It depends. Disney uses references all the time. And I wouldn't be surprised if Japanese animators did the same once and a while (obviously not as often due to smaller timescales).MrFuton said:
I am really new in the sakuga so I have a basic question. Is the heavy video reference a fair method in the sakuga? I read that realistic scenes of some animators like Okiura are product of copy frame per frame real scenes. Is it real? Can anyone anyone tell me the true?
I'd say it depends on animator, though I don't know how many animators in Japan do.
Of course it's "fair." Artists have been drawing what they see for ages. Any technique or technology that helps to achieve a desired effect in a limited time frame is fair game. Though there are cases where using them makes the result look worse. For example, check out the comments on post #28622.
The only thing that really matters is the end result, use whatever method you want to make that end result as good as you want. No one sees the process, so anything's 'fair' as long as you're not like, directly ripping off another artist.
MrFuton
Video reference