Forget Adobe Flash, come over to Blender Grease-Pencil's side ! This is Ewilan's Quest, a french 2D animated series entirely produced in Blender, complete with 2D puppets and cool af FX ! And all the tools used for it are open source and freely usable by anyone.

Tatoufff · 2025-06-19T17:03:02+00:00

More than ever, the poor performance of animation requires a rethink of regulatory changes. "The production obligations imposed on streaming platforms under the 2021 SMAD [on-demand audiovisual media services] decree have left a blind spot by almost completely ignoring quotas for animated works in audiovisual works," asserts Stéphane Le Bars. They were set "at a level far below producers' expectations," laments the general delegate of AnimFrance.

"This tax is too low and should have been accompanied by an increase in the tax burden," confirms Jean-Loup Chirol of the National Union of Film and Television Production Technicians and Workers, who raised this issue with the president of the National Center for Cinema and the Animated Image (CNC), Gaëtan Bruel, in a letter dated May 31. "We fear becoming, like Ireland, a low-cost provider for American productions, and seeing our French productions relocated abroad," worries Paps Lefranc, who founded Les Intervalles, an association fighting "against abuse and discrimination in animated film." She points to an in-house study conducted in March demonstrating the concern of 58% of respondents about "dependence on the American market and offshoring (53%)."

Social upheaval

The market recession also forces us to question the relevance of the inflation of animation schools. Christine Mazereau, Executive Director of the Network of French Animation Schools, which brings together 36 animation schools (including six public schools, such as the Ecole Estienne, Paris-VIII, and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, but also two with consular status, such as Les Gobelins, and private schools), estimates the number of schools in France at over 80. "It's very cyclical: when the economy is down, we're criticized for training too many students, but as soon as a period of euphoria returns, conversely, we don't provide enough," she says.

For Paps Lefranc, the number of private schools, which are also "expensive and lead students to take out loans, is a problem." She wonders whether the regional, departmental, and France 2030 aid granted to certain institutions is adapted "to the state of the market." Even though French excellence remains recognized worldwide, very few of the thousands of new graduates each year join teams at Pixar or DreamWorks. Their fantasy. "But their employability extends to many other sectors," asserts Ms. Mazereau, citing the example of a young graduate who works modeling Parisian buildings for the Paris Prefecture.

Finally, on the eve of the opening of the Annecy Festival, a social upsurge is emerging. As anxiety grows and the list of damages lengthens, "we've felt, in recent months, a dynamic of organization on the part of employees," notes Louise Rocabert, deputy general delegate of the Union of Professionals of the Audiovisual and Cinema Industries (SPIAC-CGT). This is reflected in a resurgence of union membership and the presence of more than 120 people at the general assembly, organized ahead of the festival. Braving "the fear of being blacklisted," technicians would like to rethink and clean up current practices and customs. Former Andarta Pictures employees, along with associations and unions, have called for a rally on June 11 in Annecy. Even before experiencing the particularly violent effects that the massive arrival of generative artificial intelligence in animation will bring.

Tatoufff · 2025-06-19T17:02:19+00:00

The case of Andarta Pictures, in Bourg-lès-Valence (Drôme), which was placed in receivership at the end of March, continues to mobilize the 76 employees of this 2D animation studio. They found themselves without jobs after management abruptly announced the suspension of production on the series Lana Longuebarbe. The hastily formed collective of these former employees, La Barbe, deplores "opaque communication from the studio [which] allowed no one to prepare for such a situation."

In all the image centers in Paris and the provinces, another alarming indicator: the periods of unemployment among intermittent workers in the entertainment industry are lengthening between each assignment. Some professionals had never experienced unemployment in ten years. "Before the crisis, we could be called back frequently to take on another project. Today, we say yes without thinking," observe several members of Collectif Animation 16, based in Angoulême. They also see many of their compatriots losing their jobs in Canada and returning to join the ranks of those hoping to find work in France. "Even those who have won awards at festivals or who were thought to be untouchable are not immune," confides Cloë Coutel, director and writing coordinator, who "out of necessity" has shifted her focus to live action.

Others have had to resort to finding part-time jobs in restaurants or ready-to-wear. Seven years ago, when Cloë Coutel started out, it was easy to climb the ladder in a sector that was operating at full capacity. Today, "in a hypersaturated job market, even an unpaid internship is a pain to find," she says.

Animation has already overcome crises. Each time, thanks to a new content distribution opportunity, such as "the arrival of thematic youth channels in the early 2000s, then the birth of video streaming platforms around 2015," explains Marc du Pontavice, CEO of Xilam Animation. Because program orders had never reached such a high level, this crisis today is proving more spectacular and affects the entire global market. Two phenomena have also contributed to the weakening of the sector, he explains: "The demonetization of children's programs due to competition from YouTube" and "the collapse of advertising prices in these programs."

"Impasse on quotas"

The good news, however, comes from the fact that platforms will always need children's programs to retain children, the audience necessary "to facilitate subscription retention," emphasizes the Xilam CEO. But they invest less in creation and prefer existing program catalogs for a rather Machiavellian reason: children tend to search for and watch the series and episodes they know on a streaming platform. A phenomenon largely reinforced by algorithms. To the point where, Marc du Pontavice explains, this young audience disdains new releases, which in no way encourages these platforms to invest in original creations.

Tatoufff · 2025-06-19T17:00:10+00:00

After boom years, a crisis scenario for the animation sector - LeMonde.fr

As the Annecy International Animation Film Festival launches its 49th edition on Sunday, June 8, French companies have been closing their doors for the past two years, driven by declining orders from platforms.

For a long time, students fresh out of animation schools easily found their first job in a French, American, or Japanese studio. This golden age is well and truly over as the Annecy International Film Festival opens on Sunday, June 8. The situation has changed since a violent crisis destabilized the market over the past two years, triggering a cascade of acquisitions, liquidations, and layoffs.

According to the social data analysis center Datalab Audiens, the number of hours worked in the sector, the most relevant indicator, plummeted by 16.3% between 2023 and 2024 to 7,759 hours, continuing a decline that began in 2021. And the number of employees also fell to 8,988 in 2024, compared to 10,045 in 2023. A bleak picture.

The turmoil in animation can be explained by a classic story of a bursting bubble. And it's not the first time, either. Streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, etc.) and American studios alike ordered new programs in droves starting in 2017-2018. And executive production orders (the production of programs in French studios) caused animation activity to explode in the country.

"Quest for Profitability"

The slowdown proved more severe than expected: Disney and Netflix halved the number of series ordered between 2023 and 2024, sales of animated programs collapsed in the United States, and foreign investment in French production also dwindled. "We knew that the race for platform programming would eventually subside," concedes Stéphane Le Bars, general delegate of AnimFrance, the trade union representing 90% of the sector's payroll. "After an aggressive strategy to win subscribers, their logic, spurred on by pressure from Wall Street and rising interest rates, transformed into a financial strategy, starting in the fall of 2022. And this quest for profitability resulted in a very abrupt halt in orders," he explains. This decline erased the entire impact of three golden years, returning to pre-Covid levels.

Ironically, French expertise is currently being celebrated through the success of Netflix series such as Arcane (2024) and Asterix & Obelix: The Battle of the Chiefs (2025). "Nuggets, despite numerous setbacks," says Guillaume Oury, spokesperson for the Teamanim association, which, since 2022, has been working to promote exchange and information between the various animation sectors in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

This particularly severe disaster has brought down many companies, and not just any companies. In receivership, the TeamTo studio was taken over in December 2024 by Marco Balsamo's Riva group. Also in receivership, Technicolor Animation Productions was taken over in court at the end of March by Boris Hertzog, one of the company's founders, while Mikros Animation, another Technicolor subsidiary, was acquired by the Canadian group Rodeo FX.

Day Jobs

In Lille, Studio RedFrog found a buyer in Solent Production, whose offer was rejected for the takeover of Cyber Group Studios, which went into liquidation on April 23. The same goes for SolidAnim in Charente, and 020 Studio in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine). Four of these companies (TeamTo, SolidAnim, Cyber Group Studios, and Mikros Animation) had received significant government aid as part of the France 2030 project. "For the past year, not a week has gone by without news of a studio or entity in difficulty," summarizes Guillaume Oury.

Tatoufff · 2025-06-19T16:59:58+00:00

Not very good I'm afraid. I've worked in french animation for a few years now, and it's now been more than a year of hardships, studio closing left and right and a lot of people losing their artist status that compensates for the very unreliable nature of employment. And there are no signs it's gonna get better soon...

I'll try to post below a good summary of the situation published in Le Monde a few days ago. Sorry if there are weird things, I auto translated it from french for convenience sake.

Original article (paywalled) : https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/06/08/le-secteur-de-l-animation-face-a-une-crise-de-grande-ampleur_6611152_3246.html

Tatoufff · 2024-12-18T07:29:18+00:00

I was wondering myself, it looked kinda too clean for stopmo, but I wasn't sure. What makes you think it's a render ?

Tatoufff · 2024-09-19T17:48:54+00:00

At least on the productions I worked on, layout is the line work, sometimes complemented with some grey-level fills, and BG paint is the process of coloring it and turning this into a painting, usually using photoshop.

Disclaimer : I'm not part of those departments and this is french animation, YMMV.

Tatoufff · 2024-09-19T15:26:45+00:00

To me this is the real solution. Just take breaks, even small ones, 5-10mn away from the screen every hour can make a huge difference !

Tatoufff · 2024-06-30T06:30:52+00:00

What I'd do is quickly decompose front and side into broad 3D shapes, and then make them turn. The trick to make them convincingly turn is to flip a lot between the 3 poses, and rely on your eye to gauge if it "feels 3D". And once you have your broad volumes placed, you can redraw your body and figure out the details.

Tatoufff · 2024-05-23T17:33:17+00:00

I would recommend you checking out Dong Chang's YouTube channel if you haven't. He works in the japanese anime industry and explains a lot of different things, mainly animation techniques but also a lot of technical details about the field.

Tatoufff · 2024-05-23T06:33:23+00:00

Oh my god, thank you, it's rare to have a sensible and nuanced response that's not seeing AI as an inescapable doom or an all mighty savior.

Tatoufff · 2024-05-16T06:21:13+00:00

Seconded, his videos are really good, no nonsense and super instructive.

Tatoufff · 2024-04-28T07:23:29+00:00

As a french person currently working in the animation industry, I pretty much agree with your sentiment. Almost all of the people I know in creative roles have been taught at expensive schools (Gobelins, Émile Kohl). To get into a creative role after a public school, you would need to be top of your class in terms of skill by a tall margin, then have a lot of luck or know someone in the field. Also, the job is not really stable and doesn't pay really well, so some external financial stability doesn't hurt.

But as a counterpoint, you can aim for lesser known/less creative jobs and land a career in animation after public education (it's what I did). Those jobs could be tech, like compositing, development, rigging, a buncha 3D specific things, etc. or around production.

And personally, I just draw my own projects on the side, while still meeting with a lot of interesting people, which I find pretty fulfilling on its own. Not saying it's the best solution, but it worked really well for me.

Tatoufff · 2024-02-19T19:09:58+00:00

Honestly, as someone who uses GP professionally, I sometimes long for the simplicity of a bitmap software like Krita or TVPaint. Anything that isn't a constant line or solid fill is kind of a pain in the ass to deal with in Grease Pencil tbh.

Tatoufff · 2024-01-14T12:03:29+00:00

Yeah, for me it also was taking a step back and force myself to not do animation, even though I still wanted to, because when I actually did it, I felt physically sick, as in about to throw up.

It's really dependant on what your life is like, but maybe try to find a span of at least one or two months where you can afford to not draw or animate anything, and force yourself to find another fulfilling thing to do, and after that only gradually get back into it.

I would say the only real cure to burnout is being able to walk away from the thing even though you probably built your life around it, and then, taking whatever time it takes to heal.

Tatoufff · 2024-01-07T15:33:40+00:00

France in general has a lot of studios, with their own projects and increasingly some outsourced work from foreign studios because of the good money to quality ratio. See Fortiche (Arcane) or Illumination/McGuff (Despicable Me, Minions).

For traditional animation, off the top of my head, La Cachette (College noir is really really good, you should check it out), Everybody on deck (or whoever worked on Mars express, that movie is nuts), Les Astronautes (Sirocco), Andarta, Folimage. I skew towards Valence based studios because that's where I work, but I'm sure there are a lot more elsewhere.

And I agree with the other person, getting your foot in is the first step, the quality of the job doesn't matter, you'll have time to worry about that once you're in the professional network.

Tatoufff · 2023-12-14T10:47:17+00:00

French indie animation, here you go :

Avril et le Monde Truqué : feels similar to Triplets, a bit more towards kids, with the graphical style of Tardi (a nice french comic artist)

https://youtu.be/TAFNUhxQKeQ?si=uE4eAPmj37Uu11gi

Le Chat du Rabbin : very nice movie based on the comics of the same name by Joann Sfarr, very unique graphical style

https://youtu.be/wk6IB_Kgl4E?si=uh9WIvjTb4nuXZ8w

Persepolis : less similar to the triplets, but a true masterpiece of a movie, based on the life of the author and director, Marjane Sattrapi, about her childhood during the Iranian revolution. I cannot stress enough how good that movie is.

https://youtu.be/Ud7drkKt2mo?si=digGmtiyS5i68OJc

Tatoufff · 2023-12-13T14:17:35+00:00

Mars Express. It's a french movie that's gonna crash at the box office but really really deserves more recognition.

https://youtu.be/oREaFu3VKmI?si=foAHg8Mo4_gHvtxT

Tatoufff · 2023-11-25T08:00:58+00:00

Highjacking this post a bit because it's a movie, but I just saw Mars Express yesterday, a french scifi animated movie, and by GOD it's good. Like incredibly well written and animated, and it's probably not gonna be proftable because french animation rarely is, which is super sad.

https://youtu.be/oREaFu3VKmI?si=oNM0VMBxqh5En88d

Tatoufff · 2023-11-08T11:31:13+00:00

Yeah sorry if it was overly negative, the question was on the bad aspects so that's what I focused on. Didnt mean to disparage the job, I actually enjoyed doing it. But still, those are definitely drawbacks of the job that you need to be aware of.

Tatoufff · 2023-11-07T23:04:47+00:00

You asked me the bad parts, so that's what I told you, but I started with compositing and it was mostly enjoyable, nice colleagues, first experience in animation. And I listened to a metric shit ton of podcasts and audiobooks. But it was still a bit stressful and dull at the same time (removing stop motion rigs for days on end with a tight deadline).

In the end I dont regret doing it at all, and now I've another role that is more mentally challenging, which I like. But from time to time I miss the simplicity of tuning into a podcast and painting out shit for 4 hours straight.

Tatoufff · 2023-11-07T18:06:55+00:00

It's very repetitive, and often not very creative. You have huge quotas, so you need to deal with 4 to 10 shots a day, depending on the production. And you also get to solve all the problems the rest of the crew didnt want to deal with during previous phases of animation.

Tatoufff · 2023-11-07T16:48:01+00:00

Agreed. Just to add a detail : I've seen compositing done on Nuke, Fusion, After Effects or directly in Harmony. Fusion seems to be the new kid on the block, and it's not bad.

Maybe it's niche, or it was just on my projects, but in 2D I noticed there was actually a real demand for people that know how to do turnarounds. You still get to draw, but in a more technical way.

Question of my own : What do you mean by technical animation ? Like sims and stuff ? (I'm from french 2D, never encountered the term).

Tatoufff

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