Puppet Yoda vs CGI Yoda
 

Recently i was watching The Empire Strikes Back on my pc and I was amazed by how expressive Yoda was as a Puppet. And then realized that for some strange reason, the freaking rubber thing had more personality than his CGI counterpart.

I don't think CGI has nothing to do with it, as a matter of fact i like it, but since it's become more popular, it has become more mechanical than artistic. What i mean is that in the first Star Wars trilogy there was a drive, a passion for art. When CGI started you could see the same, but must CGI packed movies of today don't have it.

Pixar for example created computer animation out of nothing and when you see a pixar animated movie you sense it. You see a true soul inside their animations. But as "computer animator" has become a simple job in which you only require technical knowledge you can see a lot of movies with a lot of computer animated characters that don't have a real artist behind them.

Back to where we started, i believe the puppet Yoda has a soul, while his computer animated twin seems empty. And i can't blame the computer. I feel that Yoda fell victim to the "River of Money" and ended being animated by an EMPLOYEE not an ARTIST and i feel sad about it.

As usual... my thread ends to be a bit longer than i hoped... waiting for your response n_n

I liked the puppet Yoda better too. He was more expressive and funny too. :D

Funny I was thinking about this myself the other day.
Puppet. 100%.
Saw the newer movies and CGI Yoda recently and I was disgusted. Yoda is a puppet or Yoda is a lie!
Personally I think ALL the original Star Wars look much better then the new ones. Maybe it's just because I haven't seen the originals in a while but I just know I highly dislike the new ones.

I -hate- the New Trilogy. They stole ideas from the first three movies and the whole story is just emotionless.

Puppet and hard work all the way. <3

The new Yoda is nowhere near as good as the original. But then again, the whole series is like that. The new movies are just inferior, I think. They just sort of flaunt CGI and special effects because that's one thing the original movies did well, but somewhere down the line, they lost the quality of everything else, and as Yoda shows, even the special effects really are nothing special.
As Nikki said, they seem emotionless.

i have just recently seen the newer, yet older, movies (the prequels) and i was really disappointed with the yoda... the puppet one in the original three movies just seemed more real and... and... squishy? haha
i also think that it takes more talent to make these puppets and control them then to just use a computer to make one that so obviously looks like it just doesn't belong...
i am a huge star wars fan and i am still a much bigger fan of the original three... and i am now stupid enough to think that the newer ones would follow the same 'recipe', so to speak, but i just feel like too much computer animation was used and the artists take that for granted

Yeah, the new ones were just sort of... hollow. It really felt like they didn't have any real soul. Like, the originals were all about the hope for the future, and wanting Luke to succeed and all that. The new ones didn't have that kind of like, happiness. Now I know they do have an obviously darker story, but I think that darkness would have been way more effective if it had contrasted a little more like, original Star Wars yeehahs and giant worms and such.

Well, i have to disagree with you. I think that the problem is not computer animation. As a matter of fact, i've worked with 3d modelling and a can tell you, i's as difficult as any other art form and requires a certain degree of expertise.
If you see a puppet made by someone how knows a lot about sewing but does not enjoys it's art, the puppet will be hollow (as hermes said before).

A true masterpiece, book, painting, movie or animation, comes from the perfect mixture of techinque and "soul". The first can be taught, the second can be called "talent" and it doesn't matter where it comes from.

For example, Gollum, he is a computer animated character and still he's incredibly expresive and you sense him as a real, palpable character.

i think golem is a great example of how computer animation worked out exceptionally well... good call on that one!
and i wasn't trying to discredit 3D animators by any means, in fact it is quite amazing what they can do too... i guess i just feel if you can make something that looks so real and you can really touch it, it just 'feels' more real then something that isn't even there except for on screen

I don't know, Gollum was pretty darn real feeling. That is a really good point. If new Yoda had had the kind of attention and mastering as Gollum, the bad of the new movies would be less.

i agree hermes... if the cgi yoda was made as well as golem it would have been that much more fantastic!

Now just imagine if all of the new Star Wars was made as well as Lord of the Rings. xD

i never use this word because i feel like everyone and their mom uses it... but that would be EPIC

Well, Lord of the Rings was almost the definition of epic, so... hell yes.

I liked both Yodas. 8D Yoda is just that awesome. Lol. Especially when he beat R2-D2 with a stick. That made me lawl.

I prefer the puppet Yoda. Puppet Yoda had texture, but it's hard to get that with CGI. Also, the CGI Yoda seemed (at least to me) to be floating a bit off the ground...He didn't seem to be so much a part of the environment as he was when he was a puppet. I agree with PrincessBane, though - Yoda beating R2-D2 with a stick was hillarious :D

(As a side note, it bugs me a lot when people say "Artoo Deetoo" instead of R2-D2 and "Ceethreepee-oh" instead of C-3PO. Same with anyone else?)

Hahaha
It's sometimes hard to notice obvious stuff like the fact that R2D2 really is just numbers and letters. Sometimes your brain just skips over it.
Then again though, Star Wars is pretty mainstream, you think most people would know.

I know...but I read one fanfic where the girl somehow didn't know <.<'' It was a fail from start to finish.

Good lord, fan fiction wins again. I've never been able to bring myself to read anything but the most hilariously dumb fan fiction. Like the crossover where Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation meets Elrond from Lord of the Rings. And they fall in love.
But at least they spelled the names right..?

The only fan fiction I can stand reading are the ones where the characters are done so well that I feel like I've just watched an episode or read a book (I just typed read an episode and watched a book...is something wrong with me? :P) in that series. So far, there've only been a few like that. The absolute fails I keep reading because...well...they're fails! I need to see how much more they'll fail, even if I know I'll hate it. I write fan fic myself, but only if I really have a good sense of the characters.

I think the number one obstacle to me reading fan fiction is that I can't stand just reading from a monitor. If all I'm doing is reading, I want to go to bed or a couch. =P

Also, there should be a time travel cross over fanfic where puppet Yoda meets CGI Yoda.
Or should I say slashfic?

Oo, that would be interesting...

Puppet Yoda: Detatched from the environment you are. Fake you look.

CGI Yoda: Robotic you are. Fake you look.

Puppet: More fake you look.

CGI: Wrong you are. More fake you look.

Puppet: Tell on you I will.

CGI: ...Your mom.

...Sorry XD Couldn't resist.

I wonder, if Yoda met himself, is he the type to enjoy his own company, or would he be unhappy with his twin? xD

I don't know...it would be nice to find out :D I'm sure George Lucas could answer...or my brother, he knows just as much about Star Wars...