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Comment by astrange | Hacker News Reader

Western animators aren't paid that terribly, just anime animators, and only some of them.

But part of the compromise that Western animation does to be more productive is that it all looks bad. There's a fake-anime style Superman cartoon on I saw that has the artistic quality of maybe a Japanese elementary schooler. And then Netflix makes animated sex comedies that look like old Flash cartoons.

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Since you mention Western animation and Netflix. Have you seen Blue Eyed Samurai?

Amazing show and it has a beautiful style that looks like it's hand drawn and Japanese, but it's actually French made CGI. I suspect that even this industry can be disrupted by technology.

The French have their own thing going on. Fortiche and Blue Spirit are making some of the most beautiful animations we have seen in western TV series. They draw from a rich heritage of art and comics.

If you think it looks hand drawn go to nearest eye doctor as soon as possible.

I'm sorry, all western animation looks bad? Such sweeping generalizations, and so wrong.

Exhibit A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_NIMH

Exhibit B. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_of_Egypt

Exhibit C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Into_the_Spider-Ve...

Two of those three are over 30 years old and the other is a movie with a $90M budget. I was talking about TV shows.

Though I've heard things like Castlevania are good, haven't seen it though.

You should also give Arcane a shot, it's one of the beautifully animated and written series I have seen.

We are not living in 2028. Only one is "over 30 years old".

Dang I did the math in my head wrong.

The animation in Castlevania is in fact very good.

The style definitely isn't for everyone, I personally very much disliked it when I started watching. But once you get into the parts where the animation shines, it really shines. Highly recommend an analytical watch by anyone into animation.

It has a 90s feel that I appreciate.

From a quick search, that's probably "My Adventures with Superman", which is animated in South Korea:

> My Adventures with Superman is an American animated superhero television series based on the DC Comics character Superman. The series is developed by Jake Wyatt, produced by Warner Bros. Animation and animated by Studio Mir in South Korea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Adventures_with_Superman

It is, but the style and production methods are controlled by Americans, unless they have direction and storyboarding being done in Korea as well.

I'm not sure how payscales work for Korean outsourcing vs Western animation, though I guess I'd like to know.

You claimed the quality issues were due to the cost of Western animators, not because of American management.

South Korea has long been a place to outsource animation to to cut costs. Plenty of Japanese animated works with Korean names in the credits as well.

I mean that they can afford to pay the animators better because they're more productive with the production methods they use for the project. Or in other words, the management cuts costs more. I've seen animators talking about how they'll only use one line weight when drawing a character to save time or things like that as well.

That's not the entire reason of course, they also have larger budgets.

They're not "fake anime style."

A bunch of WB properties outsource their animation to Japanese anime studios.

But I'm not talking about those, I'm talking about one specific currently airing show. Though even if you outsource to Japan, it still depends who does the animation direction and storyboards.

(And coloring. I feel like it's easy to spot American attempts in particular because all the colors are too contrasty and oversaturated, and then they put glowy neon effects on top.)

Note, fake anime in other Asian countries is getting really good these days, and in fact is starting to take over Japan because other countries don't use the Japanese industry strategy of "never change anything and never try to make any money". Was just there and all the ads were for Blue Archive/Azur Lane/Honkai, which are Korean and Chinese.

Ehh, the superman show (on Adult Swim) isn't that bad from an animation standpoint. It wouldn't stand out as an anime but you could have picked any other AS snow outside of Bookdocks (which I believe is also animated by an Asian studio) and Metalocalyose to drive that point. Western shows suffice or even try to prefer a cruder, cheaper art style. In small part because American animators are compensated better (but still paid peanuts for its economy).

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