Sotomura Blog
Head in the Clouds
Posted August 30th, 2008 at 04:27 AM by Hiroshi Sotomura
Regular members of PC's "TV Show and Movies" forum, such as Jorah and Charaxes, know how much I hate the clouds in Pocket Monsters. And some people who I talk to will also know of this, such as Erica.
But… it's because I think they indicate poor, lazily-done animation.
This rant applies to Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl, and the late part of Pocket Monsters Advance Generation. It doesn't apply to the movies as they've always had the better animation.
And it's about lazily done clouds.
From the start of the first episode of Pocket Monsters right through to the near end of the Hoenn arc in Pocket Monsters Advance Generation, we had clouds that looked similar to this.
Click for full size
And then, we had some awesome-looking clouds around the Hoenn League arc and a bit into the Battle Frontier arc.
Click for full size
The above picture was taken an episode before this new change around the Battle Frontier arc - now, we get ugly CGI… and these ugly clouds.
Click for full size
You could argue that these clouds don't look too bad. They're not really that bad, after all. But then the style takes a turn for the worse - we get a much, much lazier effort at clouds. And the style used below is used mostly through Diamond & Pearl to quite an ugly effect. (The clouds used in the Hoenn League arc were reused in Hunter J's second episode.) Couple that with radioactive green grass and trees, and water that's very blue.
Click for full size
To me, this made Diamond & Pearl an animation eyesore (not including the few times where Hikari's skirt was drawn short. *shot*). I never stopped thinking of this until the Summer School Arc…
Click for full size
Click for full size
Throughout the four episode arc, we get clouds that look similar to the original clouds, except these clouds have a fluffy outline and have different texturing. It doesn't look half-assed.
So according to Jorah, this pretty change doesn't persist after the Summer School arc. We're back to these clouds.
Oh please, OLM. Work out some animation style (and clouds) that DON'T look like an eyesore and stick with it.
Most images in this post uploaded with plasq's Skitch. Other images from Jorah.
But… it's because I think they indicate poor, lazily-done animation.
This rant applies to Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl, and the late part of Pocket Monsters Advance Generation. It doesn't apply to the movies as they've always had the better animation.
And it's about lazily done clouds.
From the start of the first episode of Pocket Monsters right through to the near end of the Hoenn arc in Pocket Monsters Advance Generation, we had clouds that looked similar to this.
Click for full size
And then, we had some awesome-looking clouds around the Hoenn League arc and a bit into the Battle Frontier arc.
Click for full size
The above picture was taken an episode before this new change around the Battle Frontier arc - now, we get ugly CGI… and these ugly clouds.
Click for full size
You could argue that these clouds don't look too bad. They're not really that bad, after all. But then the style takes a turn for the worse - we get a much, much lazier effort at clouds. And the style used below is used mostly through Diamond & Pearl to quite an ugly effect. (The clouds used in the Hoenn League arc were reused in Hunter J's second episode.) Couple that with radioactive green grass and trees, and water that's very blue.
Click for full size
To me, this made Diamond & Pearl an animation eyesore (not including the few times where Hikari's skirt was drawn short. *shot*). I never stopped thinking of this until the Summer School Arc…
Click for full size
Click for full size
Throughout the four episode arc, we get clouds that look similar to the original clouds, except these clouds have a fluffy outline and have different texturing. It doesn't look half-assed.
So according to Jorah, this pretty change doesn't persist after the Summer School arc. We're back to these clouds.
Oh please, OLM. Work out some animation style (and clouds) that DON'T look like an eyesore and stick with it.
Most images in this post uploaded with plasq's Skitch. Other images from Jorah.
Total Comments 9
Comments
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Dear god, Jake. You and your freaking clouds. :(
I find it strange, though. Overall animation quality climbed, but the background quality took a hit. It's... it's not like Pokémon got its budget cut partway through or anything, right? o_O;Posted August 30th, 2008 at 04:47 AM by Lightning 
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It seems like they're allocating money to other things, sadly.Posted August 30th, 2008 at 04:49 AM by Hiroshi Sotomura
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I just noticed you're like the most dedicated Pocket Monsters fan ever :3
Though it's true about the clouds, they look outrageously hideous now.Posted August 30th, 2008 at 05:27 AM by Forgotten Memory
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HAAATE those clouds. I find it amusing that they can't keep decent consistency with background animation.Posted August 30th, 2008 at 08:07 AM by Signomi
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I actually hate those clouds myself lol. I'm not a big anime person but I have to agree that those are pretty ugly. Maybe that's why I'm NOT an anime person lolPosted August 31st, 2008 at 06:59 AM by Anti
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Wow, I thought I was the only one who obsessed ove those things! I got used to the clouds though, for the sake of loving Shinou.
I did notice the sunset in the summer school arc was softer than it would've been had it not been during a regular episode. Maybe whenever we get an arc, we get nice clouds
Well DP 94-95 probably will have nice clouds then...
oh wow, we have blogs HERE too? X_X I'll stick to my BMGf blog though, except for certain occasions.Posted September 7th, 2008 at 06:18 PM by Crystal Clair
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I noticed this before too and I personally really dont mind it because in the real world the clouds do not always look the same.Posted September 7th, 2008 at 06:40 PM by Haza
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Oh wow, I was mentioned! Haha
You must have a whole folder full of Pokemon clouds, I'm sure XD I'm not the most observent of people, so I completly didn't notice the cloud change...until a certain someone pointed it out. From then on, me and my younger sister have been haunted by clouds XDPosted September 7th, 2008 at 09:49 PM by Jorah
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…………………………………… I'm sorry. D:
Posted September 9th, 2008 at 01:44 PM by Hiroshi Sotomura
