vfx, high end, low end, or appropriate to the story

This is a link to a fairly pessimistic article on the vfx industry.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1990803-1,00.html
(via cg society)
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I need to make a living but I am seriously thinking about alternative ways of doing it with animation in particular.

I don't want to stay up all night on red bull and pizza - I would be dead in no time.

One of the things I see is that the bull is chasing its tail in relation to creating "realistic" visual effects. As technology changes over time it seems to me that most visual effects that are a few years old become more and more obvious. I have a feeling that the first step to a survival strategy is not to be interested in realism, but story telling within a unified style for each project.

This relates to the second point. Many of the flashest special effects are often extremely expensive to create, and unless you have access to meganmillions it is likely that there will be a need to work with a different sensibility or be seriously compromised financially.

Many special effects and a lot of digital animation tends to look the same. Seems to me that a survival strategy that would be interesting would be to use maya to create art that doesn't look like it was made in Maya, flash animations that don't look like flash animations and Zbrush monsters that don't look like they were made in Zbrush. I think part of the reason for many things looking homogenised is that there is a standardising of the way things are constructed in industrial production pipelines and this in turn contributes to conformity with a limited shared visual and technical vocabulary, which has advantages and disadvantages.

So anyway, I am thinking, concentrate on the stories and scripts that are distinct and stand out in terms of story and clarity, make interesting concept development art,go for the highest quality with characters and their interaction, and then, if all these things are in place, the appropriate technology is that which supports the story telling the best in the most efficient way.

Another thing that is on my mind. What are the odds of a small independent studio creating a series of little masterpieces as opposed to a big production company contributing to a megablockbuster.

I have a feeling that it is possible to make a living with a small studio with a high level of creativity and attention to detail that tells stories in an interesting way that nobody else is telling. It could be a lot more fulfilling too.

I would be interested in how others see themselves working in the future.

Bernard