Animation Final ~ Limitations of Storytelling

As with any other media, there are limitations that come with animation. Common among many digital arts is the fact that you will always be limited by the hardware and software available to you and your knowledge of how to use it. More and more fantastic applications are being made to help automate parts of the animation process, but these are limited by a user’s technical knowledge with how to use them. Regardless of how cutting edge a piece of software is, if you don’t know how to use it then its toolset is irrelevant. 

Combining with the previous point, time is always a huge limitation as well. Using modern animating software can help to speed up the animation time, but if you choose to create something complex it can take a huge amount of time to process all of the actions needed for complex animation. Not only that, but the personal skill level of the animator is also an important factor to consider when looking at time constraints. It can be much faster for a practised animator to create smooth and realistic animations, whereas it may take a few attempts for a novice to get an animation to look correct.

Larger companies and organisations producing a larger batch of animations may use preset facial expressions for their character or interchangeable heads which can be manipulated. This is a time-consuming process to create these, but beneficial in the long run. However, this isn’t always an option for independent animators as the time it would take to create these libraries of heads would be too much for a standalone animation. 

In terms of the limits of storytelling, it’s also important to consider that although animation can be of great effect for expressing emotions, thoughts and feelings. Sentiments can often be lost without the addition of good quality sounds, colour, and post-processing.