(Go ahead and review the clip, if you need to...I'll wait...Okay, you're back.)
I then asked how you thought they created such incredible 3-dimensional backgrounds, that change and shift as if existing in real space, while only using 1930s technology. Caleb and Will got pretty close.
Well, here's the complete answer...
That's right. They filmed the animation cels in front of a 3D model, then shift the model slightly one direction each time they photographed a new animation cel. That's why you can see shadows shift across the mountains in the background - the model was being rotated, thus changing the angle of the light in relation to the set.
This process was invented by Fleischer Studios, and they used in quite a few of their Popeye cartoons. It was a pretty expensive process, however, so the shots were usally limited to one or two short scenes in the cartoons in which the process was utilized.
I know computer animation has re-defined the way cartoons are made and viewed, but tell me you wouldn't like seeing Spongebob walking around in a 3D Fleisherized model background. I honestly think that if they brought this kind of hands-on craft to animation, it would invigorate modern cartoons as much as computer animation did a decade ago.
Yes or no?
