the Motion Picture Academy’s new rules for defining what is animation (see press release here), which states in part that,

a sentence regarding motion capture was added to clarify the definition of an animated film. The language now reads: “An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time.”

Live-action directors, like Cameron, like motion capture because it enables them to do animation in a way similar to the way they film live-action (i.e., they direct actors instead of animators).

For whatever reason,  The new rules regarding motion capture were added in part to assuage companies like Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky, as it would reduce possible future Oscar competition. (Needless to say, I feel motion capture is animation.)

In a discussion about the new rules at Cartoon Brew, a number of people felt that motion capture films could still be considered animation if the data was finished by animators frame-by-frame, some asked whether this would disqualify Happy Feet, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature several years ago (the same year that another mocap film, Monster House was also nominated)?

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