I agree,
CGI in anime is extremely off-putting, but animation studio's don't really have a choice anymore. Animation key frames are usually still hand-drawn, but the majority is definitely digitally coloured in, and I can't blame them at all. It's faster, cheaper, and with how much competition there is, they need their shows reach a certain quality and to appeal to the current younger audience.
Animation is a hard and tedious job that pays next to nothing for the amount of hours put in, why would anyone want to do it? It takes a lot of time and experience to build the skill to draw anime, and it's much harder and harder to find that talent nowadays with all our current art technology. Back then they could do it traditionally because the anime industry wasn't as popular abroad as it is now. But now with the huge boom of new anime coming out left and right, they've got to increase their speed, quality and stand out among the crowd. All by doing so under the same tiny budget they had back then, which is kind of impossible. Otherwise they can easily be replaced by other anime, with are being created faster and more consistently using new technology.
Right now the animation industry in Japan is being held on the shoulders of freelancers who are just passionate about what they do. They love to see their creation come to life, even if they get virtually no reward or benefit from it. You can very easily see how this can cause many people to give up and want out.
Raising wages for animators would probably ruin more lives than it would improve, as it will definitely cause many small companies to go bankrupt. If Japanese companies were given a bigger budget, or more money went to the actual studios and animators, rather than the TV stations and streaming services, maybe things would be different.
Yes. I don't feel it's always so bad, as some shows I remember like Reboot, Beast Wars, a few others could use 3D Animation well, and I even saw some other stuff using a mix of 2D AND 3D. It can look very cool.
I know, I'm not so sure how
Animation works in the mind of someone doing it, versus the thrill an Artist feels when they are
drawing the Picture itself (difference being that you may just be sitting in front of the Computer Keyframing and stuff, etc.), but I think back in the days of earlier Animation it would have been lots of fun doing it. For some reason...it seems really boring to me....but I'm sure to sit back and look at your hard work; knowing you made kids happy makes it all worth it.
And, if I may add: much of the talent you speak of missing today is not so much in the Art Technology, but more just in people's lack of understanding of Reality. To quote Akira Toriyama, "You have to just keep practicing drawing everything as much as you can. I never took Art Classes. I drew everything I saw, from Birds to clunky old Cars. Jars, Bottles, Forks, Fish, People in all kinds of situations; and that's how I developed the skill for it" (I may have paraphrased it a bit). You have to really know your Eastern Religious & Mythological Culture to properly make Anime; because sadly most Anime today lacks the one thing it originally is made to demonstrate about the Orient: Fighting. All of the Choreography in Dragon Ball Super is dreadful, and most of these modern Animes just reuse all the same standard Yellow Belt techniques you'll find common in a Westernized Training Gym.
And it is sad, that people seem to think to make Money you have to produce Products as fast as possible; and that those who make their Products the fastest will win the most money. It doesn't work that way. It's all Fate really, but specifically in this context: look to all of the other Merchandise for an Anime to gauge how popular it is. Back in the day we saw EVERY BLOODY store with Mom and Dad, carrying the most strangest of Pokemon toys and collectibles. I'm looking at a little rubber clear reflective ball with a little yellow Jolteon inside it that bounces, kind of like an Amber rock from Jurassic Park! Haha! You would never find this now. Clothing Stores, Convenience Stores, Drug Stores, they all carried this Merchandise. But as you can clearly see, none of these new Animes sell anything anywhere. At most, you'll maybe find it in Japan because it's the Country that made the Shows & Books. Other than that, it's mostly just the Online Streaming Community that is funding these Animes. Err..."funding" isn't the word when you steal a TV Series, haha, so in fact the mere audience they're marketing to isn't even paying them for it. Goes to show what an illogical cycle it is!
And yes, that is the point of being an Artist of any kind. It's about making people happy; and that should always come free. Plus as fully grown Adults, I don't see why any of these people who work in the Field should be so desperate that they can't possibly find another Job meanwhile. At their age, they should know better. Akira Toriyama used to pursue tons of other gigs, like Model Kits, some other stuff I forgot.
And yes, I would
NOT increase wages for most of these buffoons in the industry today. That's not the solution. First people need to get this message to kids to stop Streaming & Pirating, among other things. Just a simple purchase of a nice Box Set does so much for your Hormones alone; I don't know why no one likes doing that anymore (probably because of all the yelling at them in the Rec. Room where the best TV is in the House :D).
All in all though, the moral is that to be that type of Fairy Tale Artist, who travels the Land selling Paintings, you've gotta have some skill. And most people today just don't understand that. I myself am an Actor & Singer, and know all about that life. Nothing comes easy, yet those that just grow up with the right work ethic will be able to excel at Art; making MILLIONS like it were nothing. It's the same with Writing, and same with Programming. If you only stay in the Smart Technology App realm, you kind of just stay at the Analyst level or move up to be Executive in a Company that doesn't really know much about Machines or People. But if you pay attention in all the Hardware courses, and try to move into Engineering some new cool CPU & such advancements (as per a more Hands-On type of life of seeing things and touching that which isn't just Theory & Template-based).
