Interesting comments regarding hand-drawn animation at Disney:
Q: Is 2D animation dead?
Tom Bancroft: It’s a loaded question. It’s not dead but it’s in a coma. I think that’s the best answer. I really do see it coming back in a very small way. And here’s my answer to that. How will it come back? I think what we’re going to see is not the Disney, the DreamWorks, the Pixar, whatever big studio – especially Disney that was known for 2D – I don’t think they’re the ones that are going to bring it back. But the way it’s going to come back in a small way will be from a small independent company. A small group of people doing it, and probably in Europe unfortunately. I’d love to see it make a big comeback here in the U.S. but I think we’ll see a couple of smaller films that do really well, make a ton of money and it will be a nostalgic resurgence but it will be a mini one.
I don’t necessarily see Disney going back to it in any big way because the story you don’t hear that goes along with them not doing it anymore is that they don’t even have the equipment anymore. They’ve sold all of the animation desks, all of the software programs. They have very little equipment that’s 2D, they have even less 2D animators left. It’s literally a handful of 2D guys that are still there. So, bringing it back at Disney would be a momentous, a very expensive deal which I don’t see happening.
http://www.themousecastle.com/2014/02/the-bancroft-brothers-and-annie-awards.html
Sorry to reply so late on this one (wasnt online much this weekend)..
Regarding this (FINALLY a topic I can honestly say I am very well qualified to comment on as it pertains to what I do for a living),
ALL animators, regardless of the label they are given, are simply animators. 2D and 3D have the same foundations and require the same exact know how, the only difference being the tools used.
That being said, "2D" hasn't existed in its pure form in far longer than most realized. In fact, the term "traditional" animation has been used now for a bit to describe those who do it all on paper. The truth is that even "2D" animation is all done on computers. It is "hand drawn" on wacom tablets (some still do it on paper and scan it, where it is then traced on a computer anyway), colored and composited all on software suites. In fact, Disney animators helped design the software that does this (which after a nice UI overhaul to make it more "general public" friendly is available to anyone who wants to buy it at
https://www.toonboom.com/ ) back when they were working on the Princess and the Frog. This whole process requires FAR less animators (as its a faster pipeline), and thats why many make a misconception of it being a "dieing breed".
The decision of how a movie looks in its final output is decided before its even started. Yes "3D" is the hot thing currently, but it always bugs me when people assume that a 3D animator is any different than one who does it all on paper. I do not know a single computer animator who's core curriculum in college wasn't largely spend in hand drawn animation classes (myself included).
Do I think traditional is dead? Not by a long shot. Its just not as common, but thats just how trends go.
