Death of the Frame by Frame Animation Studio & What’s Next?
100 years ago frame by frame animation blew the minds of audiences.
Fast forward today and it’s just not the same. And it’s not frame by frame animation's fault, actually it's the audiences that have changed.
Preferring “computer generated imagery” or CGI titles over hand drawn pictures. Even though many artists argue that frame by frame is a more beautiful art form - the box office numbers tell a different story.
So lets take a look at
- The death of the frame by frame animation studio
- Why there’s fewer illustrators and animators specializing in it
- And a few types of animation which ended it’s reign
All wrapped up in a quick history of what is frame by frame animation.
Frame by frame animation started a long long long time ago
The first frame by frame animation is said to be a persian clay pot with a few drawings which were to be rotated at speed.
Since then, we’ve tried flipping through drawings, circular spinning wheels and not that long ago projecting to actual audiences.
The real history of frame by frame begins with Walt Disney though. Since it can easily be said he’s the father of frame by frame. Actually, nobody invested as much time, money and effort into it as Walt.
Even to the destruction of his own company which was running on a fiscal loss after producing Sleeping Beauty. Which marked a shift in the company's history about what to make and the economic reasons behind it.
Frame by Frame animation just doesn’t make money
Lets not be alarmist. Frame by frame animation still exists in the world. Many people enjoy it. High budget productions still use it, still need it, and it won’t cease to exist anytime soon.
That being said most feature films that are frame by frame have been financial flops. And audiences have basically said “we prefer CGI”.
Since allocation of capital caters to audience preferences it’s clear CGI is the winner over frame by frame animation.
Even with the advances in simplifying the workload. It’s not the same frame by frame animation from 100 years ago. Where every single frame needed to be drawn, nowadays there’s a lot of computers used within the process.
Which has been a double edged sword as it allows for the image to be worked much more intensely, but at the same time has led to critics saying the “beauty” of hand drawn is being lost.
Similar to how grainy film feels more nostalgic than perfectly sharpened DSLR quality images.
It doesn’t help that there’s fewer skilled artists who know classical art theory
Since the 1960’s when modernism became the dominant trend the consequence has been fewer people trained in classic art.
What this has led to is artists or art students “thinking” instead of “making”.
Instead holding the right metaphysical positions about art became as or more important than having the skills to actually make it.
The flip side of technology is that it’s made it relatively easier to produce something, anything, but that doesn’t solve the skill issue. There’s fewer artists who can make something thought-provoking, new, or simply beautiful.
This has led to a double edged sword for frame by frame animation. The people who are left are specialists and are in demand, but there’s a lack of real talent for the job to be done.
At the same time, audiences have chosen other forms of media which creates less incentive for new artists to train themselves. And as more communication becomes corporate, digital or AI generated that need reduces even more.
You don’t need to be a perfectionist seeking the limits of technique to succeed in the corporate art world. “Good enough” will do just fine. And so many designers, illustrators and animators today don’t have the high artistic aspirations of the past.
Remember: some of the most beautiful paintings of all time were created in the Renaissance 18th century, before art books, manuals or even schools were widespread. In fact some of the masters grew up in villages and learned by painting everything they could observe.
Which shows you that with enough time, reflection and practise amazing things can happen even without formal education. So in a world where knowledge is democratized and available the decline in skills can be seen as a feature not a bug.
One type of frame by frame animation is exploding in popularity: Anime
While pretty much every other form of frame by frame animation has been wiped off the face of the Earth it’s not the case for all.
Actually Anime has been growing year over year for the last 2 decades. And the industry has literally tripled in size during that time period.
There’s a lot of reasons for this. But the most simple answer is: audiences like it.
And not only in Japan, actually, the growth has been driven by the international segment more and more. While the domestic Japanese market has stayed roughly the same.
So why is Netflix investing into this market? Because as a streaming platform they are competing with other industry giants, and for the amount of demand there’s not enough content.
This creates huge financial incentives not only to license and own the content. But to actually produce it. But how do you produce a type of content which is… dying?
Japanese anime studios are already overworked. So you can’t just ask them to produce more content. And there’s a shortage of artists trained to perform the work necessary.
Industry violations run rampant. Animators hospitalized from overworking. Lack of unions, and a lot of pressure from studios to “do more with less”.
This is why Netflix decided to invest into creating their own anime studio in Japan.
How 3D is eradicating frame by frame animation industry
There’s no animation wars because 3D is the clear winner. Today 3D software is even used to make frame by frame animation because it’s more cost effective.
And as if that wasn’t enough (it usually is) it’s also more easy to use computers for the process. Humans have to do less work overall, and a higher level of visual complexity can be achieved.
So you have economic motives, audience buy-in and less work overall for the artists. Starting to understand just how powerful 3D has become in relation to animation? It’s ballooned out of control while frame by frame contracted, shrank and held on by the skin of its teeth.
Frame by frame may have been where it started, but we’ve moved on very far since then. Hand drawn animation at this point can be compared to classical music. There’s still people learning it, and a huge appreciation for the art form but it’s not what gets played on the radio.
And no amount of educating people will change that. People vote with what they give their attention to, and frame by frame simply doesn’t get as much attention as other animation types.
Using 3D to fake 2D frame by frame animations – it happens
As if all this wasn’t enough, it gets better. Artists are even using 3D animation software to fake frame by frame animation in games like Borderlands.
Because the answer to the question of “how many frames can an animator do by hand” varies, but is never “enough”.
Where instead of drawing everything by hand on screen – how about using plugins?
As computers become more powerful and processing capacity increases it becomes simpler to make technology do the heavy lifting.
With a lot of 2D projects that’s what's happened. There are now specialized pieces of software which allows artists to “recreate” the 2D look and feel of frame by frame straight out of their 3D software.
Frame by frame animation within the corporate setting
One place where frame by frame is having an extra hard time breaking through is within the corporate world. Why?
Budget. We’ve gotten to do a few frame by frame animations - not entirely, just parts and the budget immediately was 2-4x the price of our regular work.
For most brands this additional budget to visuals just isn’t worth it. Unlike motion graphics or SaaS explainer videos with UI/UX product demo, there isn’t a huge market need for this overly complex visual style.
So again economics and demand dictate the future of an art style.
3D product animation may have a future as well
A decade ago corporate animation was really popular. It was a huge knee jerk reaction from the old days of filming commercials which ran into the 30-50k+ budgets.
All of a sudden many types of product video from demos to little tutorials came out. Video technology had reduced the cost of your average video by 5-10x or more in some cases.
This led to more 3D production animation video being made. Over the years clients with very complex or difficult products have opted at times for 3D. Simply because the logistics of doing any other type of video are too costly in budget or time.
Here’s an example of a project we made for a client a few years ago. Compared to the cost of filming everything in person, or visiting the locations ourselves this led to huge cost savings.
2D vs 3D animation: which is right for companies?
The simplest answer is: both.
The more economically inclined answer is: 2D.
2D has more flavours that it comes in. It can be simple motion graphics or full blown character animation. However usually it runs a considerable amount less than 3D.
That actually makes it a competitor in terms of cost and effort to create. So while at box offices 3D clearly is the winner, in a more corporate setting 2D is still used.
Especially with a lot of SaaS products or companies that have UI or UX to show off. This is where 2D animated product demos can really shine.
However it’s often that we use 3D elements within these types of videos as well. Because the asset quality, camera movement and transition possibilities are simply higher.
The revival of frame by frame animation won’t be a full blown rebirth, but don’t lose hope
Remember Netflix is putting in serious money into an animation school in Japan. That means there is demand, and streaming companies which make up a large part of the content creation market now are taking notice.
And likewise on Youtube a lot of people are using frame by frame animation skills to build their own audiences. As frame by frame has evolved a lot over the last century with a lot of efficiency and speed benefits.
Opening up individual content creators to experiment and use this content type.
Now that there’s demand from audiences the supply needs to rise. So we’ll see more artists specializing in the frame by frame animation space. Which is great for video as an artform no doubt.
However it’s unlikely that we’ll see a resurgence of animation as a dominant medium. Mainly because of how little traction it gets compared to live action or 3D type videos.
And that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Similar to how 35mm film gave up it’s throne to digital video. Sure, it still gets used here or there, but as a whole it’s declined massively.
Frame by frame animation is on a similar trajectory it seems. Destined to be used only in very specific situations but not the widespread golden age standard it once was.
