Even if that's true - it still looks good, it still made Toho a ton of money (more than any practical Godzilla had made them since... Biollante? For decades), it was highly praised, it probably won them awards, and it was four years ago.Kaiju-King42 wrote:I'm convinced that Shin only looked as good as it did because it barely moved at all. Expensive model that's very well lit and implemented, but cheaply animated. Couple that with 70% of the movie being filmed in cheap, ordinary office spaces and you're left with a budget for a very realistic model... and not much else. The fact that they're on record saying they ran out of money to give the film a full score and soundscape is evidence of that; as is the drop in animation quality whenever Godzilla dramatically moves (such as in its earlier forms, or after it fires atomic breath).
If the movie was budgeted any other way, it would probably look more like the Attack on Titan movies. Maybe even worse, considering they refused to use a practical Godzilla.
CG gets better and cheaper every year - they can probably animate Shin at least a little better now for the same cost back then. And that's just the computer/program angle. Add in that making a movie with that level of CGI as a first in Japan probably required a lot of networking with people, training people, buying new equipment, and so forth - costs and efforts that now that it has been put in for Shin can be leveled towards future movies without having to put in the same level of cost. Plus seeing Shin Godzilla probably inspired a bunch of teens to go into the field - and four years later many of them are now young adults just getting out of school and into the workplace (give or take, thanks corona), so there's now even more professionals and resources than when Shin was made. With more big spectacle movies like the previously mentioned Bravestorm, the CGI anime trilogy (it still helps here, for all its flaws), or the upcoming Shin Ultraman, that adds more to the talent pool, programming, and equipment available to hire or rent or buy to make better animated Godzilla models.
With all of that considered, even if you're correct about the limitations and budgeting to make Shin look that good, it was such a success, and it's becoming easier to replicate that level of visual effects, that I don't see them feeling pressure to get back to doing suits. There's good reason to expect the next Godzilla to further improve on the visuals set by Shin. Same way special effects improve in Hollywood.
