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How animation was done in the 1930's

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Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
This kinda shits on animators in the industry at the moment, which is totally undeserved. It's not like they just poop out cartoons. Of course, we have technology that makes it easier to animate, but that just ups the ante even higher.

Yup, animators are some of the hardest working people in the industry, while being paid the worst.
 

DonMigs85

Member
This kinda shits on animators in the industry at the moment, which is totally undeserved. It's not like they just poop out cartoons. Of course, we have technology that makes it easier to animate, but that just ups the ante even higher.

No doubt about that, but stuff like Transformers was badly animated even when it was new.
 

Acrylic7

Member
This is pretty much the reason I decided not to be an animator. Once I figured out how it was all done I said it was just way too much work. As I child I had this vague idea that I would just draw up some characters and shit, then the rest would be magic. lol.
Its far easier today so I do plan on getting trying it.

I don't see what your hundred dollar coaster has to do with animation.

In case my sarcasm gland is broken, you need a tablet to do animation nowadays.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I think it's unfair to generalize modern animation.

I mean, you got shit from Filmation and Hasbro but you also got good stuff like Klasky Csupo among other things.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
You can't compare because Popeye wasn't a syndicated show that had to run week after week. And all the Popeye shorts were only like 6-7 minutes long.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
You can't compare because Popeye wasn't a syndicated show that had to run week after week. And all the Popeye shorts were only like 6-7 minutes long.

I was talking more about using lazy studios like Filmation, HB, and Hasbro.
 

jett

D-Member
When I was a kid I thought the five-ten people credited in these cartoons were the entire production team. Little did I know studios had their little sweatshops. It's a shame most people that worked on this shorts went uncredited for the entirety of their lies.
 

border

Member
It's insane how labor intensive the animation process is/was.

Were Disney and Warner Brothers actually turning a profit on all their shorts? How can you even demonstrate profitability when all you're producing is a tiny 6-8 minute film that runs before a feature-length movie? It's crazy to think that for animated TV shows, studios are turning out 35,000 frames for a single episode, and still turning a profit.

Compared to live-action cinema, how much more expensive is animation (per minute)? I know that live-action movies require actors and lighting and sets and sound guys and all that, but it seems way less expensive than paying artists to draw and paint 24 frames for every single second of footage.
 

Branduil

Member
It's insane how labor intensive the animation process is/was.

Were Disney and Warner Brothers actually turning a profit on all their shorts? How can you even demonstrate profitability when all you're producing is a tiny 6-8 minute film that runs before a feature-length movie?

Compared to live-action cinema, how much more expensive is animation (per minute)? I know that live-action movies require actors and lighting and sets and sound guys and all that, but it seems way less expensive than paying artists to draw and paint 24 frames for every single second of footage.

It's only expensive if you pay your slaves a living-wage.
 

GCX

Member
Compared to live-action cinema, how much more expensive is animation (per minute)? I know that live-action movies require actors and lighting and sets and sound guys and all that, but it seems way less expensive than paying artists to draw and paint 24 frames for every single second of footage.
Even in this "easy computer animation era", producing a full animated movie at Disney Animation Studios requires a staff of around 500 people and 4-5 years of time. One animator is usually capable of producing about 2-5 seconds of animation per week.
 

border

Member
It's only expensive if you pay your slaves a living-wage.

I understand that modern animation studios use cheap labor markets like Korea and China.

But how did American studios ever flourish? The people making those Warner Brothers and Disney shorts were obviously skilled labor - not burger flippers or janitors. How could they get away with not paying them a living wage?
 

JordanN

Banned
It's insane how labor intensive the animation process is/was.

Were Disney and Warner Brothers actually turning a profit on all their shorts? How can you even demonstrate profitability when all you're producing is a tiny 6-8 minute film that runs before a feature-length movie? It's crazy to think that for animated TV shows, studios are turning out 35,000 frames for a single episode, and still turning a profit.

Compared to live-action cinema, how much more expensive is animation (per minute)? I know that live-action movies require actors and lighting and sets and sound guys and all that, but it seems way less expensive than paying artists to draw and paint 24 frames for every single second of footage.
I'm too lazy to fact check, but I recall Disney was nearing bankruptcy with Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (but the movie actually saved them).
 

GCX

Member
I'm too lazy to fact check, but I recall Disney was nearing bankruptcy with Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (but the movie actually saved them).
That's because Disney banked the whole company's future on that movie.

Disney movies weren't instant money makers though. Early movies like Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, etc. all made loss and only recouped costs years (if not decades) later on theater reruns.
 

zoukka

Member
Not only does this golden age animation trump anything modern in terms of animation quality, the stories and funny stuff happening in them is so much better than the shit we get today as well. Popeye was absurd, weird and laugh out loud funny.

It's incredible to think that it's all done by hand. The lines are so accurate that they look like vectors sometimes.
 
The more amazing thing is that this is the 1930s.... 80 years ago at this point. Everything is completely modern. That's not the amazing concept, of course it is, it's the 1930s, but damn that's the inception of WWII. And that's only 20 years after WWI. 1910s, that's a century ago, I mean they must have been completely modern, too... Of course they were, but it's just weird thinking like that.

I think you could go back to about 1880 maybe and be able to call a man/woman a modern man/woman.

Did you think people looked like cavemen or monkeys a century ago?
 

Poyunch

Member
This is pretty much the reason I decided not to be an animator. Once I figured out how it was all done I said it was just way too much work. As I child I had this vague idea that I would just draw up some characters and shit, then the rest would be magic. lol.
Its far easier today so I do plan on getting trying it. .

Honestly this is why I enjoy being an animator. Jobs are so specialized that you don't have to be good at everything, you can find your niche and work it.
 

Groof

Junior Member
Really great video, fun and interesting to watch. I really do miss the quirkiness of old animation, the overemphasised and exaggerated movement they do.
 

BHK3

Banned
Actually, it describes old animation that John K splooges over pretty vividly.

John K is a very bitter, old man. Though I do agree with his opinions on unique voice acting for cartoons/movies being dead though, big culprit is animated movies where they just get celebrities and just have them talk and boom you have a character :/
 
As a huge fan of animation it makes me a little sad.
worried about the quality of traditional animation in the US in the near future.
though I guess if we can go from something like
600full-scooby-doo,-where-are-you!-screenshot.jpg

to
1305461-sd603c048._epi_02_super.jpg

its not all that bad.

Real problem is companies that just want he cheapest possible with no regard for quality.
 
I don't think there are really lazy and not lazy Studios, just ingress that gave the resources and budgets and time to do a food job, and those that don't. That's why most anime is still awful looking, 8fps, flashy background nonsense, so that they can pump then out faster than their encoder can expert them.

Also, animation doesn't really require a tablet at all, not 3d at least. I know a bunch of Gus that use Wacoms for 3D work as well as 2D, but they almost all do it for RSI proposes - the benefits of a tablet Judy make no difference in 3D.

Also, Bamboos are fantastic for the money.
 

soepje

Member
The more amazing thing is that this is the 1930s.... 80 years ago at this point. Everything is completely modern. That's not the amazing concept, of course it is, it's the 1930s, but damn that's the inception of WWII. And that's only 20 years after WWI. 1910s, that's a century ago, I mean they must have been completely modern, too... Of course they were, but it's just weird thinking like that.

I think you could go back to about 1880 maybe and be able to call a man/woman a modern man/woman.
I´m not sure i follow, what are you saying here?

Cool video btw! I wonder how many manhours it took to create a 5 minute cartoon like that.
 

Jasup

Member
I understand that modern animation studios use cheap labor markets like Korea and China.

But how did American studios ever flourish? The people making those Warner Brothers and Disney shorts were obviously skilled labor - not burger flippers or janitors. How could they get away with not paying them a living wage?

As if the workers had a choice. You can see that most of the workers were more or less just parts of a production line. If one left, there were plenty of workers with enough skill to fill the place. You either worked for shitty salary or starved.

Why do you think workers organised in the first place?
 
Not only does this golden age animation trump anything modern in terms of animation quality, the stories and funny stuff happening in them is so much better than the shit we get today as well. Popeye was absurd, weird and laugh out loud funny.
I can understand preferring the style of animation and stories/comedy then, but saying it's better than now? That's crazy talk.
 

zoukka

Member
I can understand preferring the style of animation and stories/comedy then, but saying it's better than now? That's crazy talk.

Want to elaborate? It's general knowledge that the golden age of animation had the most insane, complex and best constructed animation ever made. Modern Disney for example is flashier, but the animation principles themselves are shit in comparison.
 
Want to elaborate? It's general knowledge that the golden age of animation had the most insane, complex and best constructed animation ever made. Modern Disney for example is flashier, but the animation principles themselves are shit in comparison.
That's rubbish. It varies hugely. During the golden age, they learnt almost everything we know about animation,but their production techniques - whilst space age at the time, with their enormous multiplane cameras and giant paintings of glass that they had to rub off to reuse - got in the way of the process hugely. They also used huge amounts of frame for frame rotoscoping. And they had no choice,because the films took 5 years each to make as it was. But grab a copy of the Tangled bluray and see of they have anything on there about Glen Keane's role on the production. He'd sit in the dailies and draw all over every frame of animation in the film until it was perfect, and any list of the worlds most adept animators has to have him near the top.

Obviously their Sunday morning cartoons don't get quite the same love, but the idea that its simply "shit in comparison" is way off base.
 

-PXG-

Member
Thank you for sharing

I finally watched the fan made "ultimate" cut of The Thief and the Cobbler...It's by far the most ridiculous, seemingly impossible piece of 2d animation I've ever seen.


Dat machine destruction scene.......it blows my mind that all of that is 2d.....
 

Bossun

Member
Now and then are different, both have their ups and downs.
I'm just sad this kind of animation is not enough made anymore, there was a specific feel to it that just doesn't exist in software animation
 

knkng

Member
Disney movies weren't instant money makers though. Early movies like Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, etc. all made loss and only recouped costs years (if not decades) later on theater reruns.

This is true but it's only really due to losing international ticket sales since WWII was happening in Europe. Having the studio essentially taken over by the US military shortly afterward didn't help either.

As a huge fan of animation it makes me a little sad.
worried about the quality of traditional animation in the US in the near future.
though I guess if we can go from something like
600full-scooby-doo,-where-are-you!-screenshot.jpg

to
1305461-sd603c048._epi_02_super.jpg

its not all that bad.

Real problem is companies that just want he cheapest possible with no regard for quality.

I don't know. When I look at these I basically see the same thing only that the original Scooby Doo was more restricted due to the technology of the time. Neither of these shows have an ounce of creativity or care put into them and really only exist to make money using the simplest means possible. Ok, computers allow the new animation to have shadow effects and not re-use the same run cycle 50 times per episode, but so what? The end product is still junk.

However, in general, I'm glad that we're beyond the days of Hanna-Barbera (the studio) and FILMation and we're starting to see great stuff created by animators again, and not just focus groups and toy companies. Scooby Doo (even the new stuff) is just a poor example of that.

And why is Velma skinny?
 
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