We live in a digital age. A fast paced age. A make more money kind of age. Somewhere along the lines we lost our patience and appreciation for what it can bring us. As I grow more and more as an artist I am finding myself a bit lost in this shift happening in the world of art. We get lost in the new, and forget the old that brought us here. I myself want to take a step back and remember where I came from, and bring it with me.
All my life I knew I was going to be an artist. In the beginning I drew anything that popped into my head at the moment, wither it be doodles, or characters and creatures. As I grew up as a child I came across these amazing animated movies from Disney's Classic collection, to Fox Animation's Anastasia. And then came a series of films from Don Bluth. I was in a world where people drew pictures and brought them to life. I wanted to do that. I began drawing my own characters, and learning how to move them dynamically on the paper. I even remember creating character models, and story boards at the age of ten. With every new movie I found a respect for these animators that would draw 720 pictures of motion for a minute of film. I even remember training myself to draw faster and faster because I knew I had to.
Now as an artist this helped me develop really well. I was able to look at an image and visualize it in motion. So when I would replicate it I did not have to copy it off paper, and I could draw the subject in a different form. For example my large piece, The Flight of the Macaw, I studied about 5-6 different shots of the macaw and learned about how the muscles moved, and wings flapped. Then I drew my version of the beautiful bird coming off the paper. It's because of animation that I can picture things moving, and anticipating how they will flow on the paper. I like to use this technique in my artwork so when the audience views my work they find themselves animating the image in their own minds, and feel it come alive.
Now fast forward a bit further. Now that I am older I found myself at the right level, and age to begin looking for my dream career in the animation field. Can you imagine my disappointment when I find out that Disney Studios is abandoning their traditional animation, and going CG. They claim that the audience did not want to see it anymore. What is even worse is they based this on the strait to DVD Winnie the Pooh films. They laid off 100's of legendary artists and hired computer animators. A growing trend soon followed as studios began popping up all over bringing new CG films across the board. The biggest issue I had with this entire transition is the release of these "special edition" DVDs and Bluerays that feature our classically drawn films "remastered." They digitally painted over all the sketch lines, and backgrounds. How can that be right in any shape or form? Would we digitally clean up the Mona Lisa? Is any art medium safe the the digital world. Disney then goes on to make Princess and the Frog and claim traditional animation is back. They brought in Animators and they were able to hand draw the film. That that is as far as it went. They still used Tablets, and Photoshop for the clean up, effects, and to even digitally paint the backgrounds.
To me traditional art will always trump CG art. While studios are constantly trying to learn techniques to make emotions more believable in the Computer Generated world, we have already found this emotion in hand drawing this art. I want you to do something for me. Pick up a VCR, and watch a classic film of your choice. A hand drawn, hand painted film. And really watch it. You will notice that no movement is wasted, and no frames are skipped. Traditional animation may take more time, but the result is worth it. Take away the money aspect of it, and really think. Your favorite animated film of all time, and why this movie was so influential to you. The story, the characters, the believably. Moments that stick with you to this day. Moments like Cinderella dropping her shoe, Little Foot chasing his mother's shadow only to find out it was his own, Anastasia dancing with her lost memories in the abandoned ball room. These are the ones that stay with me the most.
When it comes to art we need to shift our focus from making the most money, and spending less to taking our time, and building a legacy. I hope one day people will respect our traditions of the past more and step away from technology even for a bit. At least just a bit. And if we are truly abandoning Traditional Animation then I hope they leave the legacy intact, and leave the digital out of it. Leave the films how they were created. They were already so beautiful. Every sketch line that wasn't erased from the film showed me how much heart went into making the film. If you have ever watched an animator draw key frames you will know that every frame is important. You will begin to understand that Disney's Sleeping Beauty would not have been a complete masterpiece had 1 page of it's 54,720 images wasn't drawn.
Thank you for reading,
Derrick Rathgeber
http://DerricktheArtist.com
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