When I told my animator friend that I was rebuilding my foundation from Preston Blair’s instructions (ca. 1950’s Disney), he dismissed it “been there, done that.” Of course my friend is a flash animator.
The thing is that animation has been going through some changes, mainly cel-drawing/painted animation is being phased out in favor of the cheaper and faster to produce vector-based flash animations for broadcast media and the internet. While there is a certain artistic style that comes with flash animation, I believe the decision to adopt flash animation is not artistic (unless the director takes time-consideration into account) but may be more of a business decision. Key framing characters to move from point A to B, no longer requires an army of in-betweeners. Furthermore, vector-based flash animation is quick and cheaper which is perfect for the tight turn-around and purse-strings of studios these days. I believe the advantages of flash animation end here and when we begin to discuss the disadvantages… well, perhaps it’s better if I just show you.
Here is an example of a vector-based flash animation that we see so much these days (Family guy, South Park, etc):
More like animatic-acs, right?
Now here is the same original Animaniacs title sequence, where the Warner Bros. Studios used classic animation techniques:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHr5FezvQ64
Can you see the difference?
John Kricfalusi says that animation these days is: “rigid, they stand straight up and down, have no clear silhouettes, no construction, no line of action and no design at all. Characters now look like pieces of broken glass that don’t fit together and certainly don’t flow around the forms and line of action of the characters.”
Flash-animation is only a genre, which means that the classical techniques will still be used well into the 22nd Century. One could point to the success of The Family Guy as an example that flash works, and yes it is a good show. But I think the writing is what makes the Family guy successful and the animation follows the writing.
I think the point I’m trying to make is that there is value to studying Preston Blair and Tex Avery. There will be a renaissance, a return to the core-established technique and I would be honored to strengthen and grow this tradition.