Some people worry that as techniques of procedural animation develop, the result will be less work for animators. I beg to disagree.
The reason any of this is an issue is a consequence of the forthcoming wearables, which will soon replace SmartPhones. Wearables lead inevitably to ubiquitous augmented reality, which will pretty much demand the presence of interactive procedurally animated characters.
I’ll explain. In order for responsive augmented reality characters to work properly, they will need to be driven not by traditional animation techniques, but rather by procedural animation. But that doesn’t mean animators will be out of a job.
In fact, when animated characters go completely procedural, they will need to be trained by great animators. So the animators will not be creating animations individually, but rather will be “training by example”, functioning essentially as acting coaches for a new breed of virtual actor.
This means that the value created by the animator will be monetized in the form of licensable I.P., rather than by payment for animation services on a specific production. This will be great for the animator.
That’s because it’s always better to be paid for use of one’s property, rather than relying on an hourly wage. A good animator will have the opportunity to make a lot more money, because her creative output will be able to be used on many productions — and she will not even need to be involved in those productions.