On 8/21/2018 at 9:10 AM, whafrog said:

I trust Filoni with the storytelling, no problem there. I just really wish they'd exceed the animation bar that was set with TCW.  Instead they go lower and lower... It's like they're searching for the bottom of what fans will find acceptable.

Wasn't TCW essentially funded by George Lucas pouring millions of his own personal riches into it with no real return?

I think expecting Disney to adopt the same strategy is just not realistic, they're a profit driven company, they're only going to put in as much as they need to turn a profit.

7 minutes ago, Tom Cruise said:

Wasn't TCW essentially funded by George Lucas pouring millions of his own personal riches into it with no real return?

I think expecting Disney to adopt the same strategy is just not realistic, they're a profit driven company, they're only going to put in as much as they need to turn a profit.

But Disney is bringing back TCW for a season (or a half-season), so where is the profit in that?

1 minute ago, HappyDaze said:

But Disney is bringing back TCW for a season (or a half-season), so where is the profit in that?

In being able to advertise new Star Wars content on Disney Play.

25 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

But Disney is bringing back TCW for a season (or a half-season), so where is the profit in that?

Half that work was already done, and is likely sitting in a server farm somewhere gathering dust. And it's a very short run, so financially much less of an expense than making an entire multi-season series.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's still unprofitable, but they're banking on the long term benefits of bringing disillusioned fans back into the fold.

1 hour ago, Tom Cruise said:

Wasn't TCW essentially funded by George Lucas pouring millions of his own personal riches into it with no real return?

I think that's short-sighted. It's possible the returns on TCW weren't immediate, but I think they'll pay residuals for the foreseeable future. Every planet built, every ship designed, every species modelled is just more content to be leveraged in a huge variety of ways. If they take shortcuts they'll just end up killing the brand...not that I expect short-term thinking executives to understand that...

3 hours ago, whafrog said:

I think that's short-sighted. It's possible the returns on TCW weren't immediate, but I think they'll pay residuals for the foreseeable future. Every planet built, every ship designed, every species modelled is just more content to be leveraged in a huge variety of ways. If they take shortcuts they'll just end up killing the brand...not that I expect short-term thinking executives to understand that...

Not to mention all the people who became SW fans by watching the show. Getting people hooked is worth a lot.

On 8/30/2018 at 11:58 AM, Nytwyng said:

On 8/30/2018 at 11:55 AM, HappyDaze said:

But Disney is bringing back TCW for a season (or a half-season), so where is the profit in that?

Have you ever noticed that just before a band/artist releases new album a lot of their old stuff suddenly gets payed? Or when a movie sequel is about to be released the prequels get airplay on TV?

Its all marketing. TCW was really popular, TLJ and Solo less so (for the sake of this argument - I loved both of those films). This is all part of reinvigorating the SW brand as a lead up to SW:R and Ep 9, along with the Favreau live action.

Its the old "you gotta spend money to make money" adage.

On 8/19/2018 at 3:58 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

Because “cell shaded” 3D CG animation isn’t about appealing to children. It’s simply used to capture a certain aesthetic, primarily one that aficionados of traditional 2D animation, and anime in particular , find appealing. It’s not about appealing to kids’ sensibilities.

Actually I'm just the opposite. I LOVE traditional 2D animation and I love 3D animation. I want them to stay separate. If you want a 2D look, go traditional hand-drawn or computer aided hand drawn, don't go 3d and flat-render it. This is purely my opinion and I know I'm probably in the minority opinion. That being said, I have seen this done well in the past but it really depends on the lighting. The thing that gets lost on cell shading is the amount of detail lighting that used to go into traditional hand drawn animation, especially Disney movies. You pointed out Appleseed in a previous post and that was one that was done well. What I see in the trailer (again, IMO) doesn't match that quality but I am waiting until I see a full episode before making final judgement.

4 hours ago, Varlie said:

Actually I'm just the opposite. I LOVE traditional 2D animation and I love 3D animation. I want them to stay separate. If you want a 2D look, go traditional hand-drawn or computer aided hand drawn, don't go 3d and flat-render it. This is purely my opinion and I know I'm probably in the minority opinion. That being said, I have seen this done well in the past but it really depends on the lighting. The thing that gets lost on cell shading is the amount of detail lighting that used to go into traditional hand drawn animation, especially Disney movies. You pointed out Appleseed in a previous post and that was one that was done well. What I see in the trailer (again, IMO) doesn't match that quality but I am waiting until I see a full episode before making final judgement.

I agree that there is a difference in quality. However, that's simply because one is Theatrical release feature film quality, and the other is TV quality. I don't expect a TV show to have the same quality of animation as a theatrically released feature film.