I'd really love for that promo artist you're referring to to design characters - I think he'd do a spectacular job (at least on paper). You're pretty much spot on in your assessment that character designers should also be able to animate too, though. The reason being that they're often expected to fulfill other roles - whether that be a chief or regular supervisor, or even just a key animator. It's not much good to be able to draw well if you can't produce designs from an animator's perspective, or be able to correct someone's work accurately, without disrupting the intended flow.riversxv wrote:So I have a question not entirely about animation but art direction instead, that un-named promo artist that we've been seeing quite a bit of that has done such amazing work like the Blu Ray cover for part 1 of Supers english dub and I was just wondering if we could ever see them doing any character designs for the show? I would assume all current and past character designers got that role not just because of their character designs but also their ability to animate well and well, we aren't sure if this person can animate well if at all. This is just a question I've had for a while and was wondering people's thoughts on it
Those technical issues aside, the industry is very much built on a hierarchy like many companies. You're expected to work your way up the ranks. You only tend to leap frog positions if you're incredibly talented, or if your studio takes pride in giving people with potential a chance. That does mean that as much as I enjoy that person's work, it's not likely we'll ever see them move on from a illustrative role to that of an animator.