Ni No Kuni, the future is now

After watching this amazing video game trailer for Ni No Kuno from Level 5 off of Cartoon Brew , a dozen conversations were happening in my head simultaneously. Watching this trailer makes me feel extremely grateful to have started at UCLA's animation program when I did, just as our own old master, Dan McLaughlin, was leaving the program. Because of Dan, us kids who were raised in a digital world got to experience cel animation and shooting on film, classic old school animation style. That paired with my two years of computer animation training can really help me to appreciate the history of animation as a technology and as an art, and while people will look at Ni No Kuni (and all that which follows this style) and go "is that 2d or 3d?" I'll be pleased to know that the mediums have come to a near perfect union.

We've reached a point in our technology where artists can be artists and our medium does not have to suffer because of a lack of computing time/power and knowledge of software work around. 3D doesn't have to look like plastic molds, and 2D doesn't require tedious pencil to paper. I've entered the industry at a magical time, and seeing the trailer for this game makes me so hopeful for the possibilities of animation.