Really?? Computers cant generate basic cartoon animation? Uh huh....

[ModerationNow!]

There are actually 2 questionable phenomenon surrounding animation production. If you want to skip straight to the computer related one, read this paragraph, then skip to the final paragraph. I just came across the pilot of an adult cartoon that was supposedly pitched to Cartoon Network for their Adult Swim night time block. Its called "Korgoth of Barbaria". Its an animated comedy about a barbarian 'hero'(I guess), who goes through a quest. Its 22 mins long, and it's pretty good. Its funny. Its done using older style imagery. Here's the full pilot: https://youtu.be/ep65rr-9qjQ

But after the pilot, the show was not picked up, with rumors that the animation would've been too expensive. Even if that's not the entire reason, I've repeatedly heard producers complain about the supposed high cost and time consuming nature of animation. Having said that, I've also heard many producers point out that much of today's cartoon animation is done overseas to decrease costs.

The whole thing has me scratching my head, because there is a LONG history of animation in America, where they WERE able to produce MANY cartoons, right here in the US, at regular, non-discounted prices, and still do just fine financially! Yet we are to believe that, despite tv media being wealthier than ever, and paying more than ever for programs, which can now be done at rock bottom prices overseas, "they can't afford the cost of production"!

That brings me to the most credibility stretching aspect of the cartoon industry. Remember way back in 1991, when computers were laughably weak and the internet was non-existent? Well, they produced Terminator 2, where they used those same ancient, weak computers to generate the liquid metal terminator's movements and abilities with great effectiveness. Yet we are to believe that a 2018 era computer CANNOT be programmed to take the basic characters and scenes of a simple cartoon, and cause them to progressively move through their paces, as the scenery changes around them. Really? You can't program a cartoon bear image, then tell the computer to generate a scene of the bear walking across the screen, as the background imagery stays still? I wouldn't be surprised if this software has been in use for many years, but that producers keep it quiet, so they can charge more for each episode. It also makes a convenient excuse when producers take FOREVER to release the next season.

 

[beerftw]

There are actually 2 questionable phenomenon surrounding animation production. If you want to skip straight to the computer related one, read this paragraph, then skip to the final paragraph. I just came across the pilot of an adult cartoon that was supposedly pitched to Cartoon Network for their Adult Swim night time block. Its called "Korgoth of Barbaria". Its an animated comedy about a barbarian 'hero'(I guess), who goes through a quest. Its 22 mins long, and it's pretty good. Its funny. Its done using older style imagery. Here's the full pilot: https://youtu.be/ep65rr-9qjQ

But after the pilot, the show was not picked up, with rumors that the animation would've been too expensive. Even if that's not the entire reason, I've repeatedly heard producers complain about the supposed high cost and time consuming nature of animation. Having said that, I've also heard many producers point out that much of today's cartoon animation is done overseas to decrease costs.

The whole thing has me scratching my head, because there is a LONG history of animation in America, where they WERE able to produce MANY cartoons, right here in the US, at regular, non-discounted prices, and still do just fine financially! Yet we are to believe that, despite tv media being wealthier than ever, and paying more than ever for programs, which can now be done at rock bottom prices overseas, "they can't afford the cost of production"!

That brings me to the most credibility stretching aspect of the cartoon industry. Remember way back in 1991, when computers were laughably weak and the internet was non-existent? Well, they produced Terminator 2, where they used those same ancient, weak computers to generate the liquid metal terminator's movements and abilities with great effectiveness. Yet we are to believe that a 2018 era computer CANNOT be programmed to take the basic characters and scenes of a simple cartoon, and cause them to progressively move through their paces, as the scenery changes around them. Really? You can't program a cartoon bear image, then tell the computer to generate a scene of the bear walking across the screen, as the background imagery stays still? I wouldn't be surprised if this software has been in use for many years, but that producers keep it quiet, so they can charge more for each episode. It also makes a convenient excuse when producers take FOREVER to release the next season.

Almost all studios in america and elsewhere use computer animation and have since the 90's. Traditional animation is still used for slight details but the bulk being computer.

The traditional way is cel animation which is very expensive and labor intensive, while the original way was by white paper, which was abandoned fast due to having to draw entire scenes over and over. Cel animation uses white paper for the background and transparent overlays over that so they need to only draw the stationary once for a scene and only need to draw the moving characters/objects in a scene. The cel method is expensive by todays standards, and the only reason to do it is to achieve the classical cartoon look that computers could not match, maybe tv networks do not deem that classical look worth the massive extra cost.

As far as drawn overseas, it is usually korea, not the best known for their own cartoons, but south korea is good for animation in general, where the originating country makes their base drawings backgrounds etc and sends them over there to let cheaper labor fill in the gaps.