Who says that 2D animation has to be dead? The computer is such an intensive tool for making all styles of animation that compared to our ancestors, some of today's artists seem to have it easy compared to the process of making animation 50 years ago. On the side, I once saw a 2D animator's reel of films he/she worked on in Europe, and one of the clips I believe featured a penguin or some bird helping another animal how to skate on ice. No it's not Bambi, the most famous animated film where an animal helps another animal skate. It's some animated feature made in Europe, but I can't figure out what it is because I'm American and I don't watch European animated films, but I have watched some anime, if you're interested. Now back to my topic. I've seen The LEGO movie, a brilliant animated film that faked stop motion with CGI. Around the same time I saw the teaser trailer for the late 2015 Peanuts movie, and they gave the characters a rather painted look, and they were animated as if they were cheap drawings, much like the old Peanuts specials. This made me wonder. Can CGI be used to fake all styles of animation, no matter how crude, unpopular, lame, cheap, elaborate, lavish, wonderful, or fantastic that style of animation is? After seeing The LEGO movie and looking at the Peanuts teaser, I believe so, but I wonder what you folks have to say about it. I did email the animation development lead on Frozen (an awesome new classic (3D) from Disney), and he said that animation can be configured in many ways. Still, even if you fake 2D with CGI, my friend Sarah still believes that something is lost when you take away the pencil and paper. I also believe, even to this day, that 2D and 3D animation can coexist, and I can see why big studios want to be all 3D and such. They want to make mooooney. They're probably to chicken to take risks so they go with the easy stuff and make animated features that I can instantly spot many of the cliches and formulas in, since I have such a brilliant mind. Oh, did I mention I'm an autism success story, almost done with college to get a B.S. in Computer Science, a field that I feel is essential for me to make animation, regardless of how analog or digital it is. 2D, 3D, or stop motion, computers and my experience with them will be here to serve. Now what do you guys think about faking all styles of animation with CGI?
I would not call it faking but simulating other styles. More to the point, I am all for it.
Personally I think this is the way to go. Disney's Paper boy was a good effort but still there are a lot of possibilities out there. We just have to make the general audience accept and get used to different styles.
In our studio we are already mixing 2d and 3d in clever and unseen ways and strange pipelines :D We definitely aim to experiment and find somekind of midground.
I think LEGO movie was a pinnacle of these times - amazing piece which just proves the point that the animation can be astoundingly simple and still entertain the heck out of the audience.
-- www.nopia.fi - Finland