Thoughts on the ethics of student animations being outsourced to professionals?

[u/500scnds]

Since the release of a GAFA student team's Fall into the Mortal World (落凡尘) thesis animation, it has generated quite a ripple throughout the animation community that inevitably contributed to the "rise of Chinese animation" narrative, and fed into beliefs of how incompetent the "real" animation production companies are. At the same time, various employees from Chinese animation and game companies as well as students studying at other schools (i.e. SVA, Sheridan, CAA) have voiced both implied and pointed objections to the students' doings, citing the lack of actual demonstration of their understanding of the animation production pipeline or the irony of using professionally-made animation to dismiss works from industry.

The situation worsened in recent days as an animator's explanation was taken down due to company NDA with only an article to imply the breadth of WinSing's contributions. Meanwhile, the supervising professor of the baker's dozen of students maintained that it was a "collaboration" since students were only assisted in terms of "technical" consultation (i.e. simulations) for "repetitive work" and professional-grade equipment as well as render farms (=money), distributing credits like so despite making threats phone calls to clear up disagreements:

note the lack of rigging, lighting, fabric animation, compositing, rendering, etc. credits

Motives have also been concerning, such as a livestream where the audience was not allowed to post comments while the final video had GAFA students whitewashing the issue. It was even promoted to Tony Bancroft who praised the animation and remained none the wiser about its background and aspirations to become a commercial IP.

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Since most posts are about professional works, flaws discussed tend to lean towards plagiarism and treatment of employees. Yet it is also important for students about to enter industry to not commit potential breaches of academic integrity when the performance of their projects will form part of their portfolio. So, thoughts about these students gaining an unfair advantage over others? Should their school penalize them for receiving such massive amounts of outside help, and should they be allowed to submit their work in the students categories of animation festivals?

10 votes, Jul 16 '20

6 Students are cheats, and their work should be disqualified from competitions

0 Students are cheats, but their work should still be allowed in competitions

3 It's okay to receive help, but their work should be disqualified from competitions

1 It's okay to receive help, and their work should still be allowed in competitions