Dreamwork’s upcoming Kung Fu Panda looks to be another lowbrow dork-fest but the design and animation — at least in the trailer — looks pretty good.

Randall Sly found some beauty shots that fell off the back of a truck and posted them right out in public.

The character designs read very well from both far and near, which is no mean feat in 3D, especially on anything with fur. Up close, there are enough small distinctive details to keep the forms from de-resolving, and from a distance those details aren’t prominent enough to distract from the major forms. The rhinoceroseses are a particularly good example of this balance.

One good way to keep characters distinct is to keep the number of base colors, or hues, low in any given character. This is another old comic-book trick. From afar, these characters are nearly monochrome, which makes them easily identifiable and separated at a distance. It also allows them to be lit in many ways without any color clashes or design conflicts. (E.g.: If the only thing that differentiates your middle-aged mutant samurai eels is the colors of their eyemasks, if they’re ever in red light you’re going to have trouble.)

Trailers at rottentomatoes.com.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under 3D. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.