History Main / NoFlowInCGI

[[folder:Films -- Music]]

* ''AdventChildren'' had Sephiroth's hair and Red XIII's fur. While the former got more screen time as a key character, it was still stated to be very costly. Red XII[=/=]Nanaki on the other hand got very little.

* Most human females that appear in Pixar films normally play this straight by always wearing either pants or tight clothing. An exception to this rule would be a female patient in the dentist's waiting room near the end of ''FindingNemo'', who is apparantly mistaken by both Nemo and the Tank Gang for Darla, especially in the fullscreen version where the exposed portion of said patient's legs are completely visible in all three of her appearances.

** The animators thought that it was very difficult animating Ventress with her skirt on during fight scenes. Played painfully straight in the third season where she completely ditches the skirt and becomes a Nightsister.

** Violet's hair is a notable aversion, but it took ''a lot'' of work to animate properly. To the point where Pixar animators had to cut a scene showing the family hiding underwater because of how much effort it would take to properly animate her hair in those conditions.

** Averted in ''ChickenRun'' with CGI gravy.

* Averted by ''{{Coraline}}'', despite ''[[BeyondTheImpossible being a stop-motion film]]''.

* Heavily, heavily averted by the {{PlayStation 2}} ''{{Shinobi}}'' game, which had the main character's improbably long, impossibly cool, bright red flowing scarf as a virtual trademark.
** Which, oddly enough, was actually an error on the part of the programmers. It was originally supposed to be a lot shorter, but as they liked the look of it so much, they [[AscendedGlitch kept it anyway]]
** If Hotsuma's scarf counts, then so does [[ViewtifulJoe Joe's]].

* ''FinalFantasyVIII'' averted this notably in the cutscenes, since Squall's fur collar was added expressly to challenge the animators by keeping them from following the trope.

* Mostly averted in ''ResonanceOfFate''. The main characters all wear loose jackets or coats that flap around during their crazy acrobatics.

* {{Averted}} in ''DeadFantasy'' most of the time. MontyOum is too talented.

** Partly averted as of season 3/episode 12. Anakin and Obi-Wan now have regular jedi robes as seen in the movies, moving realisticly of course. The hair still is in form.
** Averted with Ventress due to the fact that she almost always wears a long skirt, but played straight when she is fighting as the animators thought that it was very difficult animating Ventress with her skirt on during fight scenes. Played painfully straight in the third season where she completely ditches the skirt and becomes a Nightsister.

** In the direct-to-video sequels and the TV series, the carpet's elaborate design was downgraded so it could be drawn without [=CGI=]. Compare the [[http://i.d.com.com/i/dl/media/dlimage/12/73/52/127352_large.jpeg carpet as seen in the feature]] with the [[http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n278/amadou_82/Disney%20related%20pics/King%20of%20Thieves/da3039.jpg direct-to-video/television version]]. This is why Carpet is considered a walking, flying VisualEffectsOfAwesome in the first movie, because he's done ''flawlessly''.

[[caption-width-right:198:[[ISenseADisturbanceInTheForce I sense a disturbance in]] the [[IncrediblyLamePun fabric]].]]

* Most human females that appear in Pixar films normally play this straight by always wearing either pants or tight clothing. An exception to this rule would be a female patient in the dentist's waiting room near the end of ''FindingNemo'', who is apparantly mistaken by both Nemo and the Tank Gang for Darla, especially in the fullscreen version.

** Averted with Ventress due to the fact that she almost always wears a long skirt, but playes straight when she is fighting as the animators thought that it was very difficult animating Ventress with her skirt on during fight scenes. Played painfully straight in the third season where she completely ditches the skirt and becomes a Nightsister.

* Usually played straight in ''CodeLyoko'', especially in season 1. The Lyoko Avatars have all blocky hair (including Yumi's, who are in a tight bun) and clingy clothes. By season 2, the animators try adding a little flow, like with the occasional DramaticWind, or Ulrich's hair ribbon flapping behind him when he's riding the [[CoolBike Overbike]]. By season 4, Yumi have loose hair that certainly flow with her [[SheFu various acrobatics]], though the clothes are even more [[SpandexSpandex skintight]].

!!Examples:

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

** In the direct-to-video sequels and the TV series, the carpet's elaborate design was downgraded so it could be drawn without [=CGI=]. Compare the [[http://i.d.com.com/i/dl/media/dlimage/12/73/52/127352_large.jpeg carpet as seen in the feature]] with the [[http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n278/amadou_82/Disney%20related%20pics/King%20of%20Thieves/da3039.jpg direct-to-video/television version]].
*** This is why Carpet is considered a walking, flying VisualEffectsOfAwesome in the first movie, because he's done ''flawlessly''.

** ''AdventChildren'' had Sephiroth's hair and Red XIII's fur. While the former got more screen time as a key character, it was still stated to be very costly. Red XII[=/=]Nanaki on the other hand got very little.
* In ''TheIncredibles'', Violet's hair is a notable aversion, but it took ''a lot'' of work to animate properly.
** To the point where Pixar animators had to cut a scene showing the family hiding underwater because of how much effort it would take to properly animate her hair in those conditions.
** Practically all characters have hair that is affected by wind, water and movement. Violet's is the most noticeable, but Dash's hair is definitely not static when he runs at high speed.
*** Dash's hair was the most difficult of the lot of them; it had a general shape that it needed to keep, but it also needed to react to stimulus like his vast speed properly, without stretching - ''much''. It took over a year of work to get his hair right.

** Another simple scene was processor-intensive: when the costume is chucked in the garbage can at Edna's and slowly falls in was incredibly difficult to simulate.
* One of the reasons {{Pixar}} stuck to making movies about plastic toys and bugs in the early days was because it avoided problems like this.
** Observe the difference in how dogs are modelled in ''Toy Story'' (static, plastic-looking) compared to ''Toy Story 2'' (appropriately fuzzy).
** By the time they produced ''MonstersInc'' they'd developed software models that could make Sully's fur look fluffy, stiff, or windswept where necessary.
*** But that bit of toilet paper stuck to a foot took the longest time to get right.
** Most human females that appear in Pixar films normally play this straight by always wearing either pants or tight clothing. An exception to this rule would be a female patient in the dentist's waiting room near the end of ''FindingNemo'', who is apparantly mistaken by both Nemo and the Tank Gang for Darla, especially in the fullscreen version.
* ''Barbie as Rapunzel's'' braid looks okay, but when she wears her hair "loose" it looks like it's made of rubber.
** Semi-justifiable because it took {{Disney}} [[DevelopmentHell years and years]] to perfect the technology for their [[{{Tangled}} telling of the story]].

** The original ''KingKong'' averted this as well, though by accident. It was unavoidable that the hair on the Kong model would move around as the animators worked with it. However, on film, this works well, as it just looks like Kong's fur is moving in the wind.

[[AC: VideoGames]]

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons: Scourge of Worlds'', a CGI choose-your-path DVD adventure, which used the iconic 3rd Edition D&D characters, all the characters used were fairly straight interpretations of their original artwork, with the exception of Mialee, the elf wizard. The reason? Her original design had a huge mop of hair that extended to her knees. The CGI version had a small knot that extended off the back of her head.
* Very common with mods for ''TheSims2''. Though creators of mods have improved tremendously since the old days, it's not uncommon for it to appear that the sims are using industrial strength hairspray and way too much starch in their laundry.
** Also, a lot of custom content creators try to fix this and end up with the hair having a gap under the neck, skirts with black areas under them, and even feet bending at the ankle(usually with high heels that are higher than what is usual in the game).

* I assume the reason we never get a 3D Alucard based on Ayami Kojima's design is because it would be really, ''really'' hard to make a 3D animation as magnificent as his ''CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' sprite. His running animation started with about 15 frames, as he lunged into his run. Then looped another 15 for the running itself, complete with his long hair flowing and his cape flapping.
* Lara's trademark ponytail in the original ''TombRaider'' was absent outside [=FMVs=]. From ''[=TR2=]'' onward, however, her ponytail was present and had its very own physics engine, making it blow in wind (at different degrees depending on her surroundings!) collide with Lara's body and even float on the surface of water. Nowadays the physics are a bit dodgy due to the different engine - one could play a DrinkingGame and take a sip every time Lara's hair goes straight through her neck.
** ''{{Primal}}'' did something similar with Jen's distinctive pigtails, as well as with one or two other characters, most of whom suffered from the 'hair through the neck' problem.
** The same happened to Solid Snake in the original ''MetalGearSolid'' for PSX, whose design includes a long, flowing bandanna. It slowed the engine down so much, though, that the ends were eventually cut off. In ''MetalGearSolid2'', the bandanna tails follow his motions almost perfectly and even flutter noisily when he opens a door to the storm on the deck outside, and was exaggerated by the tails on the Infinity Bandanna being as long as Snake is tall, giving an impression a little like a ninja scarf.

** The Mario series' relationship with this trope pre-dates three-dimensional graphics: Mario's trademark cap was added because the developers didn't want to have to animate hair.
** The mustaches were also a result of not wanting to animate a face.
*** I thought it was so people could tell he ''had'' a face.

* In ''CityOfHeroes'', only one character, Ghost Widow, has flowing hair. The developers stated this would be a huge performance bottleneck if they extended it to everyone else. Even still, her hair is a bit too elastic for its own good.
** Also played straight with every piece of clothing or equipment (most noticeably in the robes), besides the capes. The capes, which are the source of Ghost Widow's hair physics, work nicely, since they flow and move rather nicely, but the elasticity is still there. Especially noticeable when using travel powers, since any quick movement makes the cape double in size temporarily. Champions Online uses basically the same physics, too.
* Made painfully clear in ''MortalKombat 4'' with Sonya's frozen ponytail. Later games, made for more powerful systems, managed to avert this.
** In later games, almost everyone has some part of their hair or clothes that flaps freely (in fact, Goro and Kintaro has front flaps added to their {{Loin Cloth}}s in later games for probably this exact reason). They do occasionally clip inside the character models, though.

* ''GuildWars'' plays this straight with most of the outfits for the player characters, with the exception of the capes that signal the player's guild which have realistic cloth simulation animation.
** The longer female styles and accessories in later campaigns (see Dervishes and Ritualists) do move, with the exception of that one high-ponytail look used by Necromancers and Rangers. But the Dervish skirts can be cone-like and a particular (across-the-board) curled, bouncy ponytail has hilarious effects when dancing.

* Hair in ''MassEffect'' has all of the bob and flow of a concrete sculpture. This is hilariously evident with Miranda in the sequel; Unlike the military-haired characters of the rest of the game, Miranda has long, flowing, elbow-length hair, but it's as stiff as a brick.
** It ''does'' kind of move, but only around the shoulders. The age of the Unreal 3 engine is becoming increasingly evident: see the "tears" characters would cry, which ranged from a pool below their eyes to two slicks running down their cheeks. No animations in between - it's quite a surprise to see someone suddenly look like they've been crying for ten minutes.

** As of ''DragonAgeII'' it seems [[BioWare BioWare]] has started to address this having hair move subtlety during conversation, cutscenes or when just running about. Now if they could just sort out those beards...
* In ''HalfLife 2'', Alyx's hair is very short and Dr. Mossman's is pulled into a tight bun. By ''Left4Dead'', Valve was comfortable giving Zoe a ponytail and bangs.
** And now several of the unlockable items in ''TeamFortress2'' also have jigglebones -- which essentially allow them to simulate the inertia produced by the movements of whichever character is carrying or wearing them.
*** Which seems to have hit a wall and bounced back. The [[http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/A_Rather_Festive_Tree Christmas tree hat]] and the rubber ball they created for an anniversary patch (which appears in BLU's spawn when the server is in "party mode") both [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0JhXerUE0U wobble and spaz out even when they are sitting perfectly still with no physics being applied to them]].

* ''SecondLife'' partially avoids this with animated hair and skirts available as purchased items. It still has clipping issues, but it does look okay most of the time.
** The default avatar hair ('slider hair') does not flow at all, nor does default avatar skirts. Also, most hair is created with either toruses, which are easy to bend into locks, or sculpties, which are user-defined shapes. Neither of these support the "Flexible Path" option. Hair in Second Life thus ranges from very well-done hair that doesn't flow, to somewhat crappy looking hair that flows properly.
* ''FinalFantasyXIII'' happily averts this. Even Sazh, the most heavily dressed character in the party and sporting a tight afro, has elements of his clothes and hair that blow in the breeze.
** This is because most of the many years it took to make the game were spent making the graphics engine deliver as realistic graphics as possible, at all times, without slowing down. [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome It]] [[CostumePorn certainly]] [[SceneryPorn shows]].
* Capes in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' do flow, but not particularly well. It's especially obvious when the character has a tail, like the Tauren and the Draenei do. Then the cape sways in perfect sync with the tail, but doesn't fall properly at the end of the tail.
** They also don't wrap around or cover the body, but fall straight down the back like a towel tied around the neck.
** Capes also clip ''horribly'' while riding a raptor mount.
** Hair also deserves a mention, as aside from one or two pony-tails per race and gender, none of the hair in the game moves much regardless of length or style.
** The reason is, of course, that the capes and hairstyles aren't using any sort of physics, they're simply running through animations like the rest of the character model. The cape is attached to the characters at a fixed length and distance, more like a shell rather than flowing as in City of Heroes.
* ''[=~American McGee's Alice~=]'' is a bit weird. Her hair is stiff as a board and can be seen cutting through her neck if you can twist her head right. Her apron ties, on the other hand, flap fairly convincingly whenever she runs or stands in a breeze. Screenshots from the sequel in development show that they've gotten the new Alice model's hair to move.
* In ''RockBand'', there are no guitar straps in the animations because of this. The guitars still act like the straps are there, just invisible. The mo-cap people wore guitar straps and nobody bothered to adjust the models for it.
** At least one of the potential hair models for female rockers will give them pigtails made of concrete.

* In the ''SaintsRow'' series, there is a wide variety of long hairstyles to choose from, ranging from corn rows to dreads to ponytails to straight, elbow-length hair. Every single one of these styles is as rigid and stiff as a plank of wood. It's particularly noticeable in a cutscene in the second game, where your character is thrown around during a fight with a rival gang leader - his/her hair sticks perfectly to him/her the whole time, no matter how long it is.
* In ''AlanWake'', Alan's shirts and jacket behave very much like shirts and a jacket - the hood bobs around, coattails and lapels flow in the wind, and it bends realistically.

* In ''GodOfWar III'', Hercules' loincloth sometimes clips through his legs, [[VaporWear exposing his buttocks]].
** On the other hand, Kratos' skirt generally flows pretty well.
* Starting in ''[[SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'', the ''SuperSmashBros'' series has a few features that blow in the wind ([[TheLegendOfZelda Link]]'s cap, the ''FireEmblem'' characters' capes, the [[SuperMario prin]][[TheLegendOfZelda cesses]]' skirts, etc.). It's obvious that they didn't put much effort into this, though -- the capes frequently clip, and Peach and Zelda's hair act as single cohesive units.
** Notably, you can remove these objects in Debug Mode -- including the skirts.

* ''DeadOrAlive'': Assuming you can tear your eyes from the physics-insulting boobs you may notice the terribly animated hair.

[[AC: WebOriginal]]

* Played with in ''The Legend Of Zelda: The Light Of Courage''. Link and Zelda's hair and clothes are completely stiff, but Ganon's robe flows ''way too much'', at one point even ''falling halfway off'' when he moves too fast. (This was actually a mistake, but they decided to ThrowItIn because it was [[RuleOfFunny funny]].)

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* Various shows by MainframeEntertainment had to use this trope.
** ''{{Reboot}}'' was set in a computer, so everyone wore skintight clothes. It wasn't until later seasons that female characters even ''had'' long hair.
** ''ShadowRaiders'' was set in space, with aliens made of rock, magma, who were insects, reptiles or robots. So no one even ''had'' hair, nor wore billowy clothes. Only the reptiles of Bone had moving membranes/ridges on their backs, which did move along with them. A few rare scenes featured static fabrics in the throne room of planet Fire.
** ''BeastWars'' loves this trope. The big advantage to having a show with a cast composed of robots is that you do away with the issue of clothes and hair right from the get go. Of course the character models look like they're just composed of geometric shapes; they're all robots! Problems arise when you look at the animal alt-modes and the real-life animals they run across, fur and feathers might as well be sculpted on for all they move.
* ''VeggieTales'' characters were designed as vegetables because they were basically spheres with a few extra features. Easy to animate. Might have changed by now, but that's how it began.
** Graphics have changed, animation hasn't for V-Tales.
*** Not true. While the character designs are largely the same, the subtle details have changed quite a bit. Larry now looks more like an actual cucumber, with bumps and color striations. The animation has gotten more sophisticated, but why would the animators ''want'' to do something more complex when what we have now works so well? Giving Bob and Larry hands at this point would make about as much sense as putting a drop-tile ceiling on the Sistine Chapel.
* In the ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'' CG theatrical film and animated series, the Jedi all wear gauntlets so the animators don't have to animate the flowing sleeves seen in the live action movies. The Jedi robes also have no sleeves and are basically hooded cloaks. Finally, their hair looks like chiseled rock.
** Especially visible on Obi-Wan, whose rock beard has such a sharp edge to it he might be able to kill someone by chin-butting them.
** Which is strange given that ''TheForceUnleashed'' managed to animate flowing Jedi robes ''in real time'' on the PS360. What hardware are they using for ''The Clone Wars''?
** Supposedly, WordOfGod says that it was stylized this way to pay homage to both Manga and marionettes. Of course that could just be an excuse...
** It [[RuleOfCool looks kinda cool, though]], and has a nicely stylized quality to it.
** And partly averted as of season 3/episode 12, Anakin and Obi-Wan now have regular jedi robes as seen in the movies, moving realisticly of course. The hair still is in form.

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** The same happened to Solid Snake in the original ''MetalGearSolid'' for PSX, whose design includes a long, flowing bandanna. It slowed the engine down so much, though, that the ends were eventually cut off. In ''MetalGearSolid 2'', the bandanna tails follow his motions almost perfectly and even flutter noisily when he opens a door to the storm on the deck outside, and was exaggerated by the tails on the Infinity Bandanna being as long as Snake is tall, giving an impression a little like a ninja scarf.

* According to developers, some of the character design changes in ''{{Castlevania}} Judgment'' were made due to this trope. One often-cited example is Shanoa's short hair and church hood, which was much less well received than her long flowing hair from ''Order of Ecclesia''.

* In the original ''{{Castlevania}}: RondoOfBlood'' (which had sprite-based graphics), Maria Renard wears a dress and her hair down. In the 2.5D [[VideoGameRemake remake]] in ''Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles'', her Ayami Kojima redesign features pants and a ponytail, presumably because of this trope.
* I assume the reason we never get a 3D Alucard based on Ayami Kojima's design is because it would be really, ''really'' hard to make a 3D animation as magnificent as his ''CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' sprite. His running animation started with about 15 frames, as he lunged into his run. Then looped another 15 for the running itself, complete with his long hair flowing and his cape flapping.

* Inverted with H-Game developer ''Illusion'', since it devotes ''a lot'' (and with good reason) of its developing efforts on giving compelling animation to the games' girls, especially to their hair. To the point that its jarring when its compared to the flat-boxed environments.

* I assume the reason we never get a 3D Alucard based on Ayami Kojima's design is because it would be really, ''really'' hard to make a 3D animation as magnificent as his CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight sprite. His running animation started with about 15 frames, as he lunged into his run. Then looped another 15 for the running itself, complete with his long hair flowing and his cape flapping.

* Most of the characters in ''DeadSpace'' have short or no hair, except Kendra, whos long hair moves more like a piece of stiff fabric.
* ''DeadOrAlive'': Assuming you can tear your eyes from the physics insulting boobs you may notice the terribly animated hair.
* Averted in later ''MortalKombat'' games, where almost everyone has some part of their hair or clothes that flaps freely (in fact, Goro and Kintaro has front flaps added to their {{Loin Cloth}}s in later games for probably this exact reason). They do occasionally clip inside the character models, though.

* Mostly averted in ResonanceOfFate. The main characters all wear loose jackets or coats that flap around during their crazy acrobatics.
* Most of the characters in DeadSpace have short or no hair, except Kendra, whos long hair moves more like a piece of stiff fabric.
* DeadOrAlive: Assuming you can tear your eyes from the physics insulting boobs you may notice the terribly animated hair.

* Played with in ''The Legend Of Zelda: The Light Of Courage''. Link and Zelda's hair and clothes are completely stiff, but Ganon's robe flows ''way too much'', at one point even ''falling mostly off'' when he moves too fast. (This was actually a mistake, but they decided to ThrowItIn since it fit the overall ridiculous tone of the video.)