Inanimate subjects

American jobs, from Nike to the automotive industry, have been shipped overseas for cheap labor in increasing numbers over the past several decades. But are skilled jobs like professional animators the next to go?

Companies are outsourcing in increasing numbers. They do so to save money by capitalizing on the lower cost of living present in poorer countries, but in doing so, provide only assembly-line work to other countries and put American animators in a tough spot.

According to a Variety article from 2005, in the field of 3-D animation, "a typical half-hour 3-D animation TV episode costs between $70,000 and $100,000 to produce in India, compared with $170,000-$250,000 in the U.S., according to Nasscom."

The animation industry has been capitalizing on the cheap cost of labor in overseas locations such as South Korea, the Philippines and India for the past 20 years.

If this seems new, it is not. According to an MSNBC article from 2004, "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" from the 1960s was "the series that outsourced its animating to Mexico, and paid for it with visible glitches like characters' mouths briefly separating from their faces."

Another unfortunate consequence of outsourcing is the loss of quality that comes with the lack of skilled American labor. The reason American animation often comes at a premium is because of the talent and experience that comes with it.

Companies often outsource the least appealing part of animation to countries elsewhere, like the frame-by-frame animation that simulates movement. However, this creates an oppressive workplace atmosphere where the sole value of the overseas talent is in creating a monotonous series of frames, not allowing them to make any creative contribution.

Even though their work makes up the majority of frames in an animation, they are prohibited from contributing to the storyline of an animated work or use their talents in any way that deviates from the tasks they are given by American corporations.

Companies talk about opening up markets and creating opportunity for people overseas. But if these employees are not allowed to add any type of substantial contribution to their own product, they will remain laborers to a repressive and mentally vapid area of assembly-line production, benefiting no one but the corporation.

American workers are put at a huge disadvantage with this trend. In the past, they would enter companies doing the work that is now done overseas, and with experience, would move onto a more prominent position in the company.

These entry-level jobs in American animation have disappeared, putting American artists who aspire to become animators in a precarious position. If they cannot start at the base level for studio animation, how are they able to secure work at a company with no experience?

Outsourcing is a controversial topic for a reason. It has dual implications for the future of business. While American jobs are being eliminated, workers overseas are not being raised to the level to accommodate the loss of talent, and are instead used for the arduous tasks that are essentially manual labor. The talent pool in the United States for animators and artists is not being used to its fullest extent, and the product will suffer.