Is there still hope for traditional animation?

Question

I'm considering going into the field of animation (traditional animation in particular), but from what it appears, computer animation seems to be the more dominant division of animation. I've also heard rumors that Disney plans on producing only computer animated films in the future. Is this true?

Answer 1

Disney is going to have one traditionally animated film out soon called the princess and the frog (also, fyi, it stars their first princess of african descent... very exciting). Computer animation (at least in films) does seem to be becoming the dominant division of animation. I think traditional animation is becoming more in the domain of indie filmmakers (sisters of belville, etc.)/ is slowly beginning to be more avant garde/ less commercial. Also, anime continues to be extremely popular and of course is traditionally animated. I think adults are more drawn to traditional animation (because of its nostalgia), so I think generally that it will become marketed more towards adults, less towards children. Personally, I think traditional animation is much more enjoyable to watch, especially knowing how much skill is involved, but I don't know if younger generations will agree. Still, the fact that disney made another trad. animated film gives us hope; if they are making it after all this time, there must be a demand for it still.

Answer 2

You should definitely go into it if that's what you want to do. There is still plenty of work available in it - even though not many feature films are being made using it at the moment, 2D animated cartoons still dominate television (and always will, I think), anime is absolutely huge, and there's a lot of future in web animation as well. 2D computer animation is becoming popular, so if you learn that as well as hand-drawn animation, you shouldn't have any problems.

Disney did make that decision but have since overturned it. I strongly feel that traditional animation is on the verge of an enormous comeback. Disney's traditionally animated classics continue to be the most popular animated films of all time (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin etc) and consumers are quite sick of CG animated movies with funny animals at this point. The next Disney traditionally animated movie, The Princess and the Frog, is due out next year, a classic musical produced by the same people that produced Aladdin and The Little Mermaid (wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princes... ). If it is even half as good as either of the aforementioned, it will be absolutely massive, as people are longing for another movie like this - and more will follow its success. :) You may just find you entered the industry at exactly the right moment.

Alternatively, you could study computer animation, but if you prefer the traditional way, that's what you should do - animation is hard work and you need to love it, so you need to choose what it is you most love over everything else.

Good luck!