The environmental footprint of animated realism: An ecomaterialist exploration of contemporary digital animated documentaries

Abstract

Despite animation techniques being highly material, the environmental impact of animation is understudied. This essay starts bridging the gap by investigating the making of digital animated documentaries through the lens of ecomaterialism. In particular, it brings to light how the quest for realism that prompts the production choices of creators of such works often comes at a significant cost to the environment. Indeed, many present-day digital animated documentaries prove unsustainable, because multi-layered, wasteful, and excess-informed modes of production that foresee a squandering of resources tend to be adopted when making them. In so doing, the need for animation-focused green protocols is made apparent, especially since, paradoxically, due to animation being a craft-oriented medium, such non-environmentally friendly approaches tend to be encouraged within the industry.

Keywords

• animation
• documentary
• environmental sustainability
• materialism
• production cultures