So here’s what I think, or should I say, "feel," about what I see happening, with this disclaimer up front. This ain’t nothing new, and it isn’t restricted to animation schools. But all the same, I think it’s worth looking at, and analyzing a bit. The trends aren’t all good, and there is a "corporate" smell to it all. Don’t worry, I’m not here to bash any companies at all, or any schools. The vast majority of animation educators are doing it because they are passionate about it, and want students to get the best education they can. The vast majority of corporate business people are just trying to feed their families. (Although the ceo salaries are slightly suspect.)

We are all witness to what is happening. Globally, we are all watching corporations outgrow their real usefulness as reliable employers of the good working people, as they expand ruthlessly and exponentially, with only the bottom line as a measuring stick, seemingly without any regard for human welfare, not to mention the welfare of something as arcane as "fine art" or "culture." And to a greater extent every year, the pressure on schools of all kinds to feed these massive machines is increasing. Animation schools included. So let’s focus on animation schools shall we? Let all those other areas of higher learning fend for themselves against this high octane, big bucks onslaught.

Big animation studios, medium-sized animation studios, gaming companies and, especially, software manufacturers, whether we want to admit it or not, to the extent that they can, are pressuring animation schools to teach specific software platforms or specific techniques to ensure their own survival. Everywhere you look in the most "modern" animation education facilities, you will see the advertising, unabashedly displayed, for the latest, greatest hard and software, the biggest feature films and television shows, and, of course, the latest gaming sensations. And, more and more, when you talk to prospective students, the young minds of today, it is the specific software they believe they need to learn and the biggest studio they want to work for, that is driving their interest in the animation "business." Art? Higher education? Fine Art? What’s that? Really. It is happening, it is happening big-time and it is widespread.

Again, let me stress the fact that there are a lot of quality educators out there, and still a lot of good stuff to be learned in animation schools around the world. All is not lost, and I don’t want to point any fingers. But we’ve got to be aware of it. I have experienced scary things out there. I have given workshops to students in America, Canada, Europe and Asia, who, after two or three years of animation education, had never had the importance of learning "how to see" emphasized for them. Talented young people, with so much potential, who had never been on a fieldtrip to a zoo to draw animals, or a train station, just to learn how to observe and draw people. There's a whole generation of young artists whose idea of research is pushing the Google button. Not once had one of their teachers said, “Hey, turn off that computer and go outside and look around for your inspiration!” And this is in a couple of the very best educational institutions in the world.

How did this happen? It’s multi-faceted isn’t it? Nobody is to blame, it’s just progress in action. With technology playing a bigger and bigger part in the creative process, the men and women who make and sell the technology and the new wonders being created with it are bound to get more involved in the big picture. Hell, I just wrote a column extolling the virtues of a specific piece of hardware, and some specific software as well, that have changed the way I work creatively. I am right in the middle of it, and I’ve been known to tell a student or two, “You’d better learn software ‘X’ if you want to get a job in this town." (But, just by the way, 90% of what I am creating in my anxiously-awaited upcoming book on animation is hand-drawn on paper! See? More promotion, it’s out of control!) Ahhhh!

Like I said earlier, I think I’d be a damned fool to try to place blame here. It is a phenomenon with a life of its own. I just think we need to observe it, and, if possible, address it. The kids need us to pay attention to what they are being taught. "Higher Education" need not fall by the wayside. Most of the teachers out there actually have a pretty amazing artistic background; it’s not like they don’t know the stuff. But some teachers already, the younger generations coming up behind us, well, they are losing touch with some really important stuff, especially if we continue to let the big, big companies tell us what we should be teaching, and how we should be teaching it. In far too many cases they want obedient soldiers for their armies, ah, rather companies, and they couldn’t care less whether or not these students are being taught anything else besides how their software and their production pipeline works.

Animation is an art. A damned fine art. Look at how rock & roll evolved. The fine art of classical music threatened to become extinct. But did it? No, of course not, and breaking away from it spawned an incredible array of fantastic new musical art forms. Perhaps that is what’s happening to animation as well. Maybe these young whiz kids chained to their computers are going to catapult us into a whole new dimension of creative genius, without once ever going for a walk in the forest, or drawing a nude model. Who knows? But let’s not forget, the musicians that changed rock & roll, and brought it to the highest heights, were classically trained. And let’s not forget, that if all our youngsters just want to work for Disney, where is the next Walt going to come from? And let’s also not forget, artificial intelligence is still very artificial. The hardware and the software aren't going to make imaginations flourish; it is a well-informed imagination that is going to make the hardware and the software sing!

If the studios need a specific skill set, well, we need to do our students the service of teaching it to them. We need to incorporate it into what we teach, to be sure. But not at the expense of the real stuff. Let’s, please, just not forget the real stuff in our excitement with all the big corporate glossy versions of what is hip, happening, cool and necessary. Like Roy Disney said so eloquently about the "soul" of the Walt Disney Co. being lost in the corporate shuffle not so long ago.

My simple observations here are simply a call to honor the "soul" of the fine art of animation, and, where education is concerned, can we please downplay the glossy stuff a bit? It’s embarrassing to see a huge poster telling you that this latest gizmo is going to "Fire Your Imagination," hanging the halls of higher education. "Corporate" is not cool. The imagination of one individual student has more potential than the limited imaginations of every single bottom line-driven corporation in the world put together. Let us honor and nurture that, and we move forward, with cadence, class, and culture, into the new dawn of animation.

In his 30-year animation career, Joseph Gilland has worked with studios as diverse as Walt Disney Feature Animation and the National Film Board of Canada. He has worked on all styles of animation, experimental films, television series, commercials, theatrical feature films, stop motion, title sequences, live-action films and documentaries. He is writing a passionate book about the art of animation.