>Most 3D programs (3DSMax, RayDreamStudio, Softimage, etc.) have such a
>rendering plugin now. I tried Softimage's in 1998, and it was easily
>confused by my polygonal geometry, shading in odd ways. /snip/

Yup. Noticed that too.

>Humans are *extremely* difficult to do as 3D CGI: the complex geometry
>to get a passable face or hand, the many controls needed to manipulate
>them, skin shading. A *lot* of effort went into "Toy Story", "Voltron
>The Third Dimension", "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles",
>"Action Man", etc. Realistic fabric movement (for clothes) is even
>more difficult, which is why the characters in the above are usually
>wearing armor or tight-fitting jumpsuits. /snip/

I think we are not looking at "realistic" rendering here,
especially for textures, skins and the sort. We cannot hope to
achieve a rendering that is worth the one in Toy Story, or even
in Evangelion. I'd even say that doing so would be a mistake.

After all, why assume photo-realistic rendering?

If we could render NXE the "Sin City" way, I wouldn't spit on
it, on the contrary (Okay, I cheat. There is a movie goin' on
doing exactly that).

If we do typical "Manga" rendering (flat colors), then a lot of
the details necessary for a toy story or a 3D realistic model
go through the window. I am not even convinced the model we need
here has to be THAT elaborated.

We might find advantages at adopting mixed approaches,
oft-times completing CGI results with hand-made drawings.
We would heavily resort on sliding cells over frenetic
Akira-style gestures.

Plus, I am very good at drawing hands, :O).

We are not pros. Our main focus is on getting something clean
(as opposed to the err... sketch I can see later in the thread),
efficient, and convincing. I say black + white, clean black
inklining, no textures for a start. Focus on what we're good at:
situations, speech, storytelling.

>
>This is why "Titan A.E." mapped cel-animated characters into CGI
>backgrounds; easier to get the facial and posture expressiveness.
>
>Many of these objections would also apply to the EVAs, less facial
>expression and clothing (Unit 02's shipping tarp/cape nothwithstanding
>:-).
>
>Essentially the same approach (architecture and ships) is used by
>White Radish, "Titan A.E.", "Flash Gordon" (1996), "Spider Man"
>(FoxKids c.1995), "Futurama", etc. -- with varying degrees of success.

Yup. 100% agree.

Alex a.k.a. "Crocal"