DescentBB

http://www10.plala.or.jp/g-tensei/cg_iintyo.htm
see that wool jumper? it looks so real i thought it (just the jumper) was a photo.

but it's not. it's done from scratch, check it out.
http://www10.plala.or.jp/g-tensei/howto_se.htm
so simple, but amazing result no?

Looks like someone took a pic of the person with that sweater. Then edited it out and inserted the computer drawn person.

i know , that's what i originally thought too

Nope, that wasn't done through simple photo editing. Whoever made this is very good. You can tell if you look really close at how the light hits the arms and the proportions of the fingers. They are very talented.

My only disapointment is the face. I hate how anime looks in general. Every character looks the same and usually very cheesy. Face too round, mouth really tiny when closed, WAAAAAY FRICKEN HUGE when it's open. The eyes are also massive while the nose usually is a simple point. And the head is always way to big in general. The hair is usually the best part of an anime character.

The stories are usually pretty decent but I feel that a more realalistic approach on these characters would look and feel much better to the viewer.

And rob the viewer of imagination.

There's a reason why stylized character design works very well for animation. Aside from being easier to animate it lets the viewer fill in some missing details. Anime design is particularly flexible. Because it's no doubt easier to animate than something super realistic, they can spend that extra time on other things, like pretty backgrounds or lighting effects. Look in Miyazaki's work for when characters walk underneath tree canopies and how the light cascades over them.

Realism in animation has only been a big thing since CGI movies starting coming out with fancy mocap and digital actors. All throughout the Warner Bros. era, it was stylized (and in many cases, with no shading either). But, in my opinion, realism is also boring. We live in the real world, we see it everyday. Why should art necessarily strive to mimic what we already have? I would want art, especially animation, to draw me into an imaginary world that's remote from the one I live in. Otherwise, there's no point. You'd just do what uncreative Hollywood studios do and have "real" actors do the job. But watch "Grave of the Fireflies" and tell me it would be more heart-wrenching if it were done in live-action or totally realistically.