Genexi2: You're brave, embarking on a very difficult career. Getting a job doing traditional 2D animation straight out of school is not that easy these days, especially since a lot of very talented traditional animators with years of experience are looking for jobs too. Many places still do the rough animation on paper, and sometimes cleanup, but from there on it's all computer for color, shading and so on. I studied animation too, but it was more of a all kinds of (or experimental) animation, from 2D, puppets, cut-out, 3D and more. :) Loved all of it.
Software such a Anime Studio (aka Moho) uses vector based drawing that are then rigged with bones, like in 3D, for animation. You can also do different shapes, and interpolate between them. This is really just a modern form of cut-out animation done on the computer (like in Monty Python). If not done well, which takes time and skill, the animation can look very soft and ugly. Though, it is possible to get very nice results with this technique, especially when combined with drawn animation, to create replacement shapes for hands, facial features, turning the characters and more.
As a side note there is a software called Synfig Studio (www.synfig.org) that works in a similair manner, but is open source. It still lacks bones, but has some additional render features which can give you nicer looking images than Anime Studio (at least out of the box). If any of you know C++ and feel like contributing to an open source project, this one really needs more developers. :)
UPA is where a lot of the limited animation started. Use multiple cells, and only draw the mouth and eyes to save on animation. Very start stop movements, and little or no secondary animation. A lot of anime is done like this too. Computers just make this even easier than before.
My personal preference is for combining CGI and traditional animation, letting each shine at what it's best at. A very good example would be Iron Giant. Where the mechanical things, like cars, planes, bicycles, some effects and the Giant himself are done in 3D, while the rest is 2D. In my opinion, mechanical things work better in 3D, while characters and acting work better in 2D.
Software such a Anime Studio (aka Moho) uses vector based drawing that are then rigged with bones, like in 3D, for animation. You can also do different shapes, and interpolate between them. This is really just a modern form of cut-out animation done on the computer (like in Monty Python). If not done well, which takes time and skill, the animation can look very soft and ugly. Though, it is possible to get very nice results with this technique, especially when combined with drawn animation, to create replacement shapes for hands, facial features, turning the characters and more.
As a side note there is a software called Synfig Studio (www.synfig.org) that works in a similair manner, but is open source. It still lacks bones, but has some additional render features which can give you nicer looking images than Anime Studio (at least out of the box). If any of you know C++ and feel like contributing to an open source project, this one really needs more developers. :)
UPA is where a lot of the limited animation started. Use multiple cells, and only draw the mouth and eyes to save on animation. Very start stop movements, and little or no secondary animation. A lot of anime is done like this too. Computers just make this even easier than before.
My personal preference is for combining CGI and traditional animation, letting each shine at what it's best at. A very good example would be Iron Giant. Where the mechanical things, like cars, planes, bicycles, some effects and the Giant himself are done in 3D, while the rest is 2D. In my opinion, mechanical things work better in 3D, while characters and acting work better in 2D.