The Animation Process

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Paramorelover018

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I have a few questions about animation that I really need some answers for.

- Why do places like America and Canada have Korea handle the animation on their shows? Is it cheaper? How much cheaper is it? Is there any animators in America and Canada or do they just draw stuff? Does any of them know how to animate things on their own?

- Is there any animation studios in America that don't focus on flash and CGI?

- If there are animation studios that send their stuff to Korea, why do they call themselves an animation studio? Is it because they had a hand in creating an animated feature?

- What exactly is the animation process anyway? If artist just draw the characters and backgrounds, how do the animators know what to do? Are they given a script so they know what to do?

- When people refer to something as animation, they just mean it's animated and doesn't have anything to do with the actual animation, right?

I hope someone can answer these questions and I hope I don't stump anyone, it's very important.
 
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The reason why animation is sent overseas is because animation was starting to lose popularity and not many wanted to waste much money on cartoons (especially when it was just to advertise a bunch of toys). So it was sent overseas. Over the years however, animation has become cheaper. But it's still no done in these countires since, the amount of actual animators have shrunk, and countries like South Korea and China have built-up an great industry on it. And it's still cheaper to send it there. Places like "Nicktoons Studios" and "Curious Pictures" call themsevles animation studios because a lot of the pre-production and post-production work is done at these places. The overseas studios just animate it. Any animation studios that don't focus on Flash and GCI? Yes. Do they actually to do animation there? Most of the time, no. And we refer to something as "animation" if it's "animated".
 
Yes, it is much cheaper, as they pay (usually) Korean animators much less than they do American animators.

They usually handle storyboarding. And yes, they can animate on their own, but it's much cheaper for the show if the animation is done overseas.

Fuzzy Door doesn't (Family Guy).

Exactly. Plus, they'll usually have good connections with animation companies overseas, especially if they have an overseas sister company. I believe this applies to Rough Draft Studios, but I could be wrong.

They are given what is called an animatic which is basically a show made of the (usually uncolored) storyboards. The animatics often include notes written on them telling the animators exactly what movements the character(s) in the scene need to be doing. Many DVDs of cartoons will feature a couple of animatics, such as Futurama, Home Movies, and Invader Zim, so you can watch those to see exactly what I am talking about. Also, listen to the commentary, it can be very informative.

Basically. However, shows that are animated are better designated as cartoons or animated series, et al.


Hope this helps!:)
 
I'd like to point this out, even though we already know this, but many hand-drawn-feature studios, like Disney, still animate THEIR productions domestically.

It has long been my opinion that the South Korean studios seem to specialize EXCLUSIVELY in Limited Animation (you know, where there's hardly any movement: a pose, then some dialogue, then another pose, then some more dialogue, etc.). Is this true?

I am partial to full animation (extensive body acting and emotions as in the Disney and WB shorts of the 30's and 40's), and wish to (someday) start my own production company specializing in Disney/WB/Avery-style full animation after graduating from the Art Institute. And since there are very few overseas companies specializing in full animation, my company may be forced to animate entirely domestically. One of the few exceptions is Toon City, a Phillipines-based firm who animated many of Disney's full animation series like House of Mouse and Mickey's Mouseworks, but I still need to know if anyone else overseas does full animation (Wang/Cuckoo's Nest comes to mind, but I need more to add to my list).
 
Actually, the main reason animation was sent abroad was because the budgets for TV shows were vastly smaller than for movie theaters. I recall an interview with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in which they said a theatrical short had a budget over ten times what a half-hour TV was allotted. Trimming production costs were an absolute necessity and one of the main areas this was achieved was farming out production to overseas studios. Besides, toy companies pay for shows based on toys; it's probably one of the cheapest forms of advertising they can get.
 
It's not just South Korea. It's also India and Singapore. It's not the "animation." In most cases, it's just the assembly. Animators in the States and Canada actually do draw and animate their own products. It's just the end process of coloring and photographing each frame that's done out of the country.

It is cheaper, but considering the deflating value of the US dollar compared to local currencies, they may end up doing entire productions themselves.

They're few and far inbetween, but there are a few that aren't vector and CGI-focused. DiC, Jambalyah, Fuzzy Door, Shadowrocket, and Stoopid Monkey are a few I could think of off the top of my head.

No. They call themselves an animation studio because they develop and actually animate their products or at least provide an animatic or storyboard of a scene before sending them to overseas studios to assemble. They create and animate their own characters, but they just don't assemble the end product.

There was a great episode of Tiny Toons Adventures called, ironically, "Animaniacs!" that pretty much explained the animation process in detail, from inception to completion, and everything inbetween.

Okay.
 
I can't think of any animation in America that doesn't do CGI these days, but their are still a lot that do 2D animation. Some of which don't even outsource. Animation studios that make commercials are done in-house.
 
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