I think Final Fantasty : The Spirits Within, is a perfect example of this. IMHO. I did not like the movie because I could not get into the human drama that was taking place in this film.

Being an drawing minor at SCAD really opened my eyes to subtle movements in a person’s face when the experience specific emotions. While the animators of FF did a good job (and I sure as heck could not have done a better one) of emulating that, it still did not feel human.

http://xyzstudios.com/pop/honda.htm

Cool rendering style, and the concept works for transitioning
from one sponsor to the next in an entertaining way.

I like this piece, but if it had all been done by hand, stop motion, it would could have been a really amazing piece.

as far as your comments, i think the problem with work that looks too digital is that it lacks the human touch that makes people connect on an emotional level. that doesn’t mean everything has to look like it was done in pencil or whatever, it just means that we have to see the human hand in there somewhere, which can be expressed in a number of very subtle ways.

for example, look at justin harder’s work- a lot of what he does is just turning things on and off, but the way that he uses a tool as simple as opacity keyframes is unmistakable. that’s what makes us connect to design on the most profound levels.

hope to see more posts like this in the future!

Thanks for putting up with my absent-mindedness.