Good video! I think mocap is definitely a form of animation, but one much closer to the "real"... maybe something in between. A hybrid type of animation, a bit like stop-motion / claymation which exists in real life physically while still being animation.
Interesting analysis! I agree that animation as a technique can not really be divorced from motion-capture, no matter how realistic it looks. It's the difficulty with trying to fit things into strictly defined categories. I think anyone making a film, especially a VFX driven film (but really all films to some degree), just use whatever clever or useful techniques they can find to get the desired images on-screen. That means fully mixing and matching artistic or performance techniques that get the best results. Like in the original Planet of the Apes, you could maybe argue that an actor performing through prosthetics is really a sophisticated, unique form or puppetry, or that puppeteers controlling an animatronic character (or a Muppet!) are really actors. as long as they get the desired results, the category doesn't really matter, though I'd argue that proper credit and recognition (and compensation) for everyone's work does matter. Should a stunt double or a hand model for specific shots be considered a "true" actor for that character? They certainly could be making important acting choices, just in very specific ways related to their craft. Sometimes an actor's performance on set can be transformed or completely changed through how it is edited, so maybe an editor in some sense is "acting" or at least contributing choices to the character's performance in those cases. We could also flip the mocap animation vs. performance capture question around: are animators really actors, actually? Hand-animated performances can be just as realistic or exaggerated, honest, emotional and human as any live-action performance. It's just a matter of how much time and skill an animator has, and how well they collaborate with character designers, storyboard artists, modelers, texture artists, etc. Films like Into/Across the Spider-Verse, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Beauty and the Beast, etc. are just a few examples. Animation is just a different collection of skills and methods used to create a character's performance in a movie.
Excellent analysis. Out of interest do you think separations between the vocal and mocap performances (e.g. lawerence fishburn voicing the silver surfer whilst Doug jones physical play him) play into the idea of the cyber star or do they operate as extentions of the collobrative effort?
@theoneyednightwing8558 I believe that, in an ideal world, separations between the vocal and mocap performances are extensions of the collaborative effort. However, in honesty, for most people they do play into the idea of the cyberstar as there's an increased ambiguity around the origin of the performance. Therefore the impact would have an alienating effect on the audience as they merely see the mocap character as a CGI construct as opposed to a carefully crafted performance mixed with animation work.
