"We became a hand, not a head."

I want to draw your attention to two interesting posts at Midokok's Korea and Animation blog. The first is an interview with an inbetweener named Skitsch, who is responsible for the title of this entry. Besides working in animation, she's attempting to build her reputation outside animation as an artist due to what she sees as the limitations of the local animation industry.

Another interview worth reading is with Park Min. He talks about the economic situation in the Korean industry and the impatience of newcomers who want to jump quickly into directing.

What I find interesting about both of the above is that these complaints are not unique to Korea. Artistic frustration with the industry's limitations are common throughout the world, as are complaints about budgets. While animation artists on different continents are isolated from each other, the truth is that they all victims of the same industrial structure that doesn't take full advantage of the creativity of employees.

South Korean Animation

Except for those people who have worked as overseas supervisors, there's not a lot of knowledge in North America about what actually goes on in the Asian studios where animation is produced.

There's a blog by Midodok about animation in South Korea. While the reporting is fairly lightweight, it's still nice to get a better sense of what the studios and artists are like.

South Korea has a high school devoted to teaching animation, so animation is considered to have some importance there. I would love to know how South Korean animation artists view working on North American and European projects and what work they do for their own local market.