"So is hand-drawn animation a dying art form? I hope not"
I hope not either! You said that more and more cartoons are just Flash, but in my opinion more and more cartoons are just 3D computer animation. I think there's far more 3D computer generated cartoons now then Flash-ones. Either way, they use 3D computer animation and Flash because it's a lot cheaper. Traditional animation sure has it's charm, hence it's very bad that it's dissapearing. And yeah, The princess and the frog was just a one time affair. If Disney was serious, they would follow it up with more traditional animated movies. But Tangled was yet again 3D computer animation. The ice queen (or what was it called) has been cancelled. Disney even doesn't want to make fairytales based animated movies anymore. Though Pixar makes Brave (but that one is 3D computer animation, and probably not based on a existing Fairytale. It's made up by Pixar).
If you want traditional animation, your last stop may be some anime developers. For example: Studio Ghibly still makes traditional animated movies.
"Come to think of it, I'm surprised that you didn't mention those tween shows. You know, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and those kind"
Those are totally evil. Cliche after cliche: Highschool, check / cheap rock music, check / skate-boards, check / bad acting, check / lots of screaming and stupid faces, check. And all that talk about that everything has to be perfect. Nothing in life is perfect, deal with it!
And about Pixar: Yeah, they where good. But it's over! Disney bought them and now they are forced to make sequels for eternity (with the exception of Brave, though I wouldn't be surprised if that one gets cancelled too). Toy story 3 may be good and I may buy it someday. It's just that I miss the original stuff, like Up!
This topic is hard. On the one hand, classic hand animated Disney works are absolute masterpieces, so it's sad to think there won't be more, but in my opinion, there really hasn't been anything good hand animated movies since The Little Mermaid.
I think back to all the lazy hand animated animated cartoons I watched when I was a kid and compared to CG and Flash based stuff now, they're almost all absolute garbage and borderline unwatchable because of how they're so crudely animated.
If modern animators can use CG and Flash to create cartoons quickly and put their efforts into telling a better story or better humor, that's not a bad thing in my book. Do I think hand drawn 2D animation is dead or dying, sure. Am I sad about it...when it comes to cartoons, not so much.
As long as animators put forth effort into their creations, it doesn't matter whether they're using hand drawn, CG or Flash. Take anime as an example, it's evolved over the years quite well I think.
[youtube:HjZIeHDfshQ]
What is the meaning of life? That's so easy, the answer is TETRIS.
And it's very telling that Japanese animation has more detail and care put into it than a majority of American TV cartoons. Do the Japanese view animation as more of an art form? I believe so.
It's not so much that they see it as more of an art form (it's not like you can't view it as an art form wherever you are, it's just that anime has a much broader scope in Japan than cartoons do in America. Cartoons are majoritively (but not exclusively) marketed as either children's entertainment or young adults' comedy. With childrens entertainment, there's always the option to throw something together quickly, safe in the knowledge that some kid's channel will probably buy it and you'll probably make a decent income with the franchising, even if no-one remembers it three years down the line. Of course, there are several very talented companies willing to go the extra mile and create shows that excel in all regards, but there's no escaping the fact that kids will buy anything.
I mean hell, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was abysmal by any real standards, but I still loved that stuff as a kid. It had SONIC THE HEDGEHOG in it. I could spend my play times running around the garden, kicking imaginary Scratch and Grounder's ass. And they were cool because it was a show with SONIC THE HEDGEHOG in it. It was never the good quality games that made Sonic freaking magnificent to my 7-year-old brain, it was that he was the blue dude with 'tude on my TV every Saturday morning, going on wacky adventures.
The young adult comedies (Family Guy et al) don't really require high animation standards - so long as it looks decent, the emphasis is on great comedy and visual gags not possible in live action, then it's all good. I mean, graphically speaking, South Park is ass, but it's a brilliant show because it's so funny... and the ironic art style emphasises that.
Anime covers all genres - action, comedy, romance, drama, thriller, tragedy and so forth; and to a much wider audience. Action in particular pretty much demands high animation quality and fluidity if the fight scenes are ever to have any kind of impact - and with so many action-focused shows out there, making yours stand out from the rest is a big ask. Conversely, your romantic dramas are going to ask for stunning, detailed backdrops and carefully animated slow movements between the characters, something which isn't really viable to pull off using Adobe Flash's tween buttons.
Anime has always been a much more frame-by-frame style than western animation too - the quality difference is debatable, but whilst Western animation has always strived for fluidity (just look at any of the old Disney cartoons), part of anime's core style is clearly distinct animation frames. So whilst hitting the Tween button is, if anything, desirable in Western toons, in anime it can look a bit odd. Anime-styled 3D CGI is where this is most apparant - Appleseed is a decent movie, but the anime characters don't quite look right somehow. Comapre that to how Western style animation converts perfectly to CGI; the fluidity is what it's always been about.
tl;dr: I think I've gotten a little tangental there, but the baseline is this: in Western animation, hand-drawn is probably on the way out for the most part, because it's always been about fluidity, and the more fluid, the better. In anime, it's here to stay. I'm not saying anime is better by any means, it's just taking a different direction.
I do some 2D animation, myself. I use Anime Studio, which is very similar to Flash; don't be confused by the name "Anime," because you can make Disney level animations with this software. It can be used to make deep objects and life-like movement, but when you have to decide between making something look aesthetic through long hours of work or making something look slightly less detailed but still decent, an animator would choose the easy way out; my animations are slightly less detailed because I could never put out enough time to make fully rotatable characters and objects.
3DS friend code: 1160-9727-7802
Wii U ID: ianmage1
I'm working on an animated feature film called "WhiteLand." Check out my progress: http://www.youtube.com/user/ianmage1
About the Disney Boomerang thing, They actually had one channel like that (Toon Disney) it had Chip & Dale, Pepper Ann, The Weekenders, Goof Troop etc. Then they threw it in the trash to give us Disney XD which is nothing but Skateboards, Newer (but not really good except for P&F) toons, Heavy censored anime (basically Naruto without the ninja part) & Tween boy shows.
Anyway on-topic, Hand-drawn is actually declared as "Lazy" by children aged 8-15 (the biggest demographic), They automatically declare anything that is CGI/3D as the best toon work ever. So the main problem is the audience that board members pick, Which is always the crowd that can't tell, As My gamps says it "s*** from shoe polish".
"We might find those tween shows garbage, but little girls still love them, and little girls can produce a lot of money"
Yeah, that's true. As for Pixar sequels: Toy story 3 will be one I'll watch in the future, but I really didn't need a Cars sequel since Cars is in my opinion one of the worst Pixar movies. Monster inc 2 however has my interest since I loved the original, and I really have no idea what they can do with it. I heard something about a "monster academy", but that's all I have heard about it.
"Hand-drawn is actually declared as "Lazy" by children aged 8-15 (the biggest demographic), They automatically declare anything that is CGI/3D as the best toon work ever"
I am divided on this. On one hand I am easily the guy who says: "We may hate it, but little kids love it. And that's what counts!" Though that should not be a legitimation for lazy work.
But on the other hand: You have to "feed" children with quality! If children only watch rubbish, they only like rubbish. Maybe the best is to mix it up: One day quality (or something artsy), the next day some popular mainstream stuff. That way a kid can decide what he truly likes. Same goes for games and movies!
I have to admit that the computer animated Road Runner you showed looks pretty sweet. I don't know if you have seen the trailer of the computer animated Maya the bee series that is coming up? That one looks pretty sweet too, though I don't think it will be as good as the original.
"We might find those tween shows garbage, but little girls still love them, and little girls can produce a lot of money"
Yeah, that's true. As for Pixar sequels: Toy story 3 will be one I'll watch in the future, but I really didn't need a Cars sequel since Cars is in my opinion one of the worst Pixar movies. Monster inc 2 however has my interest since I loved the original, and I really have no idea what they can do with it. I heard something about a "monster academy", but that's all I have heard about it.
"Hand-drawn is actually declared as "Lazy" by children aged 8-15 (the biggest demographic), They automatically declare anything that is CGI/3D as the best toon work ever"
I am divided on this. On one hand I am easily the guy who says: "We may hate it, but little kids love it. And that's what counts!"
But on the other hand: You have to "feed" children with quality! If children only watch rubbish, they only like rubbish. Maybe the best is to mix it up: One day quality (or something artsy), the next day some popular mainstream stuff. That way a kid can decide what he truly likes. Same goes for games and movies!
Monsters Inc. 2 has been renamed to Monsters University, and it's a prequel.
I agree with you on Cars, I didn't like that movie at all. I hate Owen Wilson, and Larry the Cable Guy was just as dumb as he is on TV.
My favorite Pixar films: Ratatouille The Incredibles Finding Nemo all 3 Toy Story films Wall-E A Bugs Life (it was MUCH better than Antz)
My favorite Dreamworks films: Um... let's see... Over the Hedge Kung Fu Panda, Shrek 1 (I tolerated it)
My favorite Blue Sky Studios films: Ice Ace 1 and 2 (haven't seen 3 yet) ...and that's it. I haven't seen Rio, Robots, or Horton.
Traditional animation, pencil and paper, cell animation. Take your pick.
Why can't computer programs such as Flash be used to "draw by hand?" The only difference is that one way is much more tedious and the other has many more options. Flash alone has certain limits but obviously there's other software out there to take care of whatever the artist/animator's needs.
My favorite Pixar movies are Up, Ratatouille, and A bugs life.
My favorite Dreamworks movies are Shrek 1 and 2. 3 was bad and 4 I have yet to see, but to be honest I have enough of all those edgy fairytale parody's (you know what I am talking about). Ice age 1 and 2 where fun (3 I have yet to see), but you can't deny that Scrat was the main star. Scrat was awesome!
Traditional animation, pencil and paper, cell animation. Take your pick.
Why can't computer programs such as Flash be used to "draw by hand?" The only difference is that one way is much more tedious and the other has many more options. Flash alone has certain limits but obviously there's other software out there to take care of whatever the artist/animator's needs.
People do use Flash, but it's more convenient to just draw something on paper and scan it into the computer so it can be colored digitally. That way you still keep that traditional feel.
A larger majority of cartoons are done this way. The pictures are drawn on paper, then scanned into the computer and colored digitally, then they are Xeroxed onto cells and placed over the background, where the completed image is scanned again as a full scene.
Traditional animation, pencil and paper, cell animation. Take your pick.
Why can't computer programs such as Flash be used to "draw by hand?" The only difference is that one way is much more tedious and the other has many more options. Flash alone has certain limits but obviously there's other software out there to take care of whatever the artist/animator's needs.
People do use Flash, but it's more convenient to just draw something on paper and scan it into the computer so it can be colored digitally. That way you still keep that traditional feel.
A larger majority of cartoons are done this way. The pictures are drawn on paper, then scanned into the computer and colored digitally, then they are Xeroxed onto cells and placed over the background, where the completed image is scanned again as a full scene.
Not everything needs to be drawn on paper and scanned, necessarily. In fact it's much easier to create objects within the software, rather than draw it out on paper; it allows the animator to warp an object's original form. Here's an object I created within my software: While you can use drawings as ligaments and rotate them in the software, you can change their shape/gesture if they're created in the software.
3DS friend code: 1160-9727-7802
Wii U ID: ianmage1
I'm working on an animated feature film called "WhiteLand." Check out my progress: http://www.youtube.com/user/ianmage1
Forums
Topic: The death of 2D hand-drawn animation?
Posts 21 to 35 of 35
This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.