comment #44808 First of all, you can't easily draw over actors anime figures. It's not as easy as you make it seem. Second, Kyoto makes smooth animation like no other. Third, the song is great and so is the dance (it was made for otaku to mimic). Sometimes it's not entirely the sum of all the parts, sometime the whole has that extra 'something' that makes it great.
The "tracing over live actors" you're referring to is called Rotoscoping. The technique is nearly as old as film animation itself, dating back to at least the 1920s, if not older. When done well, as it was in this Haruhi clip, it adds a lot of fluidity to the animation that even the best animator would have a hard time doing freehand. It's just a standard animation technique, no more "lame" than using cels and paint.
comment #44892 I said trace, not rotoscope. BIG BIG BIG difference. the rotoscoping you refer to is done by computer. the 'rotoscoping' cosomo talked about is what I ment.
