Proptaku Cosplay Studio was at this year's Summer Con 2024, and among all the great artists and exhibits, we had the great fortune to run into the amazing freelance animation artist Bobby Breed.
Our Conversation
We spoke at length about multiple subjects, about past animations, his comic work, and even about what we try to do at the Studio. The most profound part of conversation is one we keep coming back to in other discussions Threads, IG, and other community hubs, how is AI affecting the industry. Bobby's take on this is something we should all take in, as he's a real artist, doing paid work in a difficult field.
Bobby argues that generative AI in the correct places is a benefit to the artist, acting a direct tool in image and animation processing, and in communication with writers, producers, and agencies. Reduced costs for all the steps outside of his work puts more budget back into Bobby's end of the work.
Is AI A Positive In Animation?
Use of AI heightens communication, by allowing the direct idea creators to graphically show the final artist the direction of ideas, to create their own storyboards and throwaway sketches. This eliminates the need to create intermediate "police sketches", poorly interpreting the non-graphic ideas into something the artist can understand.
These AI use places reduce the amount of time spent on repetitive and often tedious task (animation is full of them), they often add effects not otherwise seen in photography enhancements, and do reduce costs. Creating animation cels per frame is costly, with an HD animation using 30 fps or better, that's 1800 cels per minute of film. At commission rates of $100 per cell, that $180,000 per minute.
Animation from the 80's through 2010's has progressive moved out of the US to low-cost countries, as US artist, though high quality are also high cost. Early generation AI like tools in mid 2010's started to change that, but now AI is reversing the trend. Animation artists can now focus on high quality, detailed, subtle, story driven key frames, and let AI fill in the intermediate frames. The cost reduction makes working with US animators a better option, because of ease of communication, co-location when needed, and common vision.
Conclusion
Overall, our conversation with Bobby was too short, and the rest of the con beckoned. We learned a lot about how artists can positively react to AI, and why Hollywood animation embraces the new technology. The Studio hopes that we'll be able to feature more of Bobby Breed's work here or on our apparel and accessories, so you can show everyone how fantastic both he and you are!
For more on Bobby Breed, see his LinkedIn.
