Re: Animation
"They are also doing much more on computers than traditional animators could have ever attempted. You can't ray trace in near real-time by hand. But eventually, there will be diminishing returns as the animation will look good enough to match any style you need for your story/vision."
I don't think so because the animators are aware of Uncanny Valley. Sure, increased computational power has allowed more things to be 3D animated properly (for example, doing Tangled required being able to really good hair, which is something that took time since Shrek and Toy Story to pull off). But in the end, artistic style has fewer limitations than those attempting realism like with Beowulf.
The whole argument reminds me of the time Capcom switched from cels to modeling for Street FIghter IV. Since their target was HD with higher resolutions and frame rates, Capcom figured the end result would be better with modeling, and they had a rival against which to compare: SNK's latest King of Fighters, who stuck to their guns and used hand-drawn cels. Based on the numbers since that point, it seems Capcom picked the winning horse.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
