Are the big animation studios right about people not wanting to watch traditional?

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by Wildcat2000

I have nothing against cgi. I’m just giving my thoughts on the subject.

Both hand drawn and CG take a lot of work but I’m guessing hand drawn is more painstaking because you’re literally drawing every frame without any “tools”.

So I’ve always thought can’t they just use cgi to make something look like hand drawn animation? Maybe they have. How could you tell right?

Although there was an error on the The Simpsons not long ago that makes me think it is computer animated now. Which is cool...that was a very rare glitch. (A lot of cartoons use flash I think).

Surely modern day CGI can replicate the look of 2D animation. Unless they just think 3D is more profitable. I don’t know maybe.

It’s a common misconception that 3D CG animation is less work intensive than traditional (hand drawn) animation. Traditional animation styles have utilised 2D software for decades now to lighten the work load and it’s actually far less work intensive than 3D CG animation. That why you see so much “hand drawn” animation on TV.

It is possible to make 3D animation look like 2D by rendering it flat and with outlines. An early example of that is the title character in The Iron Giant and recently Into the Spider-Verse used technology like it. It has its own look though and if you have an eye for it you can always see it. By far the most work intensive animation style is stop motion.

Btw, I’m a character animator who has worked in the field, including animated Hollywood movies, for 25 years.