>>32110833Digitally assisted. What we lost in Johto were inked cels, they still hand-draw all the lineart and use software to draw in the colors. Even right now, they still do all the lineart for keyframes on paper, but they're looking to shift the whole process over to software so they can put out fluid and high quality animation more consistently on a weekly release schedule.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2016-12-09/why-does-pokemon-look-so-different-now/.109646And of course by "high quality animation" they mean characters doing more than just standing around on static backgrounds and ditching battles full of speedline effects. I'm still partial to the new art direction, but whether or not the characters look better doesn't really matter, the show is definitely a shitload more expressive and fluid than previous seasons and that's a great thing.
