But instead, you have things like that faux memorial service that Cartoon Brew is planning on holding at Comic Con where people are supposed to go in and mourn the passing of hand-drawn animation. Which -- I think, anyway -- would be hugely insulting to the tons of people in the animation industry (who -- admittedly -- mostly work in television) who still work in 2D. People don't want to have an in-depth, intelligent conversation about this issue. They just want to be overly dramatic and say things like "Disney is turning its back on that Studio's heritage." When that's really not what's going on here at all.
Really? My God! They're going to be so arrested for all their stupidity.
Kyle wrote:
In fact, according to a Jim Hill article at Huffington Post about the upcoming Mickey Mouse short, there were some quotes that Hill said that kept me intrigued. The link is here, but here are some quotes that had me interested: http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... YW_u82-JDE
He got that big fat rebuttal from a small, simple post. :-/
Brenda Chapman talks about hand-drawn animation and her concerns about the the art form.
Brenda Chapman: Although I love CG, I do have a fondness for traditional and I worry about it dying off because so many people are going to CG and I'm afraid that the young people coming up won't have the older experienced people to teach them how to continue that art form. The studios aren't making 2D films anymore and it really concerns me because when Disney started CalArts in the '70s, he started it because he realized that animators at Disney were staring to die off and that they didn't have anyone at the studio who could take over those positions.
So, that's when they started California Institute of the Arts initially to try to teach the craft to young people. And it went through a sort of a funky period there where the movies weren't quite as good and they didn't look quite as good. But then they started teaching more and that started happening. What I don't see now is studios making that effort for traditional again and so I'm worried that the art form is going to just be held on to by a few handful of people. It's going to be hard to create a full film with so few people who know how to do it.
She also says that she would love to make another 2D-animated film.
Q: You've worked in 2D as well in 3D. Do you have a preference? If you could choose, what kind of film would you make?
Brenda Chapman: Call me old-fashioned, but I love traditional animation. I just think it's so beautiful when it's done right. I can't complain about CG. I think I wouldn't have been able to make Brave as a traditional film and have exactly what I wanted for my characters. Number 1, the curly hair just wouldn't have happened because it's too much pencil mileage. And there was a "strength" behind Brave because it was in CG but that said, I wonder what it would have been like if it had been in traditional animation. She would have looked very different but you could still give them lots of great character. Yeah, I would love to make another traditional film.
She also explains what she finds so unique in 2D animation.
Why 2D animation is still relevant to many students of animation today?
Brenda Chapman: With 2D animation is so much more fun for storyboard artists and animators to live the character when they’re drawing them and really get into who that character is. When you’re moving the splines or whatever they have [in CG], it’s harder to really get your head wrapped around that. I think there’s something tangible there and the imperfections you go through… People are imperfect and you want to imbue characters with that imperfection and I think 2D animation has that in spades in a good way.
I haven't seen it yet, but I'll take a guess. She is worried sick and disappointed by the lack of hand-drawn films but is not willing to do anything about it.
If she is SO concerned about hand-drawn's status, then she (and other animators who give a crap) should do something about it, not just sit around on their lazy asses and think about it all the time, damn it!
Lnds500 wrote:but is not willing to do anything about it.
That's a bit unfair. What can she do? She's not the head of a studio. Even a crowd funded feature-length film would be quite difficult to produce and even harder to distribute. At best, such a project would end up as another indie film shown at festivals without ever getting a mainstream release.
Lnds500 wrote:but is not willing to do anything about it.
That's a bit unfair. What can she do? She's not the head of a studio. Even a crowd funded feature-length film would be quite difficult to produce and even harder to distribute.
I don't expect her to fund a film herself, nor I blame Chapman in particular, but I find it a bit pretentious. It's not like every director is going ahead and saying "yeah, give me the green light and I'm in". Last year at the oscars' roundtable everyone just shut up when they were asked about hand-drawn. "It's great, it's a shame" - yeah, what else is new?
Well, maybe she does want to make a hand-drawn animated film. Maybe she will push to make one when she pitches her next directing idea at DreamWorks. However, in the film industry, it's the money men who decide the films that get made. Maybe if she's assertive enough, she can convince Jeffrey Katzenberg to go in that direction (DWA actually has an advantage that Disney or Pixar don't in that it's still an independent company and Katzenberg has way more influence on what gets greenlit than the Fox suits do, unlike at Disney where Bob Iger is running the whole ship).
Of course, I don't think Brenda Chapman has a lot of power, especially considering her last film was unfortunately "Thief and the Cobbler"ed. There's only so much she can do.
"There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed." - Casey Newton, Tomorrowland
JTurner wrote:So instead of condemning Disney for seeming to abandon hand-drawn animated features (which -- from what I hear -- really isn't the case. Lasseter still thinks that there's an audience & an appetite out there for these kinds of films. It's just that -- for today's audiences -- hand-drawn has to be reinvented in such a way that it then looks new & different. Which will hopefully then be enough to excite people into buying tickets for these types of animated films again. Hence WDAS' experiments like last year's "Paperman" short. Which married hand-drawn's linework to CG's ease of use)...I just wish it were possible to have a non emotional, actual adult conversation about the whole hand-drawn situation these days. But instead, you have things like that faux memorial service that Cartoon Brew is planning on holding at Comic Con where people are supposed to go in and mourn the passing of hand-drawn animation. Which -- I think, anyway -- would be hugely insulting to the tons of people in the animation industry (who -- admittedly -- mostly work in television) who still work in 2D. People don't want to have an in-depth, intelligent conversation about this issue. They just want to be overly dramatic and say things like "Disney is turning its back on that Studio's heritage." When that's really not what's going on here at all.
"He got that big fat rebuttal from a small, simple post. :-/"
I put that post there originally because I believe, as Jim Hill does, that Disney is looking for a new way to bring back handdrawn animation (ala Paperman), not abandoning it, despite the recent layoffs. I think a lot of people are jumping to conclusions about this too soon.
Uh oh! Obsession for hand drawn, here I come! Thanks a lot, Sotiris!
Geez, what is with you! You take every piece of information as a sign that Disney is losing handdrawn animation for good just because their business model has changed? Seriously. You overact too much.
Geez, what is with you! You take every piece of information as a sign that Disney is losing handdrawn animation for good just because their business model has changed? Seriously.
Sorry, I get carried away. What I meant to say is, that is great that she supports hand drawn which is a shame that she can't do anything about it.
So, the writer of this piece tries to suggest that Disney is not abandoning 2D animation despite the layoffs but the quote from Andrew Millstein used to support this claim is almost irrelevant. He's not commenting on the status of 2D animation at the studio at all.
Life at the studio hasn't been all Disneyland smiles — last month, as part of a wider restructuring at its corporate parent, the animation studio laid off fewer than 10 people out of a staff of more than 800. Because some were 2-D animators, there was speculation on some animation blogs that the studio was abandoning its commitment to that art form, an idea Millstein dismissed.
"There's natural ebb and flow within an organization like ours," he said. "We have a deep cross-section of artists at our studio — hand-drawn artists, CG artists, software technologists who understand what's gone into our 2-D. We have deep, deep capabilities."
Yeah, he could not have been more cryptic. Just give a "yes" or "no" answer, without tip-toeing around the issue.
"There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed." - Casey Newton, Tomorrowland
TsWade2 wrote:People need to stop saying hand drawn is dead. It makes me want to hit a brick wall.
Okay, let me ask you something, and I'm being nice here. Are you a nostalgiabrat? Are you like Benthelooney? These are only questions I'm asking.
Sometimes, but i'm not like Benthelooney. Benthelooney hates CGI, and I don't hate CGI at all. I just don't want Disney to give up hand drawn. I'm fine with modern cartoons, especially Gravity Falls. And Mickey Mouse is coming back to Disney Channel too.
TsWade2 wrote:People need to stop saying hand drawn is dead. It makes me want to hit a brick wall.
Meanwhile, in Japan...
This is DisneyFTW1, a former Youtube account that was terminated by Disney themselves. My current Youtube Account is FilmFTW2 (FilmFTW1 was terminated). Youtube sucks when it comes to film uploads, and it sucks even more when major corporations are following your channels. But what can I do?
TsWade2 wrote:People need to stop saying hand drawn is dead. It makes me want to hit a brick wall.
Meanwhile, in Japan...
I'm not trying to be dramatic, I'm just saying that hand drawn is dead is not true at all. They don't have it in the works right now, except that new black and white Mickey Mouse short. As long as they are not ruling out 2D hand drawn animation, then I'll be fine.
TsWade2 wrote:
I'm not trying to be dramatic, I'm just saying that hand drawn is dead is not true at all. They don't have it in the works right now, except that new black and white Mickey Mouse short. As long as they are not ruling out 2D hand drawn animation, then I'll be fine.
Calm down, I'm not giving you a hard time. Just wanted to further prove the point that you stated. No intention on poking your statement and whatnot.
But yeah, how's that Japan still has 2D animation the dominant type of Animation (don't worry: they made a few 3D films.) yet American studios are losing hope on the 2D style?! Curse you, new generation!
This is DisneyFTW1, a former Youtube account that was terminated by Disney themselves. My current Youtube Account is FilmFTW2 (FilmFTW1 was terminated). Youtube sucks when it comes to film uploads, and it sucks even more when major corporations are following your channels. But what can I do?
TsWade2 wrote:
I'm not trying to be dramatic, I'm just saying that hand drawn is dead is not true at all. They don't have it in the works right now, except that new black and white Mickey Mouse short. As long as they are not ruling out 2D hand drawn animation, then I'll be fine.
Calm down, I'm not giving you a hard time. Just wanted to further prove the point that you stated.
If she is SO concerned about hand-drawn's status, then she (and other animators who give a crap) should do something about it, not just sit around on their lazy asses and think about it all the time, damn it! 
What I meant to say is, that is great that she supports hand drawn which is a shame that she can't do anything about it.
