The Case of Traditional 2D and Animation

I am at times these days engulfed in a form of dilemma between my love for 2D animation; the satisfaction from feeling the pencil lead on paper; the charm of that art form that to me is just magical, versus the industry standard, and no less important and engrossing world of 3D. Some may disagree, but when traditional, historical studios like Walt Disney shutters their Hand Drawn Animation Division, in favor of more time efficient work flows, you just know where the wind is blowing at that point.

To me the choice is clear, as this industry is being built more and more on the aspects of 3D, and the flexibility of form it affords. And even if people might miss the feel and charm of the traditional drawn space, whats to say that it can't be replicated in 3D. Again going back to Walt Disney, the phenomenal short animation Paperman, which can be watched here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx5d23_paperman-full-animated-short-film-vo-hd_shortfilms, was a marriage between 2D workflows, and the extra layers of complexity 3D affords.

I am a traditional artist. I studied the charcoals, graphite, and paints, and never learned to use a Wacom tablet till 2 years ago. But even before that I was trying out digital enhancements and techniques, together with the hand drawn efforts of the traditional medium. The results after a few years of experimentation, were truly wonderful for me, and it made me more interested in other forms of marriage, one which I am increasingly favoring these days, is a combination of watercolors and the digital paints. I have to thank my inspiration, Shirotsuki, whose works in that particular combination, feels truly magical. An example below:

You can follow her at http://alliebirdseed.tumblr.com/. Please check her out!

But where do I stand on animation then? To me, the advancement of technologies is unstoppable, and change affords both new advancements and workflows that is up to the artist to take advantage of. I will never forget the love I have for traditional animation and will still work on it in my spare time and hope to apply what I have learned one day in the future, particularly in a marriage as magical as watercolors and digital paint as seen above, or in an animation as phenomenal as Paperman.

An ongoing project for me is something called Concordia. I started working on the concepts and putting them into class animations in the second semester of the 2nd school year. Though recent and in progress, I would like to show of some ongoing background work for that animation which utilizes the watercolor and digital paints, as well as a short animation from school that can be called a sketch of a scene from the project.

And finally the animation, which was a study of weight and recoil in my second year of traditional animation. I loved doing it, and even then, I was already using the tablet, instead of a pencil, to do the lines. So perhaps I am already marrying the processes ;)