Disney 2d animation is closing down

From the article (link by me):

Last week, six of the animators got the openings on Chicken Little. It looks like the other seven will get the boot. Consider the loss of talent:

. . .

Shawn Keller – started in 1970s, character animator on Black Cauldron, Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Co., Little Mermaid, Treasure Planet; supervising animator of Atlantis' Cookie and Preston Whitmore

I guess Disney really IS that stupid... Gods dammit anyway...

I think it's really bad when you have to express your options and then rely solely on one medium. Mind you, I have little to say against computer generated media - but it's not the -only- way to create a classic. And while I may be missing something because of a nostalgic feeling, I can't help but wonder what we will loose... or gain with the new major focus on CGI. Times do and will change, but the "feel" that goes into the old style animations will probably be lost because of the need to "crank out" new ideas. I just hope it doesn't take too long for the pendulum to swing from quantity back to quality...

Copied and pasted from laughingplace.com message boards:

"Be patient. Wait. Watch.

Not everything in the article is entirely accurate, and there is a mildly alarmist tone that should be tempered with some simple facts. That surprises me coming from a writer I respect and greatly admire, but the facts are out of whack here.

Example: the directors and producers of the films select the animators for their projects, and not some suits or VPs, so the "pitting" animators against each other is greatly overplayed. It's not like a game show or the SATs where the fastest or best test taker wins. There is a decision made by those in true creative control of the project about who to cast in what role. That there aren't enough slots to go around to everyone is not new. If ... and please read IF... artists at the level of supervising animators find themselves without a project between now and the end of their contract it doesn't indicate that the current administration feels that they are without talent or merit. If anything, it is an indication of not enough work to go around, and it remains to be seen whether something else will come into the pipeline. And the slowing down of Disney Feature Animation's production slate could turn out to be a good thing. Oversaturation of animated features on the market has played a sizeable role in the returns, and not seeing two or even one feature every single year may not be such a bad thing, as more doesn't always mean better.

Similarly, The “motion capture” being examined during the development of RAPUNZEL is not the same motion capture system devised for use in FINAL FANTASY nor is it even close to the kind of motion capture seen on Golumn in THE TWO TOWERS. And it must be remembered that RAPUNZEL as a project is still very early in development, and official green-lighting for a full production has not been given. As has always been the case with Disney, advances in the approach are being considered, and the technology being explored with RAPUNZEL includes a more advanced and proprietary system of capturing details of facial and body expression in order to better understand how pixel manipulation can go beyond the surface and have the intelligence of muscles and ligaments below the surface. It is far, FAR too early to relegate this exploration to being good or bad for animation, and seriously off the mark to equate it to what the industry has defined as motion capture animation up to this point. That the leading draftsman of this generation of animators is at the helm of this team, and that they feel inspired and excited by the approach he is taking and have expressed a desire to “take care” of him and “live up to his standards for quality” says volumes about the morale and the outlook.

Yes, it is undeniably sad that the company has seen numerous layoffs, and the shift from old to new is a difficult change, but the fact remains that animation is far from dead at Disney. Technological advances have lead the way for over seventy years on all of the studio’s animated features – whether it’s sound or Technicolor or Xeroxography or CAPS, Disney has been the pioneer. To claim that traditional animation is dead when there is no clear order from anyone – be it from Michael Eisner or David Stainton or anyone else presently in place in administration – to kill traditional animation and go all CG. That’s simply not true.

Finally, it is impossible to debate the merits of an approach to rendering characters and telling stories that has not yet been seen in a finished product, and WILL NOT be seen until both CHICKEN LITTLE and ANGEL AND HER NO GOOD SISTER have BOTH been completed. Broad pronouncements about the death of anything prior to that time are little more than a cry that the sky is falling…no pun intended.

Oh... one last note...Tom Schumacher is gone. His job is done at Feature Animation and his tenure is over. Until David Stainton has had a chance to see a project through to completion, there is no reasonable way to assess his efficacy as President of Feature Animation, and certainly not when he’s been in the job less than eight months!

A lot of folks at the production level, even at the assistant animation level see and hear things very differently than they are actually being played out, and it's well worth keeping that in mind.

So again, I say wait. Be patient. And watch."