[RESEARCH] Robin Shaw 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 25/11/2016 I recieved a reply from Robin Shaw, an independent animator who has worked on projects such as The Snowman & The Snowdog, We're going on a Bear Hunt, Irn Bru “Phenomelal Christmas” advert and more recently, Ethel and Ernest.

Similar to the feedback from Neil Boyle, the feedback from Robin Shaw was very useful, it was insightful and nice to see similar opinions from one and other. I filmly believe that this information will help me throughout my Masters,  Below is the questionnaire with the feedback in full I received on the 25/11/2016:

The Future of Hand-drawn Animation in Mainstream Cinema  

Robin Shaw

What medium of animation is your personal preference? 

I have no personal preference. As a practitioner my field of expertise and interest is in 2d traditional hand-drawn animation, but as a viewer I have no preference whatsoever. As long as there is something narratively and visually engaging and, with any luck, non-derivative I am happy.  

(Regarding the previous question) Any reasons for this? 

There is a difference between the creation of animation and the viewing of it. As a creator, I am by nature a someone whose passion is drawing and the expression of feelings, thought and movement through drawn animation and illustration. As a viewer I wish to be immersed in what I am seeing, be it conventional animtated features or much more experimental work.  

As part of the independent industry, how do you (or your team) market your films? 

I don’t. That is left to the producers, broadcaster, distributers and financiers. 

Why do you think CG animation is more dominant in mainstream cinema? 

CG appears to be increasingly dominant in animation and I believe this is the logical result of trends within the industry and audience tastes. 

Obviously technology has caught up with directors’ and designers’ visions, in that the bridge to be crossed between imagination and end results on screen is far shorter than ever. This is something with which 2d drawn animation cannot compete. There is a verisimilitude possessed by CG which is difficult to achieve in traditional animation. This, I believe, has led to a shift in audience expectations. The viewing public see little difference now between watching a live action film (increasingly using large amounts of CG) and an animated feature. They are both capable of the same style of story-telling and cinematic feats and this leaves little room for 2d animation with all its limitations. 

Aside from this, there are surely far more mundane economic reasons. The games industry for instance, is so tied up and almost synonimous with the animated film industry. Investment in technology and the unification and simplification of production processes must be a factor to some extent.  

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? 

There is far less 2d animation work available at any one time and far fewer animators to choose from when crewing.  

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? 

No technique should be disregarded. One might as well say there is no need to paint now that we have photographs. It is the job of the 2d practitioner not to ape the tropes of CG, but instead to make work which could only be created in the drawn medium, such as ‘Ethel & Ernest’ on which I was Art Director. The book from which the film was adapted is a perfect marrying up of text and illustration. We could not have made a faithful film of that book without using 2d animation. Similarly, the film I have just finished co-directing, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ is an adaptation of a children’s picture book, which has to nod respectfully towards the original illustrations.  

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.” 

See above