Maybe You Can't . . . But I Can

Animation can do so many things that can’t be accomplished in live-action. Think about it. In animation, we can mesh and metamorphose two human beings into all shapes and sizes, and even some that haven’t been invented yet. In live action, you will need any number of special effects masters to achieve a RESEMBLANCE of the figure that I described to you. You would need to import and combine a number of special effects programs to make it look halfway believable. And THEN afterwards, you would need to ask of the audience to suspend their disbelief.

Let’s imagine Live Action and Animation as two separate characters. They can each bring to life two sets of inanimate objects. One of these sets of objects is in this dimension called reality, which we live in. The other set of objects are in another dimension, that fanciful dimension which is inaccessible. But nevertheless, Live Action and Animation are both living, breathing life-forms that exist--if only in our imaginations.

Live Action claims superiority over Animation because Live Action brings to life objects that we, as LIVE human beings, can relate to. Animation likes to bring to life objects that CHILDREN can relate to, but can adapt its practices to adult tastes with little or no effort at all. Live Action, though, has shortcomings that we are very familiar with, such as the ability to be original. You see, we see Live Action bring to life the same exact objects, every day. Animation, however, can bring to life whatever it wants, wherever it wants, and it could do so seamlessly.

There are proponents of Live Action, more proponents for this living medium than there are lobbyists in Washington. Some of these proponents of Live Action are indifferent towards Animation, while others are fiercely opposed to it. Than, there are proponents for Animation, who will fight to the death in defense of the medium.

The major aspects of both mediums are their collective abilities to entertain. But, how much entertainment value may be gained from Live Action vs. Animation? More entertainment value can be gained from Animation, because of its elasticity and its capability to adapt to so many different tastes and ideas and visions. Live Action doesn’t have the “elastic” ability. While it doesn’t have to be manually mastered, it even requires the assistance of some of Animation’s tools to make itself logically acceptable to the viewer. Meaning, computers are one of Animation’s tools. And, they have to be used in order to assist Live Action in its quest to gain authenticity. Things that look too CG in Live Action blends effortlessly into Animated environments.

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