Run Rattata Run!

- Total lack of atmospheric perspective (things don't fade into the distance)

- Very realistic shading but no or only very faint shadows cast by ambient light.

- Limited interaction between objects and environment (shadows, ripples etc)

- Flat textures and consistent lighting used for backgrounds that would usually show a lot of variation in lighting, colour and texture

- Bodies apparently modelled piece by piece rather than drawn from life, and in a very stiff way so that the bodies show the pose but don't communicate the body language that would usually go with it. They look like dolls.

- Odd composition that cuts off parts that would usually be considered important (like the person's head in the snowy driving scene)

- Very precise drawing of structures and perspective combined with all the simplistic elements I've already listed. In other words, details in the "wrong" places.

What's fascinating about this is that in early or bad CGI, these things come from the fact that the machine is modelling very precisely the shapes and perspectives and colours, but missing out on some parts that are difficult to render (shadows, atmospheric perspective) and being completely unable to pose bodies in such a way as to convey emotion or body language.

Sudoku on the train home

So I read the article and it’s actually a bit emotional. It’s basically the bird version of Homeward Bound.

The crow was a rescued bird raised and taken care of by a family who loved him very much. He was “free” in that they didn’t keep him inside, but he was very much habituated to the family/their home and would come up to them and chat with them and knock on their windows in the morning saying “Mom wake up”.

He apparently liked to tease people who were afraid of him, and one day when the family were away for the holidays a neighbor caught him and sent him to an animal sanctuary. The sanctuary released him out into the wild and the crow, Cosmo, tried to find his way home.

He followed cars he thought belonged to his family, would sit outside of buildings calling out for them/talking to people, and made it to the elementary school because he recognized someone inside. He used to play with children at his family’s farm and so he enjoyed playing with the children at the school.

Meanwhile, his family WAS looking for him, putting up his picture and trying to track him down.

Eventually they were alerted to the talking crow at the school and successfully reunited with him and brought him back to their farm. Apparently Cosmo has not gone back to the neighbors’ place ever since.