CGI
It’s a common complaint among the anime community is that 3D CGI is general terrible. I’m not going to say that there’s nothing good about CGI but I haven’t seen any I liked. The newest Berserk is primarily CGI, I found the character models to be very stiff. I think full 3D is worst than the blend of 2D and CGI.
Fate/Zero does this very well. CGI is best when it blends in so well that you don’t notice it. I think that is actually an indictment of CGI. Fully 3D anime can be “cut frames” poorly. Finally, CGI just doesn’t flow as well as 2D. To be clear 3D CGI can work, but it seems to require a healthy bit of 2D. For more insight on why CGI can be bad you can read this article. If you want to see an interesting video on how they blend 2D/3D check out this video.
CGI can be great if you have the budget and talent to use it. Certain movies and Fate/Zero proved that. In most cases however it ends up looking horrible.
It seems that blending 2D/3D is important to the quality.
I agree with The Otaku Judge, if you’ve got the budget and it’s actually used well, it can be an excellent contribution for a series/film. But more often than not, it’s used as a quick means of visual cinematography construction, and it can be absolutely horrid.
I think execution is key, but more often than not they fail.
3D used a shortcut looks exactly like it sounds. It can be good if you put in the same care and planning as you would with 2D.
Those links are pretty interesting too. Thanks for sharing!
Effort is important. Thank you.
I use to dislike it too, but I think I’ve just gotten use to it so I don’t mind it all that much. There are some shows where it’s horribly, but for others it works really well. I think it just depends on whether the studio is using cgi to cut corners or not. If it’s the former, then it’s not. If it’s the latter, then it’s okay.