Do you think animation quality is going to keep going up?
| The most effective way to get the masses hyped for an anime is to have amazing animation. We've seen it this season with Demon Slayer, but I wonder if this trend of higher quality animation would eventually plateau. A similar thing happened to the video game industry. Realism in games used to bring a ton of hype, but at some point, a couple of extra polygons didn't get people to care. Nowadays, people play games like Minecraft, Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Undertale. Of course, an anime isn't a video game, but I wonder what would happen when ufotable's newest release doesn't blow minds anymore. Will people still demand more? Will people focus on parts other than animation? Edit: Here's the video that inspired this thread |
fluffycow17Feb 17, 2022 6:19 PM
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| I think animation is getting better. It's easier and cheaper to make fluid animation then it was years ago. As the technology keeps improving, i think it will continue to get better. |
| My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine. We're freaking out that we're running out of time, but to do what? Should i stop and think of that? Is there something i could do to slow it down? Live in a day for once, instead of watch it sprinting by |
| Yes - for a given value of "better". In the same sense that Hollywood movies are getting "better" by enhancing their SFX. Nowadays even a cheap western production can use technology for which Spielberg payed a shitload of money decades ago. Similarly, eventually every anime studio will be able to look just a good as Ufotable, if they want to. No, in the sense that the industry as a whole doesn't seem to me to be promoting the development of new artists, but invests mostly on technology. But, however much tech you inject into it, the key component in animation is still the animator, that is, a person the has the artistic sense and skills necessary to translate a mental image of something moving into a visual sequence, by whatever means, be it hand drawing or 3D modeling. As long as the industry doesn't make an effort to attract and keep artists who are skilled, original and innovative, and prefers to make up for it by adding technology, animation as an art will grow flatter and flatter. Like singers who are only moderately good at it and rely heavily on autotune. |
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| 2D animation can only get overall worse in capitalism. CGI will improve then stagnate and get bad from the chip shortages caused by crypto. |
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| Of course if's there's more budget and technological advances. |
 just wanna feel wanted by someone other than the police 😫 |
| It has certain aspects such as a good schedule, a good team responsible for the anime, money and among other aspects that the studio has to follow in order to have a good animation. |
| "Do you think animation is going to keep getting better and better?" If the industry will continue overworking its animators, maintain the current horrible conditions for them and keep systematically not investing in cutting edge image making and animation technologies, I don't think so. |
alshuFeb 17, 2022 11:43 PM
| It better. Some series in the future will probably still look bad but I'm expecting some great things along the way |
 ManWild |
| Yeah, with the advancement of technology, the only question is whether those studios have money and willingness to animate better. |
 (っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥ |
| Yes mostly on the quality of the animation and the production value of the anime itself. |
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| here's a simple explanation: there have always been great animators. there have always been mindblowing animation. animation as a whole is getting worse. some shows look insane, while more and more shows look awful. there's a simple explanation. there are only a handful of genius animators. there aren't enough animators as a whole, and by now there's 2x or 3x more anime getting made than previously. all at the same time. they don't have the manpower to keep up. |
| 馬鹿げた倫理 全部ガラクタで |
| With time it will get better but at the moment anime is in this akward Phase where they think that blatantly obvious CGI doesn't look awful. The movie industry went through the same in the early 2000s and these days they have CGI that looks so good that it isn't even noticable . Hopefully anime will get there |
| No, I think it will stop getting better at some point. (your vote) |
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| I will say it like I always say in these threads. In 1980 Sunrise animated 39 episodes of Ideon, all of them had mecha fight scenes, lots of sakuga cuts, everything animated by hand, week by week. Then in 2021 mappa can't animate a 1 minute fight between a naked dude and another naked dude with a hammer, the anime is 16 episodes and they can't even animate people flying, they use CG. Then in 2022 ufotable animates 1 minute per episode of sword fighting and people say it's the best thing ever but it's not even sword fighting, it's swords shooting lasers because they can't animate swords smashing against each other. So yeah, anime watchers today are way too gullible |
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| - Slice of life anime are getting more and more beautiful, that's all that matters to me. Visuals and sound are the most important things for this genre. - Animators shortage may make action anime look worse, but I don't care. The plot is more important in this case. |
| NO,90% of the animation is getting shittier because so many animes are coming out in a very short time,just take any isekai this season,the only thing they get going is the bright colors,bt thre animation is stiff and painful to look at,this is what u get when u focus on quantity rather than quality obviously,if the studios get enough time and have enough manpower with talented staff,then the animation gets 1 billion times better(just look at demon slayer,fate,mob psycho etc) animation ways has gotten better bt there is no time to implement it cuz companies jst want to mass produce shit,like cant u just wait 3-4 months more for christs sake,a lot of great source material gets completely shit on because the adaptations are rushed |
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| Older anime have more fluid animations if you ask me though? Toradora is more well animated than Gamers and Rent a Girlfriend. |
"Nobody could laugh at someone who's trying their hardest" -Machio- |
alshu said: +1"Do you think animation is going to keep getting better and better?" If the industry will continue overworking its animators, maintain the current horrible conditions for them and keep systematically not investing in cutting edge image making and animation technologies, I don't think so. At this point, it's not even about the time periods. Older shows can look better than a lot of newer ones, and vice versa. It's all about the schedule and talent, both of which there is a lack of in the current anime industry. Idk why the producers don't understand even after multiple examples at this point, that you can't get hits like Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan unless shit looks good, One Punch Man probably being the best example with season 2's popularity plummeting drastically due to mid animation. Sadly, even a lot of shows that look good now a days suffer from abysmal schedules, the prime and most recent example being Wonder Egg Priority (fck Aniplex honestly), the reason being that the animators pull through. Even then, the script suffered badly. Point is, as Alshu said, it can get better as time goes on if the working conditions improve and the amount of shows being produced goes down. If not, we'll continue getting our occasional sakuga-fests, with most of the season being mid asf. |
| Gintoki and Sugita's birthdays are 1 day apart. |
| It's mostly getting worse though. 90% modern anime look like mass produced goods straight out of a conveyor belt - lifeless and dull. |
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| Animation is a lot more complex than that, it's not like we've really learned all that much more about animation or how to animate than we used to know. We moved to digital animation but it wasn't really that animation before that was bad or impossible just that it was more difficult and expensive to produce?? Snow White is from the 30s, the animation in that is almost if not just as good as things coming out today. Some old anime too is just as realistically animated if not more than modern anime too. It's not something that really "gets better" it's art, would you ask if art has gotten better since the renaissance? It would be a very strange question. We've learned more and honed it and simplified the process but that certainly doesn't make it particularly better or worse, is anime from the 60s very well animated? No but that has to do with a lot of things, it's not that we were worse at animating just that we didn't know as much, lacked exposure, training, or couldn't afford better |
No watch list sig cuz "You watch anime in 3 days or 3 months! Such is the proper way!" |
| It's been getting better and better outside the Japanese animation scene. Arcane, Spiderverse, Castlevania, and even Blood of Zeus were proof that neat animation isn't just limited to Japan, and that 2D is not the only way to do it. There's also the sudden influx of demand for Chinese animation due to their risk-taking experiments for pushing the medium. Meanwhile in Japan, things just remained the same and any creators who try to play with the norm gets a divisive response. Everyone has strong opinions against CGI usage no matter how good was it made, and people will stick to what they're used to see. They'll improve as long as they'll be more open to experiment. But as for now, they're stagnating at best and only a few were able to do well after taking the risk, while some tried but lacked the know-how. |
 Those with dirty minds will find my Steam pic offensive |
| If only Queen Bee's animation would also get better, that would be great! |
| I assume the question isn't targeted solely on eastern animation but on animation as an art form. In that case, I think it's objectively getting better. As technology improves, new techniques are revealed that allow innovative styles to be released. But with that, it's easier and cheaper to pump out animation that would've had to be done traditionally compared to digitally. So there's a lot of riff raff. And that reflects poorly on the global industry. The 60s-90s were a Golden Age in their own right and deserves all its respect but I don't think it was the prime era. It's not even a budget issue either. I think animation will continue to improve as long as there's passion and structure behind those working on the creation. Unfortunately, a lot of content lack those. |
| Considering MAPPA is the new gen studio and their animation quality is pretty low, probably not. |
| Even though I believe that animation has been getting better, that doesn't better that there isn't impressive animation from the past. This OP from the 1980s is one I like. |
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| nah Majority of animation from 'average anime' from relatively 'average studio' for past.... maybe 5 years is much worse than 'average' stuffs from around decade ago with similar genre/themes. I'm actually feeling it after watching and comparing them side-by-side while completed my watchlist for each of representive timeline. They need do something with current state of animators to improve the overall animation quality. I mean average here is to say anything that didn't stand out with popular title at that time. |
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| yeah I see animation getting better as technology advances, and CGI becomes easier to use without looking like an eyesore |
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