Anime characters come from a 2d world. They are not only part of the world of animation but also for many characters the world of manga. Perspective is relatively fluid, and characters no matter what the angle will often look as good as possible or have the features and parts positioned in such a way that everything comes out okay.

Japanese animation has made many advances in integrating 3dcg backgrounds, vehicles (both humanoid and otherwise), and just environments with characters, but what happens when anime characters become 3d? Many of the various techniques which go into portraying characters in 2d animation simply do not work in 3d. Case in point, the standard money-saving open-close mouth animation used in so may shows looks about 10x worse when done in 3d. As advanced as 3d can become, it will always have its limitations, just like any other medium.

Actually, the more important question I should be asking is, how much of tradition are creators willing to discard in making 3d characters for a 3d environment?

There are certain qualities of character design which will be fairly universal, but when taking the example of Pixar, and comparing them to not just traditional 2d animation but their own design sketches, something changes in the addition of that extra dimension. They maintain it fairly closely, of course, but that’s I think partially due to the sheer power of Pixar. They have the money and talent to do it.

Japanese animation, of course, has never been known for its big budgets. I think various stylistic aspects of Japanese animation were born partially out of economic needs, and have been fostered in such a way that they’ve transcended their very pragmatic origins. However, 2d animation and 3d animation are fairly different beasts as I’ve pointed already, and what may have been traditionally a money saver in 2d may cost more to replicate it in 3d. I have no specific examples in mind, but just the sheer work required in creating character models, let alone everything else, means that even still 1-minute shots may take a hefty toll.

Even if a studio is willing to do all this however, I have to wonder what the fan reaction would be. I imagine it would be on a fairly case by case basis, but then I ask myself, how willing would I be to accept drastically, drastically different character designs into what I call Japanese animation? Even if I am well aware that a true 1:1 conversion from 2d to 3d may not be as simple as expanding across the Z-axis, but that various invisible elements may manifest themselves in strikingly different ways, will I be able to recognize it? Early on in this blog’s life, I talked about the possibility of an anime without characters whatsoever. It was meant to ask, to what extent do character designs and characters in general have an effect on how we define anime? I’m asking a similar question here.

Sadly, I don’t really have the answer. All I know is that the worst thing that could happen is for a studio that wanted to produce a fully 3d work to abandon it for these reasons.