Animation Conversation

[D'Snowth]

One thing I am going to say that really bugs me about a lot of digital animation in this day and age - whether it's Flash or 3D/CGI, is how lazy these shows are when it comes to character designs, because more often than not, all they do is just recycle the exact same models from other already-existing characters, and maybe either just change the entire color scheme of the model (i.e. different hair color, skin color), or just put them in a different outfit, and say it's an entirely different character. ALVINNN!!! AND THE CHIPMUNKS has gotten really, really bad about this over the years, to the point that almost every supporting character has some kind of a doppelganger . . . even Miss Miller's character model has been recycled for like a male butler/chaufer on one occasion.

I mean I get it saves time and money, not to mention in digital animation, characters, like puppets in live action, actually have to be built and constructed, and that unto itself is as much of a time-consuming and involved process as anything else in animation . . . but it's still a tad bothersome as a viewer to watch.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Well I hate to be that guy, but I heard animated television don't get as a high budget as they did, so there's been a lot of corner cutting as of recent years,

 

[D'Snowth]

I mean it's kind of always been that way, if you look back on it, anytime a popular animated series got some kind of a movie deal, the animation always got such a serious bump up for its movie(s) . . . and then conversely, if an animated feature got so popular that it got its own animated series (as a number of Disney movies did), the animation for the series would always be such a downgrade. Yeah, a lot of it's budget, but a lot of it too is you're looking at years of work for a single animated feature, but with a series, where you've got tighter deadlines and due dates to meet, you don't really have the time to spend working on it like you would features. An animated feature can sometimes take up to four or more years to complete; an episode of an animated series can take up to ten months.