Animation is amazing. It offers us a truly special experience. I’ve always seen it as a true test of creativity.
The amount of work that goes into a single project is astounding. Writers, artists, musicians and actors are usually all required for a single piece of work. No matter what creative field you work in, there’s a chance that it’s a necessary part of the animation process.
We have been fortunate enough to be in a sort of animation renaissance as ofrecent. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” “Entergalactic,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and “Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse” are just a few of the impressive projects we have seen in the last few years. These projects received countless praise from both fans and critics alike.
Animation is a long and challenging process, but in the end, it tends to be extremely rewarding. Creating a truly amazing and unique piece of animation requires time, money and talent, three things Hollywood executives have strong opinions on.
Studio execs tend to carry this quantity over quality mindset when it comes to releasing
products. This is mainly because releasing multiple cheap, easy to produce movies tends to be more successful than releasing a single expensive one. If there are two things animation is not, it’s cheap and easy.
For example the average filming time for a drama series is two to five days. Meanwhile, the average time for an animated show is a full year. While multiple episodes are usually worked on at once, the team is much smaller and demands more time.
Movies follow the same pattern. Most films take one to two years to complete production while animated movies take four years at the very least to finish.
Let’s not forget the budget as well. Animation isn’t cheap, especially 2D and stop motion. It takes many skilled animators to make even the simplest scenes. The more expensive the project, the less of a chance it has to make back its cost and be successful.
There’s a reason there has been an increase in remakes and sequels. They are simply known brands and have much better chances of making money. No matter how ingenious a concept is, it will always be second in the eyes of the studio.
With all that being said, I would still say animation is in a pretty good state right now all things considered, especially in terms of creativity. I mainly believe this to be true due to the rise of online indie projects.
The internet has always welcomed animated content, whether that be the short and edgy flash cartoons of Newgrounds or the video game parodies of Youtube. The internet allows so many talented creatives to release whatever they want without a studio looming over them.
Having grown up on online content, I can say that I have seen some truly fantastic projects that can only truly belong on the internet, which seems to be a way of thinking many share.
For the longest time, most online animated content was done by extremely small teams. Honestly, that made a lot of sense as most videos would only go on for a few minutes.
We wouldn’t see larger, studio-size teams until 2020. People had a lot of time on their hands due to the pandemic, and because of that, creatives got thinking. They could do so much more, work on larger projects if they were a part of a studio.
“Spindlehorse,” “Glitch” and “Iron Circus” are the three biggest studios that formed. These studios were created by actual artists, so there’s a bit of a sense of understanding among them about deadlines and creative freedom, which is what I find to be the most impressive part.
Some really cool and interesting projects have already been released. “Helluva Boss,” “Murder Drones,” “The Amazing Digital Circus” and “Lackadaisy’’ are just some of my personal favorites. What’s even better is that they’re all available for free on Youtube.
While I don’t think this will ever become the status quo for animation, it’s great seeing what can be achieved through a common love of the art form.