Item — HN Reader

I'm not sure of the veracity of this, but apparently the Disney set the film Treasure Planet up to fail specifically so it could wash its hands of the very cool but expensive hybrid technology the film used where traditional animation and CGI were combined.

Personally I'm really sad this kind of technique never caught on more in Western films, Treasure Planet was panned at the time but I think it's actually a bit of an overlooked classic. The art style works really well, take Long John Silver for example whose body is traditionally animated but his cybernetic limbs are CGI - this looked fantastic in 2002 so imagine what could be done now.

2 comments

No need to imagine. That kind of hybrid is frequently used in modern anime, though it's getting less and less visible with time. These days it's basically only apparent with low-budget productions, or by looking for scenes that are animated too smoothly and consistently.

One of the major determining factors of if CG blends well with 2D animation is if the 3D was farmed out to another studio or done in-house. All of the biggest 2D-3D hybrid success stories in anime (such a ufotable, the studio behind Demon Slayer) have an in-house CG team that works in tandem with the 2D and compositing teams.

IIRC that whole mess had more to do with internal politics than it did with technologies/techniques but I’m not an expert on the subject either.