opinions on "a scanner darkly" art style

The "Beyond" short in the Animatrix anthology used a good deal of rotoscoping, but I thought it turned out pretty well. Of course, I was stunned at their ability to move around corners in a watercolor background more than anything else. I know it's been done before, but something about the way they did it struck me as more natural. (Side note: if you want to see high-tech 2D, don't miss Howl's Moving Castle. It's slick.)

But yeah, I think you're right that it is some sort of weird Photoshoppy filter thing. Maybe a mix of rotoscoping and Photoshoppy filters (technically, I suppose it's still rotoscoping).

And yes, it is a complete shame that the market opinion on animation is that 3D is an automatic improvement over 2D. Consequently, the current generation of animators doesn't seem to have nearly the traditional art skill, on average, as the previous. The fact that Pixar is really good at telling stories and **happens** to choose 3D doesn't help break any bizarre myths like these. Hey, that's why we're here -- a big fat website of reminder that everyone who holds this opinion is just wrong (...and there are very few opinions in this world that I believe are just flat-out wrong).

Okay, so I'm the only one who looked at it and went "whoa!" ? It looks like a moving comicbook to me. I love the sketchiness of some places, and the dramatic lighting. But then again, I jsut got finished watching the Beatles Yellow Submarine, so I might be slightly loopy right now. XD

My goodness that was horrible. My eyes strained just watching the trailer, I can't imagine watching the whole thing without suffering a migraine! It reminds me of the days before cable when you would get broadcast distortion and the color would bleed.