variety. I'm so happy Spiderverse (my favorite movie) broke the ground for studios to try more different and creative styles and animation techniques.
where's sonic 2020?
Vox needs to talk about Ecosia they are a search engine that plants trees
Pootis engage and pootis engage extreme meanwhile
'Sausage party' movie challenged the Pixar look and it's usually PG but emotionally charged narratives'In the spiderverse' challenges the Pixar style aesthetically
wish the Mario movie took a more stylized approach tbh
no
I think another good example of this is the video for enemy
Just goes to show, animation doesn’t have to look realistic to look good
Entergalactic
Another person who I think contributed to this bright new era of animation is Genndy Tartakovsky. He never liked animation that simply copied real life, always wanting to exaggerate and push the boundaries of characters and the physical world, so when he went on to direct Hotel Transylvania, he had the animators and artists really break the computer models and rigging system, allowing wild over the top unrealistic expressions that really capture the feel of wacky 2D cartoons. The movies aren't amazing but definitely deserve respect for that alone.
And also partially his work on Samurai Jack Season 5 and Primal, which opened the doors for more adult animated shows that are more artistically ambitious and don't just copy The Simpsons or Family Guy template, and now subsequently Sony has allowed Genndy to direct a new 2D animated R rated film, coming out next year, which actually could be the start of a new era for theatrical adult animation.
"Bad Guys" reminds me of this
What a great video! But It's a shame that they didn't mention a bigger inspiration for these stylized animation themes which is anime. What these Studios are doing in a large scale in 3D was a staple in many old school and new animes dating up to 2013. Most animes have been featuring the usage of 3d inner layers for a long time. Other components blended together in these projects have been used together or separately many times, specially since Akira (1986). Hopefully Vox would make a good video on the contribution and influence of anime in our culture.
Not a fan of the Spider-Verse look.
God bless.
pursuit of profits kills innovation
I think audiences are open to new styles and studios can be gatekeepers sometimes.
I hate when Animated movies try to replicate real life too much. Like you could do literally anything in animation, and instead you decide to try and replicate the real world? This is why I will always appreciate Spider-Verse
Forced to evolve due to being rebooted every ten minutes.
New isn’t always better
I remember seeing the trailer for into the spider verse for the first time and immediately falling in love with the animation style, so happy it caused a domino effect
I’m glad that animation styles are changing. I’m so sick of the Pixar look.
I’m glad that animation styles are changing. I’m so sick of the Pixar look.
Spiderverse is a superb movie! I hope more animations will be inspired to be more creative!
Alberto Mielgo
What is the name of the tune at 6:17 ?
creativity in mainstream animated western films? impossible
I can't wait till the sequel!
I love the new trend of animated movies, I prefer having more freedom in their style instead of trying to isolate it copying the real world. I don't want to see my world, I want to see their world.
I'll go risk everything to go to a movie just to watch a new experimental animations!
after toy story 1, spideverse is the best animated movie.
I love the animation in the movie 🎥
😭😭😭😭😭😭
We need to thank Netflix’s the mitchells vs. the machines for this style ❤
thanks to the goat Alberto Mielgo
I always loved Paperman when I was younger and I realize that I gravitated toward it because it was different from all the other styles. It reminded me of other hand-drawn movies, yet had modern flair.
AWESOME content! Keep it up
This is still the best looking animation movie to date. Until the sequel.