[RESEARCH] Neil Boyle Questionnaire - What is the future for mainstream hand-drawn animation?

Throughout November, I have been sending questionnaires to independent animators who have experience in the animation industry. In this questionnaire, I wanted to figure out how they market their animation, their personal preference on animation and their opinion on the future of hand-drawn animation. On the 18/11/2016 I received a reply from Neil Boyle, an independent animator who has worked on projects such as The Snowman and the Snowdog, The Jungle book 2, Space Jam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and more recently, Ethel and Ernest.

The feedback from the questionnaire was very insightful to what it is I am researching, it has helped me with my Literature and Contextual Review greatly. Below is the questionnaire with the feedback in full I received on the 20/11/2016:

The Future of Hand-drawn Animation in Mainstream Cinema  

Neil Boyle

What medium of animation is your personal preference?
Hand drawn animation, or as people sometimes refer to it now, '2D animation' 

(Regarding the previous question) Any reasons for this?
There is an extraordinary charm to seeing drawings come alive - drawings that seem to walk and talk and think. I enjoy the feeling of 'magic' when a drawing is both obviously unreal (it's clearly a graphic symbol, made of pencil, ink and paper) but it also seems incredibly alive (apparently with weight and form, and able to move and emote). 

How do you (or your team) market your animation?
I am rarely involved (as director and/ or animator) with the marketing of my projects, as I am usually  working within the commercial art field (TV adverts, 'Specials', and feature films) where producers and marketing teams are already involved. But within the realm of personal short film projects (such as my short The Last Belle) I would put the film out around selected film festivals for about a year or two, followed by a release onto a public platform such as YouTube.  

Why do you think CG animation is more dominant in mainstream cinema?
CG animation is much more 'producer-friendly'. The digital realm makes it easier for producers - including non-creative producers - to impose their footprint on the production. Camera angles, design elements and colours can all be changed relatively easily, right up until the last minute. With traditional animation far more decision making has to happen during the pre-production process, and once those decisions are made they are harder (and thus more expensive) to change further down the line.
Fashions are also cyclical. At the moment CG has already hit its peak and there is some renewed interest in hand drawn animation. The bottom line is that audiences will always be drawn in by good storytelling, regardless of the medium. 

Walt Disney Animation Studio has not released a hand-drawn feature film since the release of Winnie the Pooh in 2011 and there are no plans to return to hand-drawn in the near future, do you think this has impacted animators, animation studios and the mainstream cinema?
It certainly had an impact on mainstream animation in the sense that many hundreds, even thousands, of 'traditional' artists lost their jobs. But hand-drawn animation has begun to flourish on the 'arthouse' and smaller commercial circuit. It has begun to tell stories that CG animation has not gone near, with films like 'Ethel and Ernest', 'Persepolis' and the forthcoming 'The Breadwinner'. Developing technologies like TVPaint software, and the Cintiq drawing board are also reinvigorating the 2D animation world. 2D animation may be regarded as a more 'boutique' technique now, and not something that will compete with the likes of monolithic entertainment corporations like Pixar, but it is growing a reputation for more interesting, individualistic projects for smaller, even niche, audiences.   

Animation has become so advanced in recent years, do you think we should disregard old animation techniques (light-box, cut-out etc.) to make way for newer, easier and faster animation methods?
Every trick in the book is useful! Every technique has its place. The more an artist understands the heritage of technologies and methodologies, the more tools he or she has at their fingertips. For me, the exciting future of animation is blending 'Old School' thinking with'High-Tech' tools to create something fresh and exciting. 

What are your opinions on this quote?; “I think today 2D animation has a responsibility, much like painters had after photography was invented, to reinvent what it is. It can’t go after realism, because there is no point; it has to do something only 2D can do. In painting, we got Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism and other modern movements because of photography.”
Broadly speaking I completely agree with this quote. There is no point in trying to achieve absolute realism visually. What is always interesting to me is how an artist sees the world, what that world looks like in their eyes, and feels like in their heart. 'Reality' is dull - I want to experience the world now and again through someone else's perspective - in just the same way our mental and emotional horizons can be broadened by reading different authors, from Dickens to  Austen, or Kafka to Zola. Artists open up how we experience the world, far beyond the superficial sense of what something looks like on the surface.