Sotiris wrote:No, 2D is not thriving by any stretch of the imagination. Hand-drawn animation is in decline now more than ever been before, both in terms of quantity and quality. There are no 2D features produced in the U.S. while on TV, shows are Flash-based with crude and limited animation. In Europe, the number of 2D-animated features has dropped significantly. Even low-budget, indie films have gone CG. In Japan, there has been a decrease of 2D-animated output as well with fully-CG animated features and series gaining more and more ground. Not to mention that the quality of anime itself has declined due the sheer volume of outsourcing which is higher than ever before.
Yes, 2D animation still exists and there is still a handful of high-quality animated products out there but that in no way means that 2D-animation is "thriving". It's merely surviving.
I'll admit that "thriving" may not have been the most apt word to use there. But my main argument is that it hasn't died out and is hardly on the brink of disappearing. There
is still a lot of amazing work being done.
And there's always been junk and lower quality productions, especially in TV, even if methods have changed. The Hanna-Barbera productions that were so ubiquitous in the 60s and 70s were never synonymous with quality, and the Filmation productions and other similar stuff that we saw a lot of in the 70s and 80s were well-known for shoddy quality due to limited animation and low framerates (think
He-Man, and that's pretty representative a of a lot of TV series we saw back then). There was a golden age in the 90s that the industry has fallen from, that's true. The flash stuff that is so prevalent today, is indeed, very limited and perhaps even "crude" in terms of animation. But limited methods don't necessarily preclude creativity and artistry; sometimes great work comes about due to limited means and methods. Whatever you think of the TV productions today (I'm not a fan at all, but I've never been big on TV animation), the praise that is heaped upon a lot of those shows tells me that, at the very least, there is a strong consensus that there is artistic and/or cultural value in those shows. Just because animation quality hasn't consistently gone up (or has even come done from a peak) doesn't mean that 2D animation is at a lower point than it's ever been. As for quantity, I won't argue that it has gone down, but with other mediums to share space with, that's hardly surprising. So again, I will admit that "thriving" was a bad choice of words, but I think it is doing more than barely standing on its last legs.
As for the numbers of 2D animated features in Europe, again, I'm not surprised that it has gone down with so many European creators and studios embracing CGI. How significantly have the figures fallen? And compared to when? (This is a genuine question, as I have no idea when it comes to actual figures.) But even with the sheer numbers decreasing, there are many unique 2D animated features coming from Europe even today. A small handful are imported to the US, but there are many more that never make their way accross the Atlantic. And even with the numbers decreasing, it seems that the creators that want to make films in the 2D medium are generally free to do so. It isn't like in the US, where animated filmmakers don't even have that option or have to rely on crowdfunding to do so. (As an aside, the claim that there are
no 2D features produced in the US is a bit of a hyperbole though, as independent filmmakers like Bill Plympton continue to make 2D features, and even the
Spongebob movie from earlier this year was mostly a 2D feature.) Although this moves away from the point a bit, isn't that the most ideal environment for filmmaking, where the filmmakers make use of the medium of their choosing? A lot of filmmakers are opting for CGI, but many are still opting for 2D and hand-drawn, with no indication that CGI will be the default option like is the case in the US. And to move even further away from the point a bit, there is some interesting work being done in CGI in Europe, coming up with aesthetics that we don't get to see coming from the big studios in the US. So honestly, I see that as a fair trade-off to account for some of the decrease in 2D features.
As for Japan, CGI is there, and perhaps gaining ground, but the vast majority of their output is still 2D, and there is no indication that it is in jeopardy of being taken over by CGI. Of course, there are other much more worrying trends there, though, like the insanely low wages and long, tedius hours for animators. I agree that the increased amount of outsourcing in animation there is a troubling trend, though I'm not sure it is avoidable given the dwindling population and economy there.
TL;DR. "Thriving" was a bad choice of words. I was mostly just annoyed by some of these endless rants that act as though 2D has ceased to exist. But if you read my original comment, I would say that taking my first sentence out of context alters the main idea of what I was actually saying there.
Sotiris wrote:I'm tired of these "someday my prince will come" statements about 2D animation. We need to stop giving people false hope. It's time to face the fact that Disney will never produce another 2D feature. Disney doesn't have the personnel, the equipment, the incentive or the desire to continue producing hand-drawn animation. They're not even willing to do a 2D short, let alone a feature.
My intention was not to give anyone false hope, but just to state what I think. Obviously nothing is on the slate in the immediate or foreseeable future. But to say that they will
never produce another 2D feature? Isn't that a bit presumptuous? How do we know what is in store 10 or 20 years down the line? Disney animation reached one of its peaks in the early 90s with its hand-drawn features, and at that time, who would have imagined that a decade later, a form of animation that most people didn't even know about yet would become the go-to medium for US animated features? We really don't know what's in store for the future, but trends are always changing. Sometimes they change gradually, other times they change suddenly. Sometimes, they cycle back to something that came before. 2D animation could very well make a return at Disney someday. Maybe it won't, but I'm simply saying that
I think it will eventually. If not, something else that we have yet to imagine may overtake CGI (for better or for worse). We'll just have to wait and see.
I was thinking--where? On the moon?
) , but there are other things that've happened because of Pixar's domination besides the end of hand-drawn animation, which likely would've happened (albeit at a slower rate) without Pixar. But I probably would be in the minority there, since most people seem to like Pixar's brand of storytelling.
