Blog Post #1 What is the industry doing now and in the future?

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In the animation industry, Disney and Pixar strongly influenced how feature films would be rendered. The film's had a very photo-(sur)realistic style (Vox, 2022). A lot of character designs and concept work had a very stylised look to them, but was unfortunately taken away in feature films when the demand was photo-(sur)realism. This caused a bunch of animation studios to fall back onto the same physically based look, investors wanted what was in demand, and studios didn't want to take the risk of rendering a fully stylised movie (Vox, 2022).

The photo-realism style was broken out of once Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse trailer came out back in 2017. Sony Pictures Entertainment were one of the first studios to break out of the industry demands, and pulled out an all new visual style which strongly referred to the comic books. The movie was full of different textures rather than the feeling of looking through the camera perspective, which gave it this raw, artistic feeling. After the release, more producers and investors were on board with this visual style, now we're seeing studios like Dreamworks take on board painterly and cartoony stylisation with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

As far as character design is within the current animation industry, the fundamentals remain the same. This is your most important asset into the industry, the best way to learn is through art studies, classes, and breaking down some of your favourite artworks done by artist's you're trying to compete with (Becker, 2019). Every animator and character designer will say the best way to get your name out there is to meet people! Meet them in classes and networking events, build relationships, find communities. Ask for advice and show them that you can improve on said advice.

Another point to get across is that most people won't start as a character designer unless you are some god sent artist. You will no doubt be taking on entry level roles like storyboard artist and revisionist, and slowly working your way up the ladder. As Becker and Kaniuga mentioned, studios are not looking for polished painting skills, they are looking for good drawing skills with the evidence of knowing your fundamentals and production art which would be your concept art for example. Each studio and art director may have different expectations, but the process remains the same, that is why it is important to make your portfolio relevant to the studio you're applying to (Holmes, 2016).


References:

Becker, E. (2019, October 5). CHARACTER DESIGN FOR ANIMATION- GETTING THE JOB. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqYnqUVEJI8

Holmes, M. T. (2016). Designing creatures & characters : how to build an artist's portfolio for video games, film, animation, and more. Impact Books.

Kaniuga, T. (2023, February 11). INFINITE JOBS FOR ARTISTS in the game industry. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al57Fyv-bW4

Vox. (2022, September 10). How “Spider-Verse” forced animation to evolve. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l96IgQmXmhM

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