Rambles #6: The Trouble with 3D
Whether you're pursuing 2D, 3D, stop motion, or motion graphics, every form of animation has its pros and its cons. (Perhaps debatable). I'm going to talk about 3D since that's the path I'm choosing to follow. What I want to tackle is the downside to 3D that has got me kind of hung up at the moment.
Firstly, I'll just say that 3D is probably the most used form of animation in the country (and probably the industry) at this time because it's faster, cheaper, and thus more convenient when it comes to production in both film and television. Therefore, 3D must be a lot easier and requires a lot less work. Well, yes and no.
It really all depends on what you consider "easier". And that's why in my opinion, 3D animation is anything, but "easy". It's tedious. Animation is and always will be hard no matter what form.
The thing that is so tricky with 3D is the fact that you can't do it 100% on your own in the way that say, a 2D animation can be done.
Now, what I mean by this is, 3D can be a one-man show, but it may take you months or even a year to produce maybe a short film or short YouTube video. Where as 2D animators could probably make something in a few weeks by themselves. Now, I know that there's perhaps an exception to every rule, but the thing is with 3D, you need to be able to model, rig, and animate. for 2D animators, you can draw or make graphics and then animate them which, and I'm not going to say is "easier", but it's less technical than modeling and rigging. I feel like I can fairly say this as I used to do 2D hand-drawn animation as well as 2D motion graphics.
When your animation is hand-drawn, you're really only limited to what you can draw. If you mess up a frame, just draw a new one. Of course, 2D comes with it's own type of tedious work, but compared to needing to model a character and then rig it, it's a lot less work. Also, not every 3D animator automatically knows how to rig and model. Aside from that aspect, even when you know how, there are a ton of technical problems that you run into along the way. Messing up a rig and starting over isn't as easy as erasing.
(blocked version) - "Mery" rig from Meryproject.com
This is the reason that YouTube animators that you watch are 2D or stop-motion. A lot of the 2D ones are also using Flash. They can produce content quicker and completely by themselves if they so choose. (*again, I don't mean to make it sound like it's quick and easy. Animation is always, always hard*). And so I begin to realize that this is why you don't see 3D animators making YouTube channels other than for showing off their reels and little projects they're working on. 3D animators don't really have the time to create consistent and creative content. Because unless they spent a couple months/years making a bunch of they're own personal rigged models, they're pretty much limited to whatever downloadable rigs are out there. And even if they have that, the animation process still takes a while, and it kind of limits they're creative freedom overall since they can't use their own character designs. Another part of the process that makes it take longer is shooting reference. Of course, I would say that shooting reference is pretty necessary for all kinds of animation. I've found though that when working 2-dimensionally, and you're only seeing one side, it's a little easier to get away with things not being totally accurate. 3D on the other hand has to be so clean, that if it's not correct on all 6 sides, it's going to look off.
Instead of short videos, 3D animators dedicate their time to making an animated short film that will take a couple years, and a bunch of teammates to work on. Far opposite to being their own independent, content-creating YouTube channel.
I think this is kind of the idea that's making it frustrating for me. I'm not frustrated to the point where I don't want to do it anymore. It's just that I need to get this change of mindset. When I first started, I was making comics in high school. Right there, an example of the "independent content-creator". However, now that I'm pursuing 3D, it's definitely more of the idea of specializing in only the animation part of the process and then later using that skill to join a team. There is some creative freedom right now as a student as I need some kind of fun idea to showcase my animation with for a nice reel piece. However, I need to stop thinking in terms of telling an intricate, fun little story or episode. I'm literally limited to a matter of seconds. Simply showing an action but with no real story with resolution behind it.
As I've talked about before in my "being creative sucks" post, I'm ultimately fine with that when I have my real-person career. But right now, I think it's harder to think that way just because I pretty much am an independent creator. I'm not working on a team. I'm making animations right now by myself so that I can practice and have things to put on a reel. Once I start meeting more people in the same boat, it will start to become more like the real thing, but for right now, I think this is why it's hard for me to get into the right mindset.
