CGI Anime; Why would anyone insist on it?

Undertone

Active member
Here's hoping there's always a place for hand-drawn anime in the marketplace, because it is such a great aesthetic. But, as anyone in the anime industry will tell you, it's the stuff people love that pays the least.

2D art is an intensive process, even today now that they can do a lot of digital magic for fills and interframes. Whereas 3D art, which is a skill that overlaps with the film and video game industries, can be an actual career now. So there's a much different talent landscape to draw from.

If current trends continue, then the number of shows "Made in Unreal" is only going to increase.
 

Terthna

Professional Lurker
I'd say that the recent Lupin the Third movie was a pretty good translation of the character designs to 3D.
That's thanks to Marza Animation Planet; a studio that used to be Sega's CG division, before it was spun off into its own entity. I think that's where a lot of the decent Japanese 3D animation projects is going to come from in the future; partnerships with the video game industry.
 

gral

Well-known member
Adding up to what I've said about the anime industry 2 and a half years ago, here's a video that shows how production committees actively work to keep project budgets(and therefore animator wages) low:



Tl;dr: Since invested money means influence in how the anime is produced, everyone would try to maximize their share of investment - but that would mean investment in anime would turn into a poker game where everyone raises the bet, which would mean the one with the most money always wins. So, budgets are capped to keep investment in levels where the traditional investors can keep up with - anime production committees are fucking cartels. Should someone pledge more money than the budget cap, the money gets rerouted to other projects - which is why we have so many anime being made right now; it also means that excess money is being used to reduce financial risk of the committee members(by portfolio diversification), instead of reaching the animation studios.
 

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