What If Wallace and Gromit Had Smoother Stop-Motion?
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- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- What if Wallace and Gromit had smoother stop-motion animation? I used an AI program to interpolate some scenes from these classic Aardman shorts to a higher frame rate and added a bit of extra motion blur as well.
What do you think of the results?
NOTE: Please watch at 720p or above to get 60 fps and the full effect.
Let me know if you think if the smooth stop-motion looks better in the comments down below!
📇 Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:14 - A Grand Day Out (1989)
1:04 - The Wrong Trousers (1993)
1:54 - A Close Shave (1995)
2:44 - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
3:36 - A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
✨ Programs used:
-I used Video Enhance AI Chronos model to interpolate the framerate from 24 fps to 120 fps (free trial, then paid): topazlabs.com/video-enhance-a...
Use coupon code CAPTROBAU15 at checkout to save 15% on all Topaz Labs products, including Video Enhance AI.
By purchasing a Topaz product using this code, I will receive a small affiliate commission.
-I used DaVinci Resolve (video editor) to add the motion blur. You can get Resolve here:
www.blackmagicdesign.com/prod...
📝 Credits:
George Street Shuffle by Kevin MacLeod
Link: filmmusic.io/song/3800-george...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
I'm #captrobau and I like to make interesting videos about AI and games. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more videos like this. I regularly upload AI upscaling examples, reviews/tutorials for AI software and more. - Фільми й анімація
You can tell that these animations weren’t meant for high frame rates. As a matter of fact, it takes away the charm and the genuine feeling of stop motion animation.
I agree completely.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
Still fun to see how it looks with an higher smoothness
This I can agree with.
agreed
I think it’s impressive technology but the original is still much better, I don’t think interpolation is bad but it should be used to assist the process. Applying it to already completed animations take away the beauty of what the original artists intended
@@1701echopapa yeah but a big part of the charl in wallace and gromit is the snappy anim
Charm* god dammiy
@@1701echopapa Can't argue with that.
@@1701echopapa I mean, that's what you're saying. Unless the original artist comments on this video, _you_ are going purely off an assumption.
One thing you should never critique on stop motion animator's work is the framerate.
There's an almost uncanny feeling to the smoother animation where it feels much more unnatural than the original.
Probably because is not hand made and ai doing it. Besides it doesn’t always fit the style. Yea that channel that talked about.
Noodle
I agree
It’s actually suprisingly true on that, on a step where it gets realistic things feel unnatural, then becomes terrifying the point where is goes too realistic. At some point true realism (being alive and seeing in your prespective) would sooner become natural
@@ExtremeWreck it's like every frame is melting into each other.
The entire charm of Stop Motion is the way it looks so lovingly handled by people and the artifical low frame element. It makes it art
this brings me so much nostalgia. The curse of the were-rabbit was my absolute most favorite movie as a young lad!
I watched curse of the were rabbit this morning aha
What you just said does not fit your profile picture
@@Inkbower it says m profile
That traumatized me when i was a kidddd
It looks alright in some scenes, but I feel like movement heavy scenes look paradoxically very static
This is some really impressive tech though, I feel like this would make production for other things much easier.
The Wrong Trousers is one of my favorite shorts in Nick Park's anthology series, the climax is absolutely hilarious, which is just pure gold.
It's so funny to see that! Makes me realize that I prefere the original, not by nostalgia, but because with the upgrade version, it gives the feeling of a modern animation movie, while the original gives this much more physical and textural feeling.
It gives this funny charm, the characters seems to be lighltly clumsy and odd, in a very unique way.
It's still great to have these kinds of technology and it opens a lot of possibilities though.
I completely agree about it seeming like a CGI animation instead of stop-motion animation. Stop-motion is meant to have a kind of janky, uneven pace between frames, whereas with modern CGI the framerate is much smoother. They both look good when they're done in their respective styles, but making stop motion run at CGI framerates is as jarring to look at as making CGI imitate stop motion frame pacing.
@@harrisonmccartney4878A huge compliment for cgi!
I grew up watching Wallace and gromit movies sometimes, and seeing this smoother animation is actually pretty confusing mentally, like that just challenges how you remember it. Amazing tho.
If the Train Chase had the Interpolation and the Motion Blur, it is already really good. The original is just as good though, you could clearly tell that Aardman put loads of work into that one whole scene which is very impressive at the time.
A lot of people seem to be on the same page when it comes to the AI process of interpolation ultimately botching the intended timing of the animation, which is good to see. Although I do think that whenever it's seen with liquids in this video, it gives of quite an interesting effect.
A nice show of how technology has advanced to smooth out jerky action, but I don't think it's suited. It kinda takes away the charm. Especially when you see how the animation changes from A Grand Day Out to The Wrong Trousers and so on, you get a VERY nice progression and evolution.
First it was just Wallace and Gromit, then we got detailed settings, then we got more dynamic action scenes plus new characters, and in Curse of the Were Rabbit we got the fully fleshed out universe these characters exist in. Amazing to think about
2:56 the first 2 shots on this result look really good here. I think if you just play around with the settings a bit more, you could get it to look great in 60fps without making it too smooth.
Yeah this is the first and only time the higher fps actually looks good in any animation
I wish aardman kept making Wallace and Gromit short films.
It's your lucky day, they've announced a new one coming Christmas 2024 :))
@@williamthompson6755 really?
Yep, in the synopsis they've released, Wallace invents a smart gnome to help around the house, with Gromit stepping in when things don't go to plan... it was an official press release by Aardman at the same time they released the first image from Chicken Run 2.
@@williamthompson6755 Yee Haw! I love Aardman now!
@@williamthompson6755 Chicken run 2? Great.
Cool technology but the magic is lost at such high framerates.
May be the odd one out here, but I think this works really well with the more modern W&G animations. With the older ones, it can look a little uncanny. But as the character models got more defined and maintained their form better, the extra frames actually makes them feel more lifelike (most of the time, not every second necessarily). I personally wouldn't mind if they implemented this to some degree in the future.
Honestly the AI gives the entire thing I really eerie, life-like vibe. Uncanny, I suppose. I feel like it would work really well if someone delved into that amd created something a little creepy specifically to run through this AI....
I agree with you but some places really feel weird and need lower fps and I think a slightly lower fps over all would help
Yeah, at the least, it works a lot better than attempts I've seen at interpolating hand-drawn animation. I think the physicality of stop-motion puppets makes them look less-wrong with the framerate increased.
@@mockemperor953 Prácticamente que los FPS no fueran constantes, allí si quedaría piola
Wallace is supposed to be an older person so it makes sense he dosen’t have super fast movement
I think we all know the original looks better. It's just interesting to see it smoother
I swear everytime I see the AI frame I always think of the Store quality TV's that appeals the customer
to be honest i think the lower framerates make it look cooler and it fits the style more
I think the simple answer to this question would be that it would lose some of it's charm as it takes all the punch out of the timing for the most part (that's one thing that we've always spent a lot of time working on with these characters).
I feel the smoother framerate gives it a digital feel.
It's more like someone tried animating it so it looked like it was made of clay
I can barely tell the difference, Wallace and Gromit already has a pretty smooth frame rate
Wow, the lighting in all of these scenes is amazing. Beats anything you'll see in theaters right now hands down
24fps is already resource intensive for traditional stop motion, I cannot imagine the work and time needed for a true 60fps+ stop motion film, let alone 120fps.
Any excuse to watch these old chaps again! 🥰
Gromit riding the front of the train plopping track down in front of it still cracks me up!.
A Grand Day Out brings me so much nostalgia. I remember watching it at my grandma’s with my brother when I was younger.
It makes me sad when I see the interpolated animations of them doing anything with their hands - the original animation is so beautiful and well done. Sure, the interpolated higher frame rate looks more realistic, but it takes away the unique touch of the artists who animated it in the first place.
Yeah, the smoother animation is neat to look at, but some things are just best left the way they are.
The 120fps shows how much work has been put into these firms
It looks so smooth
I feel like the smoother animation would only work if there were more intricately moving parts on the character models. The 24fps fits perfectly with the limited movements of the clay models.
First time I see this being used properly
Ok ngl this is actually cool
The smoother one is so satisfying to watch
the smoother animation makes it looks like it's a 3g cgi instead of a real stop motion animation
That was smooth
The "not smotter" is what make the charm
what I'm learning by bingeing these "what if such-n-such stop motion was smoother" videos is that it really doesn't seem to do much.
Wallace and Gromit is a classic. We can all admit.
I like the smoother one with higher frame rate way better
1:35 Apparently Wallace has a magic box that generates endless amount of miniature railway pieces.🤣🚂
Definitely love the original more.
This looks really good. If Aardman ever made a remastered version of the Wallace and Gromit films I could imagine them looking something like this. But the O.G still has some fun charm and I wouldn't mind if there wasn't a remaster
With the higher frame rate the animation, paradoxically, looks like it's missing frames of animation. The best example is the tea cup Wallace drinks from on the moon. When he puts it down it feels like some of the frames of the animation were gone.
I definitely would love to watch these whole films in 120fps it just makes them feel a little bit more up to date😊
Wallace and Gromit was and still is a technical marvel. Stop motion is one of the hardest mediums of animation out there.
It looks quite good. Pretty subtle, honestly.
Was thinking it was gonna be worse than it is, but a decent job was done here
The choppy framerate is part of what gave the original its charm
I’m impressed by our techs ability to do such a thing, but the choppiness is part of the charm. It makes it clear to you that it’s imperfect, it’s not in the ballpark of smoothness of anything else. But it doesn’t have to be, because every frame was painstakingly created by hand. Molded, painted, photographed, and then it ceased to exist. Nothing but a single photograph that’s ultimate destiny is to be lost in a sea of other photographs played so quickly back to back that it tricks your eyes into thinking it’s seeing movement.
I’m happy to see so many people here not praise the interpolation, and rather admit that the original is better. Sometimes it’s better to have lesser frame rate, if that means for a better overall animation
making stop motion smooth feels like a conflict of interest
If the animators need smooth expression in sympathy, tired,liquid flow, speaking, and focused event, it seem working for me.
However, in some scene, the original one give warm feeling, but the up sampling one focus on moving clay and overwhelm detail for fast action scene.
Thank you for introduce the difference, I just realized the effect of frame rate.
"Gromit! The moon's made of wensleydale cheese!" - wallace
Nostalgia
now i kinda wish i had the full thing
goes to show how low frame rate in animation can be astronomically better
Smoother stop motions does work for certain types of films, material and characters like Nightmare before Christmas and Coraline, but not here. The less smooth animation is part of Wallace and Gromit’s charm and that should never be taken away
People need to understand: smother≠better
This is like taking some carefully renderred painting where you can see the brush strokes used to define a surface, and then just smoothing it out with a Guassian blur effect. It takes all the warmth and human touch out of it, killing it. Generally with CGI animation, it takes a LOT of human intervention to take the uncanny feel OUT of it, so these kind of smoothing tricks defeat that somewhat. Generative tech like this could be good for filling in the cracks here and there, or taking out glaring errors that distract, but shouldn't be left to the final look.
The better stop motion makes them look like they’re processed by a ghost
It works surprisingly well, especially compared to upscaled 2D animation. While the movement is off at times, it kinda looks like the puppets are moving in real life :o
Imagine the frames they did shot if those films were 120 or 240 fps 🤯
dear god this is so cursed
i dont know whether to hate it or love it im having an existential crisis rn
I wouldn’t be opposed to someone doing an entire movie like this, on purpose. I think with right project this can be a useful technique to enhance the animation.
Me watching videos at 240p: *I see no problem here.*
The original has the charm, while the other has a good flow, i just like the charm of the old one
It’s pretty cool. It’s easier to notice when you look at the mouths when they talk.
It's really good, but at the same time feels uncanny for how familiar I am to the show and its art style
Honestly none of the media convinced me that 60fps is better ever in the 25 years of my life lol
Aardman actually animate at 12FPS to preserve the charm of stop motion.
It just goes to show it's all about they way it's animated, the personality and mannerisms of the characters as opposed to the framerate. I only noticed the smoothness because I was looking for it. And whether it's shot in 1080p or 4K, 12fps or 48fps etc, the audience isn't going to notice or care as long as you give them charming, likeable characters that are animated well.
Aardman should do remastered versions of all of all these.
The smoother movement uncannily reminds me of Robot Chicken.
Here’s the problem with this kind of interpolation. Claymation may run on 24 FPS but it can be animated between ones and twos. Animating on twos means for two frames the animation is in the same position, cutting down the need to animate 24 shots for 24 frames per second to 12 shots for 24 frames per second, thus saving time. Animating on ones is of course as mentioned previously 24 shots for 24 frames per second. Animating on ones usually takes a lot longer then animating on twos but the result is a lot more fluid and animating on twos takes less time but it looks a bit choppier. (There’s also animating on threes as well in some instances). The best is to combine these in areas where it’s more effective. Animate on ones where more fluid movement is necessary but animate on twos or threes when it’s a simpler movement or if the animation style is intentionally more choppy (ex robot chicken is shot entirely on twos if I’m not mistaken).
First the interpolation is working for too high an fps, it makes it look unnatural for animation second it’s just interpolating the whole thing, creating In between frames, independent of whether it was shot on one, twos or threes. And the interpolation isn’t always perfect as it’s trying to make a mathematical guess of what it takes the frame is in between those shots, sometimes resulting in weird artifacts.
Lower the frame rate to something closer to 24 or 30 and use the interpolation for certain segments like if you’re shooting in ones or twos instead and ignore for areas you’re shooting in twos. Or hell shoot it 12 frames per second and interpolate it at 24. Perhaps you might get a better result.
This however is just a theory on what I know on the two subjects as I’m a fan of animation and have multiple degrees in video production. I personally don’t know if it would work or not. Perhaps it might work better if used more effectively. Just a thought. If anyone has any examples of this working is I mentioned or not please let me know.
Edit: found someone that used interpolation to 90 fps and down sampled it back to 24 plus added motion blur. The results worked well if I’m being honest.
ua-cam.com/video/1XiUqVBXo7k/v-deo.html
It looks weird(not in a negative way) seeing it like that when we are used to the "old way", very interesting.
It almost looks like if someone tasked AI with creating a claymation movie
The change is kinda unnecessary, it already looks smooth.
Somewhere inbetween the two would be perfection to me!
Basically this video can be summed up as:
Aardman vs. Cosgrove Hall
"Wendsleydale"
- Wallace
people seem to really dislike the edited versions, but I feel they have their place. I think used correctly, they could make certain scenes feel different, and not in a bad way. If this technique ends up being an asset in future stop motion productions, then I'm all for it.
Sometimes, airbrushing over a van Gough doesn't make it better.
However, a full length King Kong 1933 would be AWESOME !
this is what steven wanted while making jurassic park
They both look fine imo
I like how the speed goes quicker because the motion blur and frame rate
the older shorts look like actual ass as usual for interpolation but the newer stuff looks surprisingly decent and if it was animated with the interpolation in mind it would look genuinely really good
I feel like this only works with slower-paced scenes like casual conversations or like Gromit making breakfast. Faster scenes like the chase scene or the bike chase dont quite work because it's supposed to look choppier to help define rapid movement. Which is weird, because usually in animated shows with fight or chase scenes, they'd need MORE frames.
It looks almost like cgi, which I feel defeats the purpose of the stop motion a little. It's not supposed to look the exact same as computer animation, it's supposed to have a more organic feel to it because it is organic, they're using real props and not pixels.
i think it looks cleaner but it takes away some of the emotion the original creators where intending
Please look at the individual frames. You'll see it different soon enough
Nothing has really changed as much till the mini train.
1:34 is the perfect example of how this idea that a higher frame rate on pre-existing work just does not work. The pacing for Gromit's arm laying out the train track in the original has the right amount of weight and speed to it and this sense of urgency is, whilst obviously this is animation logic, it works perfectly. The AI adjusted version doesn't grasp that logic because it just sees what's in the frames and tries to invent the in-betweens, to which by doing so, makes it look like Gromit is doing it much slower which takes away that sense of urgency Nick Park and the Aardman team intended.
Whilst I'm a firm believer that this is a bad trend, I get to an extent where people are coming from and honestly, in the Loaf and Death examples, there were a few times where I thought it was OK. But the AI is more focused on the frames than the bigger picture around it.
En la animacion a mano también se usa interpolacion, no entiendo cual es el problema que se lo pongan al stop motion ( que al igual que la animacion a mano se hace frame por frame)
Thou shalt not tinker with what is already perfect.
I direct viewers to Noodle's video on 60 fps animation. That is all.
These types of animation are not meant for high frame rates. As impressive as it is, I can see that it is not as natural. I find it takes away the feeling of the stop motion animation as a whole because it is the most difficult method of animation out there. That's why I always respect and admired stop motion because you can see how much time, effort and dedication it took to make them. One motion of movement took dozens of shots to make.
bruh thats ben 💀💀🗽
I feel a new movie coming out...
Ok usually the lower fps is better but imo I think the higher fps still looks really good and isn't supper cursed like other higher fps and in some cases better
I think if it wad a bit lower tho it would be better but more around 30 fps or maybe 40 would just smoth out the stop motion animation a bit
But this is probably the one time the higher fps is actually decent looking in my opinion at least
This works better the later you go, a grand day out simply doesnt have enough frames to work well with this but a matter of loaf and death? absolutely insane how good it looks with the interpolation, im not going to say it looks better, but it definitely doesnt look worse by any means, honestly part of what makes it so odd here is the fact that theres no audio
Wallace and Gromit series is extremely well done. Because of that, the AI enhancements make it look slightly smoother, but not much else. IMO, the low framerate is how it's supposed to look. It's not something they intended to hide, but rather something they embraced. Interpolation tech has a lot of potential though, and I think you're better off trying it on stop-motion animation that actually looks bad! That's usually going to be in live action films like The Terminator and Robocop. Or the original King Kong or The Lost World (1925)