Animation: The dying artform.

Oooo. Ominous no?

When I was a Kid, Like many I grew up on a steady diet of TWO things.
Comics and Animation.

I'm glad to say that I worked in animation when they were going through the so called 'second golden age'.
When I was but a wee tot. I got a very special Christmas present. A first edition volume of "The Illusion of life". I looked through this book and was shell-shocked at these beautiful drawings. These fantastic and gorgeously rendered line drawings, that when placed one in front of the other created a movement.
It blew my mind at a young age, to see rough pencil tests. It really was ...magic.

Now you may remember the dust up that I had with my story guy goobers. I had said that while there is no 'easy' position in animation, that I believed that storyboarding was the easier of all positions because there just isn't as much demands on them as the other positions.
You didn't have to draw on 'model' and really there is not much use for them to draw all that pretty either. And when the technology comes crashing in, all the traditional animators had to make the jump!
And jump QUICK. So they had to learn the technology fast and shoot for the open positions.
Another example of the lack of demands on the story man camp. Not meant as a dig, but it is another thing that they don't have to worry about.
And that brings us (FINALLY) to the title of this post.
With traditional animation, the sky is the limit. You can do ANYTHING.
With the technology now...the universe is wide open.
But with the tech today, Sadly while opening up the possibilities, It lowers the art form.
It does.
And on a few levels as well.

Gone is everything organic about the art form.
NO roughs.
NO keys, NO beautiful key Cleanups, or inbetweens.
NOTHING tangible for students to look at or collectors to seek out. Nothing of substance, to frame and get lost in the real HISTORY of it.
"How many hands did this pass through?" "WHOSE hands did it pass through?"
"Look at the tape on the corner? Maybe it was taped on Fred's Wall!"

Nope.
No warmth.
No history.

No magic.

The most someone can hope for to look at or collect is something from development, and even that's pared down some due to technology-In way of painter and photo shop brushes and tools.
You could possibly get a lovely storyboard panel. IF your lucky to get one that IS indeed lovely.
Now don't get me wrong. I am not a uni bomber type. I am not anti technology. As I am someone that uses it every day in the work that I do. And yeah...some of the same things I'm talking about apply there as well. Not as much though, as I'll explain in a different post.
Again, I am not anti technology...I'm just pointing out a fact of the anim biz now. The sacrifice, for the gain.

I am just not sure if the sacrifices are worth the gains.

For the public OR the individual 'artist'.
I have always said, (again..to the consternation of industry friends) that: "There are far too many animators in this field and not enough artists." With animation going almost entirely digital now, It applies NOW more than ever.
Along with the loss of the tangibles, there is the danger of the animator losing his grasp on the basics. Lets count off some of these.
*He no longer needs to work on draughtsmanship.
*He no longer needs to study line quality.
*He no longer needs to draw on model.
*He is no longer challenged to keep up with the big boys in drawing their characters. (therefore growth!)
*He no longer has to learn and practice structure and volume!
*ALL this while knowing that each drawing is important to the ANIMATION, all of which cypher into the all important performance.

In short...He no longer (beyond thumbnails sketches) is required to DRAW anymore.
Some of these VERY SAME things were what I was slamming at the story goobers about. The story guy isnt CALLED to draw on model, or even well. With technology...the same thing can now be said about animators.
And thats not good folks.

NOPE! The animator just needs to concentrate on the performance in the acting. And the movement of the animation.

Now surly there will be animators out there that will say: "Handel...DUDE. Chill brah. I can still keep drawing. On my own time. ON my own stuff. Ya dig?"
But as an animator, I know that I personally would go in, wrap my left half of my buttock around the left side of the chair and wrap the right side of my buttock (my personal favorite side-birthmark.) around the right side of the chair...and there I would be till it was time to go home. Then I would PEEEEEEEEEEEEEL my booty off of that poor dented and somewhat rank chair (don't know why), go home and animate for a few more hours sometimes. In other words, there ain't a whole lot of spare time to do extra anything. And the spare time that you DO have...you want to do anything else other than draw.
Now to some animators, they'll say..."Well cool! cut out the middle man and concentrate on the important thing. The performance!!!

And therein lies the crux of what my original point is.
Yes. You can concentrate on the movement.
Yes. You can concentrate on the performance. All without having to worry about staying on model OR volume or about any charting for follow up.
But IF you are doing all of that WITHOUT having to draw anymore, you may well turn into a fantastic animator. But you are not furthering your artistic chops.
IN SHORT, to quote a wise man:
"There are far too many animators in this animation industry and not enough artists"

(Oh wait, that was ME.)

If you do NOT keep on drawing (Be it digital or traditional) Your ARTISTIC skills will falter.
Dat's fact jak.'
And as long as that continues to be the case, the films will be loverly indeed. With nice slick 3d(ish) animation. All of which is only 'animation'. With nothing to see, nothing to hold, nothing to study, Nothing to love OTHER than the animation of the film. Coming from animators who do 80% LESS drawing than they USED TO do, and whose artistic abilities because of that...decline further and further....

....In this industry called "Animation". The dying art form.