having taste means constantly being called a "contrarian" for 10 years while normies sit around and wait to "rediscover" the thing you always knew was good.
if anything this era should be the BEST time to be studying art and animation because of how much more appreciated it is. but the 'mainstreaming' of AI slop has made some people allergic to the gratification of the time, effort and progress one achieves when making art by hand
i know there've been banger animations that have been coming out lately but with AI being shoved in people's faces, companies screwing artists over with AI and people stealing artist's work using AI with no remorse
it puts a pit in my stomach trying to keep it all together