David O’Reilly on the Pointlessness of the Safe Area

Animator/director David O’Reilly recently made a post on his blog proclaiming the death of the safe area:

The Safe Area is part of a long list of rules which I find useless in modern image making. They reoccur as default, unquestioned laws which will unfortunately paint all which we see as the 00’s style in 10 years.

I really believe we [ought] to be questioning every rule we are told, especially with animation, when—as trite as this remark will always sound—you can do anything.

The debate over the relevancy of title safe has been going on for some time now, and David’s remarks will prove to be more timely with each passing day. But I’m more interested in David’s general iconoclastic approach to animation. If you’ve had the pleasure of checking out his work, you know that he practices what he preaches.

While 99% of us still need to make “safe” projects—both literally and figuratively—to pay the bills, it’s still encouraging to know that gadflies like David are out there buzzing loudly.

Big thanks to Sean Starkweather for the tip!