movies/tv Is traditional animation Dying

[Lankman 86]

Is traditional animation a dying breed, I mean look at some of the cartoons these days, mlp is flash, tmnt is CGI, tom and jerry has gone flash animation and I am sure I am missing a few.

 

Disney has just gutted there traditional animation and now only making 3d animation, it makes me sad that traditional animation is going away, I had good memories of it but looks like flash and CGI are the way of the future.

 

traditional animation has something that no other animation type has.

 

oh well guess people want to go for the cheapest way possible....sigh

[Unikitty 1,212]

You say 'cheapest', and I want to disagree with you right there. Digital is simply better. It's faster, easier, more available, gives much room for creation, and allows easy editing and deleting. Traditional animation is a long-winded production that is severely restricted in comparison to digital. With digital, you can shift immediately between different platforms, mixing and tweaking elements, and pooling multiple formats together to create the big picture. There is no worries of the animation being subjective to outside physics.

Traditional is dying, and it's sad to see it go, but digital is rising in it's wake, and proving to be an improved successor. Traditional had it's time, but now it needs to move over for something more versatile, accessible, and adaptable to this world.

It's not all about the pricetag. There are just some things you cannot do with traditional, and there is very little that digital cannot do better.

[Jeric 46,884]

Yes it is, at least in the Western world. The other methods are just as viable a story telling device. Toy Story 3 nearly brought me to damn tears ... TWICE. Frozen felt like it belonged to the 90's Golden Age. MLP is brilliant in how it uses Flash.

 

Traditional may be dying. There is a little hope for 'purists'. Disney has interest in evaluating and investing in the hybrid technology seen in the Paperman short. That was a masterpiece and the animation was freaking flawless. I would love to see full length film using that technology.

[DragonFlyer 329]

Sadly it's hard to argue with facts BUT I don't want to believe it. I appreciate ALL types of art and animation so I'm in no way hating on CGI or flash when I say this, but traditional animation - in my honest opinion - has more heart and soul to it. It has a personal feel that you just can't replace. Growing up I was always inspired by the Disney classics, Don Bluth, etc...and to this day no form of animation has had a bigger impact on me. There's absolutely no reason hand-drawn should be shoved aside in place of computer animation, why can't we have both? Every style is unique in it's own way and society should have room in it's heart for more than just one. There are some stories that would be better portrayed in hand-drawn...take The Lion King for example. I simply could not imagine it with computer animation nor would I want to! Somehow I think much of the emotion and intricate facial expressions that brought the characters to life would be lost in place of realistic fur details. Just, no. CGI and flash work great for some things but traditional works best for others. I'm sure I'm too much of an optimist but I still hold out hope that traditional will make a return someday soon. If nothing else perhaps we could have more of this new "2D meets 3D" style as seen in Disney's "Paperman" short, I'm rather fond of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxJkKiHXbw

[Hansel 1,512]

Disney, alongside many other 2D animation studios, have been using digital animation software since the 90's, so it's nothing new exactly.

 

I think people tend to associate Flash with symbol/puppet animation, but they're not mutually inclusive. I do animation myself, and use Flash frequently, however, I still use the traditional single-cell animation technique. The only real difference is that I draw on a tablet instead of on paper and light box.

Software has actually liberated animation in many ways, making it cheaper, more accessible, and without needing as much physical equipment. It's actually one of the reasons we had the Renaissance era of animation during the 90's.

 

Within 2D animation, paperless production is being used less and less in the West. In Japan however, I'm pretty sure that they still do all the animation and line tests on paper.

 

I like both 3D and 2D animation, but I do have a soft spot for 2D, and yes, I am saddened by the huge decrease in 2D Western animation. It also, of course, makes it harder for people like me to find work (at least outside of advertisement and phone apps). 

There's a lot of reasons why 2D isn't as big as it once was, which I've discussed and written about more times than I can count, but some people are predicting a "revival" in 2D animation.

 

 

Yes it is, at least in the Western world. The other methods are just as viable a story telling device. Toy Story 3 nearly brought me to damn tears ... TWICE. Frozen felt like it belonged to the 90's Golden Age. MLP is brilliant in how it uses Flash.

 

Traditional may be dying. There is a little hope for 'purists'. Disney has interest in evaluating and investing in the hybrid technology seen in the Paperman short. That was a masterpiece and the animation was freaking flawless. I would love to see full length film using that technology.

 

 

If nothing else perhaps we could have more of this new "2D meets 3D" style as seen in Disney's "Paperman" short, I'm rather fond of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxJkKiHXbw

 

 

Paperman was hardly even a hybrid. It was pretty much all 3D. They just traced over the keyframes with vector lines and tweened it to follow the 3D to make it look 2D.

 

If you want a hybrid, check out Tron: Uprising. It was beautiful.

 

 

I could write a god damn academic journal entry on why that show was so incredible.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Hansel

[Jeric 46,884]

Sadly it's hard to argue with facts BUT I don't want to believe it. I appreciate ALL types of art and animation so I'm in no way hating on CGI or flash when I say this, but traditional animation - in my honest opinion - has more heart and soul to it. It has a personal feel that you just can't replace. Growing up I was always inspired by the Disney classics, Don Bluth, etc...and to this day no form of animation has had a bigger impact on me. There's absolutely no reason hand-drawn should be shoved aside in place of computer animation, why can't we have both? Every style is unique in it's own way and society should have room in it's heart for more than just one. There are some stories that would be better portrayed in hand-drawn...take The Lion King for example. I simply could not imagine it with computer animation nor would I want to! Somehow I think much of the emotion and intricate facial expressions that brought the characters to life would be lost in place of realistic fur details. Just, no. CGI and flash work great for some things but traditional works best for others. I'm sure I'm too much of an optimist but I still hold out hope that traditional will make a return someday soon. If nothing else perhaps we could have more of this new "2D meets 3D" style as seen in Disney's "Paperman" short, I'm rather fond of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSxJkKiHXbw

 

 

You mention Don Bluth and Secret of N.I.M.H goodness floods my mind. Some of the best animation from the 80's.

 

As far as Paperman being the future of Animation

 

[Red Cedar 1,408]

Digital is definitely going to be the way of the future. It allows for things traditional animation cannot. A digital character rendered as a vector as done in MLP allows for completely consistent artwork at any size or scale, allowing for shots to be recomposed almost instantly if need be without having to redraw an entire background or set of cells. It may not necessarily be cheaper, but it sure allows for a flexibility that traditional animation did not.

 

That said, part of me agrees that traditional animation, done well, is beautiful. Someone already mentioned The Secret of NIMH, which is one of my all-time faves, and that is a great example of a masterfully made work of traditional animation.

[Darker 1,352]

I hate to admit it, but yes. Traditional hand-drawn animation is dying. Those times when it was good will never be forgotten.

[Harpuia 68]

Yes, digital is the future, and honestly I don't really see how it's a bad thing. Now, I don't mean frame-by-frame animation is dying out, I mean that traditional animation done only on paper is just impractical unless you have a huge budget, especially with all of the tools available to animators now. Frame by frame animation is something that's still going strong, just done without paper and with software instead. 

[Stancet 691]

I am upset with CG animation replacing hand drawn. My top 10 animated list has 3 hand drawn movies before it reaches a computer animated one. Many people don't realize CG animation has really tough competition. Spirited Away, The Secret of NIMH and Who Framed Roger Rabbit are three amazing hand drawn features that couldn't be any better if they were CG animated. 

[ShadowPirateX 600]

Sadly, yes. Traditional animation is dying, if not dead.

I'm going to miss traditional animation. Not too much, tough.

[Christmasy Britty 2,553]

I wouldn't say traditional animation is dead I mean look at korra there are some wonderful art directions going there with some bits of cgi thrown in but no I don't believe that tradition is dead its just hard to find some of these hidden gems, saying goes you need to pick through the trash before you find the hidden gems

[Banul 3,831]

Traditional animation just takes too long and I don't think most studios are willing to give it the time it needs. I don't think traditional is any better than digital, though.

[The Crimson Cross 7,533]

The way I see it, everything "traditional" is dying as we're learning new techniques with animation and such.

I kind of like the old disney movies too, but there's quite a lot of good newer ones out there.

I never thought that 3D animation was cheap but ehh. I've been proven wrong before! 

[Mantis01 19]

A yes and no. 

 

Direct video release  of DC and Marvel movie are done tradionally, thought CGI is use. 

 

People don't seem to realize the traditional 2D animation has flaws, if the animator make a mistake on the drawings they have to start over again that how we get blooper. CGI animator could correct the mistake since they're using a computer, but its flaws is detailing and render, mainly hair and fur. 

[eekster 57]

It will become ironically cool few years from now. I like the traditional animation. The love and the effort put in by the animators cel by cel cannot be equaled by CGI. 

 

The thing about MLP I noticed is that they are not taking the shortcut route of adding bones/puppet to create complex animation. Subtle animation that can be automagically done are the rolling of the eyes, mild movement of the mane and the tail, nudge of the head, and more. That is a given.

 

I have a Flash background so I know I can make clones or instances for all the parts of my character but the dynamic animation can only be achieved by experienced animators who moves away from the screen and prototype the scene with pencil and paper.

 

I would say the traditional animation processes and principles lives on.