Why it sucks? Read this:
It’s often that we hear people questioning the animation quality of some anime episodes, but what people don’t realize is the struggle to produce a single episode.
Thomas Romain is a French animator who works for the Japanese animation industry and he wrote in his Twitter some explanations about the state of the industry he works for:
“Some people, like the animation producers, the director, or some designers and production assistants get a salary during all the production process, so the schedules are kept short to limit the global production cost. But most of the animation staff are freelancers. The cost of having everybody working in-house would be unbearable. Only one studio was able to do that, studio Ghibli.
But the problem is not that the studios are greedy, the Japanese animation studios are small companies struggling with the budgets allowed by their clients. They are not right-holders. They usually do not make large benefits and are not in position to invest their own money into the IP they sometimes create.
The budgets in Japan for animation are extremely low. In the 60’s, to succeed in his crazy idea to produce weekly animated shows, Osamu Tezuka asked the animators to make a lot of sacrifices. Work very hard for a very low pay.
The same standards are still here 50 years later.
On a TV series production, an animator is usually only payed around $40 to animated one cut (from layout to key frames). Inbetweeners get only around $2 per drawing. To make a living out of it, animators need to work fast, and cannot afford to work exclusively on one show. The large part of animators are freelancers who work for several studios at the same time.
The problem is that the Japanese anime industry is now producing too much content, at an incredibly fast pace. There are not enough skilled and experienced animators here to supervise the productions and teach young animators.
The studios have no other choice but to work with poorly skilled animators, sometimes amateurs who only do that as a hobby. They also have no other choice but to outsource tasks in other countries, not to limit the costs, but to deliver the episode on time.
Everybody in the industry is incredibly busy all the time. Especially skilled staff. But even mediocre animators are requested on a regular basis. And it’s pretty common that nobody will work on your show until the very last moment, because they are already struggling with their deadlines on other productions.
In the current situation, it’s also common to hear people speaking of “miracle” when an episode is broadcasted on time. Sometimes, the animation only started 2 weeks before being shown on TV. The quality can be poor but what matters the most is to have something to put on the screen.”
It’s always nice to have some insight about how this industry works, and hopefully these explanations will make some people have more respect for the work of the animators and anime studios.
do u now understand the suffering of animators?
It’s often that we hear people questioning the animation quality of some anime episodes, but what people don’t realize is the struggle to produce a single episode.
Thomas Romain is a French animator who works for the Japanese animation industry and he wrote in his Twitter some explanations about the state of the industry he works for:
“Some people, like the animation producers, the director, or some designers and production assistants get a salary during all the production process, so the schedules are kept short to limit the global production cost. But most of the animation staff are freelancers. The cost of having everybody working in-house would be unbearable. Only one studio was able to do that, studio Ghibli.
But the problem is not that the studios are greedy, the Japanese animation studios are small companies struggling with the budgets allowed by their clients. They are not right-holders. They usually do not make large benefits and are not in position to invest their own money into the IP they sometimes create.
The budgets in Japan for animation are extremely low. In the 60’s, to succeed in his crazy idea to produce weekly animated shows, Osamu Tezuka asked the animators to make a lot of sacrifices. Work very hard for a very low pay.
The same standards are still here 50 years later.
On a TV series production, an animator is usually only payed around $40 to animated one cut (from layout to key frames). Inbetweeners get only around $2 per drawing. To make a living out of it, animators need to work fast, and cannot afford to work exclusively on one show. The large part of animators are freelancers who work for several studios at the same time.
The problem is that the Japanese anime industry is now producing too much content, at an incredibly fast pace. There are not enough skilled and experienced animators here to supervise the productions and teach young animators.
The studios have no other choice but to work with poorly skilled animators, sometimes amateurs who only do that as a hobby. They also have no other choice but to outsource tasks in other countries, not to limit the costs, but to deliver the episode on time.
Everybody in the industry is incredibly busy all the time. Especially skilled staff. But even mediocre animators are requested on a regular basis. And it’s pretty common that nobody will work on your show until the very last moment, because they are already struggling with their deadlines on other productions.
In the current situation, it’s also common to hear people speaking of “miracle” when an episode is broadcasted on time. Sometimes, the animation only started 2 weeks before being shown on TV. The quality can be poor but what matters the most is to have something to put on the screen.”
It’s always nice to have some insight about how this industry works, and hopefully these explanations will make some people have more respect for the work of the animators and anime studios.
do u now understand the suffering of animators?
