It's not that they can't, I'd say it's more of a pipeline thing.
Animated movies take years and years to prep... much more than a live action movie. So they gear up an army of animators, each doing something specialized that doesn't easily apply outside of the one project... Now they have all that overhead to sustain, and they're betting on an uncertain outcome years down the line, and afterwards can they keep the momentum? Any movie is a risky bet... but Hollywood now goes with the biggest and safest. That's CG. They can farm it out easier, replace the artists easier... It makes 2D more about art, CG more about industry. When 2D declined and CG got to be everything... any studio deciding to focus on one has to look at what their work can apply to, what contracts they can bid for.
It was crappy when they shut down Selick's movie in production... the studio was basically across the street and I had friends who moved to the country to work on it.
There is good application for the skills- storyboarding, development, design- 2D animation will still happen for small, specialized stuff, commercials, etc. Look at Japan, Europe, and smaller more independent films. I don't think there's a lot of hope for hollywood to do different than it is: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielberg-predicts-implosion-film-5...
Be careful about hoping for jobs doing any of this... especially be careful about paying a lot for a degree to do it.
It's not that they can't, I'd say it's more of a pipeline thing.
Animated movies take years and years to prep... much more than a live action movie. So they gear up an army of animators, each doing something specialized that doesn't easily apply outside of the one project... Now they have all that overhead to sustain, and they're betting on an uncertain outcome years down the line, and afterwards can they keep the momentum? Any movie is a risky bet... but Hollywood now goes with the biggest and safest. That's CG. They can farm it out easier, replace the artists easier... It makes 2D more about art, CG more about industry. When 2D declined and CG got to be everything... any studio deciding to focus on one has to look at what their work can apply to, what contracts they can bid for.
Henry Selick had interesting stuff to say about it at SIGGRAPH a few weeks ago. I didn't go but my intern staffs one of their chapters and brought some gossip back.
http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/will-streaming-save-animations-soul-1200566...
It was crappy when they shut down Selick's movie in production... the studio was basically across the street and I had friends who moved to the country to work on it.
There is good application for the skills- storyboarding, development, design- 2D animation will still happen for small, specialized stuff, commercials, etc. Look at Japan, Europe, and smaller more independent films. I don't think there's a lot of hope for hollywood to do different than it is:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielberg-predicts-implosion-film-5...
Be careful about hoping for jobs doing any of this... especially be careful about paying a lot for a degree to do it.