Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help.
It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread
for ongoing cleanup projects.
I guess you could say that it's animation in the older sense of the word, "given motion." The trains are moving—given motion—therefore they are animated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation
The Wikpedia definition says "Animation is a method in which pictures are manipulated to appear as moving images."
Thomas the Tank Engine doesn't qualify for that. It isn't pictures that are manipulated to appear to be moving since it's model trains moving in real time.
Where did you get the "given motion" definition?
Stop-Motion animation is still animation, which is what TTTE started as
Definition 5 on dictionary.com: to give motion to
Though I agree it is a rare use of the word.
SoundCloud
So Tvtropes is still going to call it a Western Animation based on obscure technicality/it's the best thing to call it/we don't know what to call it?
Well what do you want to call it then?
Yeah, Thomas is Stop Motion Animation.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
There also seems to be a computer animated version.
It seems like the easiest namespace to fit it into would be Western Animation/.
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty
However, the show's 13th season (2009) saw a transition to full CGI animation, which makes Thomas a clearly animated series. CGI is not film, no matter what Disney wants to imply with their new Lion King cartoon.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Wikipedia isn't a dictionary, and shouldn't be used as one. It's for finding info about things, not for finding out the definition of words.
Edited by MichaelKatsuro
Could we call it live action model animation?
No, because CGI is not live-action.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
You realized you yourself just called it "Animation", right? Just because it's animating live-action objects doesn't mean it's not animation.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Oh, well to crazysamaritan I was referring to the old series rather than the most recent one.
As for you War Jay 77 um well I guess I did just call it animation. It just feels so weird though I mean with animation I'm usually thinking of the drawings, cgi and stop motion objects.
Anyways I'd like to thank Tanty Monty for pulling all that up and you guys for even discussing this with me.
Edited by Knight20
As an aside, the series has never been called Thomas the Tank Engine...
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
Oh right, "Thomas and Friends".
Regardless of the medium debate, I agree that the work and subpages should be moved under Thomas & Friends (wikiword ThomasAndFriends), since it's the work's actual title.
Edited by Albert3105
So the classification will be the same but the title will be changed?
Also in agreement on moving it to Thomas & Friends.
Anyway, my two cents: it's animation, and it always has been. Stop-motion animation suddenly not qualifying as animation just because some shots are done quicker and more easily in real time, like toy trains moving along a track, seems about like claiming a live-action film with minor CG additions is somehow disqualified from being considered a live-action film.
If we are going to move the pages to Thomas & Friends, this will require at least 32 page moves and custom retitlings by the moderators (to preserve page history) to catch all of its subpages.
Edited by Albert3105
^ Custom titles apply to all subpages, so the custom title will only need to be submitted once.
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
^ The character subpages need separate requests for each.
The model series falls under Useful Notes/Supermarionation, which could be considered live action given that's how Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet are classed. From Hero of the Rails onwards it's unambiguously Western Animation.
As regards to the name, it was Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends from 1984 to 2002, then Thomas & Friends from 2003 onwards. The books come under The Railway Series
Assuming it can be done easily, I support moving all of the pages to Thomas & Friends. On the "animation" debate: animation, according to The Other Wiki, is "a method in which pictures are manipulated to appear as moving images". Stop-motion is done with the same method, so Thomas, as well as all other stop-motion animation, fall under Western Animation (assuming the series was produced in the West).
(Although, I have to ask: assuming a stop-motion animation was produced outside of the West, what category would it fall under?)
Edited by jandn2014 back lol
^Animation/
I don't understand why Thomas the Tank Engine is listed as western animation.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine
I mean it can't be animation since it's actual toy/model trains running around. Animation is drawings/figures made to resemble motion. It can't be stop motion animation since the trains are moving around real time as they're being filmed. It's most definitely not traditional animation or cgi.
It can't be live action either because they're no real people. Live action is about filming real people.
Is it a new category all together?