Great Info - Thanks for that Doom!

It's good to here the background on this kind of production. So a more classic animation style would have worked out cheaper?

I watched Damnatus (after it got mentioned here) and I have to say I liked it. Though fan pics like this have always held a certain appeal (the homemade quality is ace).

Cheers Laney

Without a doubt it would have been cheaper. The problem with that though is that thee are very few studios left that do classic animation. All of the major studios do whatever little classic animation thats left overseas (predominantly S. Korea). Another thing is that the equipment to transfer cells to current film format (read digital) is horribly expensive (its basically the mother of all computerized cameras that shoots each cell into a digital format and then transfers it to film). For the most part only major studios can afford it. Smaller studios have to rent time off of one of the major companies for access usualy and then hire a technician that has the experience/ skill to use it. Most of what people consider "classic" animation is actually done in computers and not with the old cell methods. That is part of the reason for the decline in cartoons. The exception to this is Anime of course but that is because it is so ingrained into the Japanese culture and not just seen as a family/ kids show and is actually big business in Japan.