The Democratization of Animation Production

Imagine the hundreds of people that a computer graphics animated feature requires. Now imagine that same labor done with a handful of artists.

What if…

Instead of a pipeline of specialized workers, there were a handful of people who are unique multi-talented “librarians.” Like DJ’s who sample electronic music, animated storytelling will mix streams of data, creating visualizations for a variety of new platforms.

Hypothesis: Computer Graphics Production - as it exists in the movie business - will be disrupted by peer based, real time networks. This will lead to a new form of animated content, and a revolution in education, as the entire world collectively learns to create “the metaverse.”

Distributed Production?

Increasingly, collectives of creative developers are sharing new ideas, code and work flows. By sharing powerful tools and know-how, communities are growing at a pace that will soon outperform the quality and market need of closed systems. Essentially, the open networks will outperform the closed companies. The advances of these creative networks will make the computer graphics artists that work within it, mind-boggling, productive.

Most interesting to me, is that visualizations might not be rendered on a centralized farm of computers, but by an infinitely scalable, artist owned, distributed network. The libraries, the labor and the processing power will be shared by all who participate. The more who join in, the more powerful the network will become.

This is enormously exciting for the art form. The way Youtube empowered content creators, and Instagram made everyone a photographer, new networked technologies will democratize and enhance the animation storytelling process for anyone with an internet connection. Admittedly, it is also threatening to those who exist in the industry today.

This is what my research and writing has been focused on for the last year. I’ve spent this time exploring engines and new workflows, playing with ways to develop content, and then writing my thoughts over and over. I want to understand this evolution.

to be continued…