An intrepid Clannad fan provides us with a comparison of some of the Photoshop scenes in the recent, and most popular, anime Clannad After Story.
The locale used for the game and anime is Suita City, in Osaka, notable mainly for various university campuses. Presumably they have made more extensive usage of the technique than these few scenes?
You may also be interested to hear that the apartment which was the original model for the one featuring in the game was demolished in 2007; you can see it below:
Such practices are far from uncommon, with recent notable examples being Kannagi, using the technique to good effect, and Someday’s Dreamers, which attracted opprobrium for its excessive usage.
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Wait, you mean that all those magnificent backgrounds on some Anime titles are not hand-drawn? Instead they take a real picture of the preferred place and then colorize it to seem animesque-drawing?
Oh my god, the whole artwork-in-anime perspective just drooped to the low end for me. It is no more "Artwork" but just "work".
Now I cannot stare in awe seeing those terrific backgrounds. Back then I would say, "Look what detail they put in this shot, the time it must have took them to draw it". Instead, now I will have to shout "(photo)SHOPPED!".
I am dreadfully disappointed by anime artists. No more excuses to watch a stupid-story anime just for the artwork. Pitty. :(
Art imitating Life, instead of the reverse? I like it. :D
Now I have to go and live there just so I can brag about it online.
It's not surprising in the least and It's actually cool that they use these kinds of techniques. Not only does it look great and doesn't look out of place, but I'm sure it helps with the budget and cuts costs, resulting in a higher animation quality.
It's kind of similar to how True Tears had CG scenes for unimportant scenes, mostly of students walking to school in the morning, and rest of the animation looked really nice.
Wow, I can't believe the real-life place for where Tomoya and Nagisa supposedly will live has been brutally demolished just like that.
This will probably resonate a lot with the Clannad gamers with its "places change over time" sub-theme.
[rant from a lover of Summer Skies]Now that two favored anime are using the same technique, I see that you can only spin the opprobrium for Summer Skies as having been because its use of the technique was "excessive." The use in Summer Skies was aesthetically powerful. People say they want new things in anime, but when something really new (consistent use of a rich version of this technique) comes along, they reject it.[/rant] Love your blog. Disagree with some of your opinions.
They used it in practically every scene, and the actual character animation looked totally out of place in it. It was excessive; they even plagiarised photographs rather than take their own.
Kannagi and Clannad both use the technique in moderation, and they have great character animation (especially Clannad). I think it is reasonable to consider them differently as a result.
You have a perfectly valid point of view, and one that is shared widely. I just happen to disagree. For me, the consistent use of, as I said, a strong version of the technique, actually works brilliantly. It gives a realistic feeling to the settings that simpler drawing and occasional use wouldn't have. I felt transported to the streets of Tokyo by some of the scenes.
And for me, the contrast between the simplified animation and the rich backgrounds works beautifully. It is in part a money-saving technique, since it allows the simpler animation to feel more real (to me, anyway) than it would have otherwise.
Your mileage clearly varies, which is fine. I should have made it clearer in my original rant that I recognize that your opinion is a reasonable one, but I simply disagree.