Most of the animated TV shows we have here in America have been outsourced to many companies overseas and up north in Canada. Camp Lazlo, Venture Brothers, My life as a teenage robot, Hey Arnold, Phineas & Ferb, Gravity Falls, Chowder, The mis-adventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, Rick and Morty, Avatar the last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Foster's Home for imaginary friends, Wander over Yonder, My little pony friendship is magic, and Star vs. the forces of evil, are only a hand full of the cartoons that have shipped production overseas.
Why do we ship so many animated TV shows overseas or up north? We should animate more TV shows here in America.
By Afrolion777 | Monday, March 16, 2015 at 9:00am
#1
Why do we ship so many animated TV shows overseas or up north? We should animate more TV shows here in America.
Money.
It's cheaper to outsource because the difference in the dollar makes it more economical to do so.
If the exchange rate is 20%, which is is right now between the Canadian and US dollar, that means that every US dollar spent is worth $1.20 CDN.
What THAT means is that production that would cost $100,000 in the USA costs only $80,000 in Canada, by comparison. When animated series productions routinely costs anywhere from $3-$4 million, or up around $6 million, you are looking at considerable savings.
This also works to the advantage of Canada ( for example) in that a weekly wage of $1000CDN for a given product task only costs $800 USD.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
I admit money is a good reason to ship production but, when it comes to animation skill we seem to be moving backwards. Look at all the golden age animators, then check animators like Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky, Paul Rudish, Joe Murray, and Doug Tenappel, then check the generation we have now. When you watch both Adventure Time and Regular Show the animation looks like something out of a Black and White Felix the Cat cartoon. It looks cheap and unappealing. Not because it's outsourced, but because it seems the skill it takes to animate better quality animation is deminishing. Then when you turn your head to look at films and shows being produced overseas we have films like the Secret of Kells, Kairos, Song of the Sea , Akira, Ghost in a shell, Naruto, Kill la Kill, and a whole bunch of other animated works. It just seems to me that they're getting better, and we're getting worse.
It IS because it's outsourced. The look of those shows you mentioned are specifically designed to accomodate over-seas animation studios, and the way they draw and animate scenes.
Shows done traditionally are drawing with a single-weight line--no line variation at all-- and time-charted for 1/2 & 1/4 inbetweens. No 1/3rd timings, not slow-ins or outs, very little drag and follow-through, or secondary actions. Everything is simple formulas, cycles.
Which is why it comes back looking like it does.
But the thing is you are comparing feature and TV animation and animators......and they really are two different things these days.
Most animation done in North America is done in FLASH or Harmony, and really those two platforms are what's keeping the bulk of animation talent employed on this side of the pond. The end-result is a concession, but no moreso that Hanna Barbera's limited animation style was back in the 1960's. The software can make the designs of characters look nice, if the animation itself isn't really much different from the economical shows of the past 50 years.
But really, outsourcing has been going on for decades now......it's not going to ever change.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
I personally don't think anything should change. I already understand that money is a huge reason we out source animation production. Also I understand Limited Animation. Hanna Barbera designs their characters the way they do because its faster and cheaper to animate. Also it gave their cartoons a different look from other cartoons at the time. Filmation used a lot of the same practices. These techniques have moved over into today's animation industry. Here's were I kinda flip flop the argument though. How can TV shows like Avatar the last Airbender and The Legend of Korra be so well animated and be outsourced but, shows like Superjail, Mr.Pickles, and 12oz mouse can be animated and produced here in america and not be outsourced. Also Naruto, Ghost and a Shell, and Kill La Kill aren't animated films they're TV shows from Japan. I could also name well-animated TV shows in the UK and France, but I can't think of any right off the top of my head. I only brought this out as a topic so I can see who would and who wouldn't answer these question.