2d animation, how viable is it nowadays??

melviso · Aug 2014

I have been wondering about 2d animation. It's something I have dabbled into in the past. Problem is it takes a long time to get the desired result but it has no limitation technically, only one's drawing skill and patience can be considered as a hindrance to getting a 2d animation job done.

I have been thinking about the commercial aspect of this medium. Is it still relevant in adverts, tv and 2d games?I understand mobile games are becoming very popular and 2d games seem to be gathering a lot of popularity. Broken age is a very good example of a 2d game that did very well.

Do u think 2d animation is profitable or 3d is better? I am more interested in combining the two, preferably 2d for characters and 3d for environments,camera and weapons.

Mask_Salesman · Aug 2014

Most quality animation courses teach 2D for the core fundamentals before going onto 3D.

JordanN · Aug 2014

Most 2D animation gets outsourced to Asia. The remaining 2D professions I see is either for flash cartoons or small gigs like indie games.

Disney also shut down their hand drawn studio. So there goes any 2D movies from Hollywood.

low odor · Aug 2014

"Most 2D animation gets outsourced to Asia"

you have a source for this ? I imagine the massive need for inbetweeners and cell painters kind of went out the window with the advent of digital

As far as viable...there is always going to be a market for it...even if it's niche

It's not going to make you a millionaire, but neither will working in 3d

weee · Aug 2014

very slim, you are swamped by either the cheap outsource for very labour intense hand drawn or the army of teenagers for flash style which most of time the client doesn't give a sh*t on quality but only wanting something quick and cheap, then for the high-end tip you've got to compete with those talents backed by each studio which makes it even slimmer for you to squeeze in, so either way, very difficult, unless you are that good and efficient on workflow, i wouldn't say its a dead end but you certainly can't expect it to be a candy land.

MagicSugar · Aug 2014

low odor wrote: »

I imagine the massive need for inbetweeners and cell painters kind of went out the window with the advent of digital

There's still a lot of analog work for the animation part of the process for shows like Korra, DC/ Marvel direct-to-video features. Backgrounds are still handpainted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=thkXOsxQwcI#t=12

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGwscYFrVZk"]Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox - "Battle Stations" (Exclusive) - YouTube[/ame]

Justin Meisse · Aug 2014

Yeah, there's still a lot of outsourcing in animation, I think I see Rough Draft Korea mentioned in the credits of all my favorite shows.

JordanN · Aug 2014

low odor wrote: »

"Most 2D animation gets outsourced to Asia"

you have a source for this ? I imagine the massive need for inbetweeners and cell painters kind of went out the window with the advent of digital

As far as viable...there is always going to be a market for it...even if it's niche

It's not going to make you a millionaire, but neither will working in 3d

Look at the credits of a lot of cartoons. The animation gets sent overseas to places like South Korea or Vietnam. Even Japanese anime isn't entirely animated in Japan but also is outsourced.

rube · Aug 2014

A lot of animation, probably more than there has been for years, is done in North America. With programs like Flash and Toon Boom a lot of studios have brought animation back to in house (or to other north american service studios). That's not saying ALL animation is back, the majority is probably still farmed overseas. [Source: I work in animation.]

melviso · Aug 2014

I have noticed that as well. Would u say the same applies to 3d animation? I have noticed in a lot of western games that there are a lot of Japanese or chinese companies in the credits as well.

Also, for anyone here who has done 2d animation, how best do u approach making sure u stay on model while animating. Do u draw ur character several times for a period of time to familarise urself with the proportions and shapes before animating or u animate straight ahead consulting the model sheets as u work?

JordanN · Aug 2014

Outsourcing 3D animation is also big. Dreamworks has their own studio in India.
The game Ryse only had 2 character artists/riggers I believe and they outsourced everything else.

However, mo-cap and mo-cap editing is done inhouse I think. That's probably what seperates it from modern 2D animation.

MagicSugar · Aug 2014

If you're okay getting paid $400 a week, you can animate for shows like this:

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiDOqsWIcbM"]Moonbeam City - A Tour of Moonbeam City - YouTube[/ame]

rube · Aug 2014

Staying on model is just a matter of practice and observation. A lot of TV (and game) stuff these days is done with symbol based animation as well where you have a character 'build' and you animate the pieces rather than redraw everything for each frame. Some of this symbol stuff can be very high quality, to the point sometimes you don't know it's symbol based. You can still push things off model though. You just have to be diligent and always consult your model sheets. In the end if you want to make 2d games, make 2d games. If they're good you'll find and audience and if you're good you'll find a job.

Mstankow · Aug 2014

Augenblick Studios animates in house in New York. Titmouse also does a lot of work in the US and Canada. But with them you want to probably work in their Union studios as they pay a lot more than their non-union parts.

melviso · Aug 2014

I think from all the post here, there is a sublime message, 3d pays more. There may be some limitations animation wise but it does pay more.Even Studio ghibli has closed.Its just like the olden days tvs and the flat ones we have now. The world is moving forward technology wise, so is animation.

I am sticking with 3d then. Thanks guys.

2d animation, how viable is it nowadays??

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