Past and Future

In this day and age of new media, 3D animation and digital 2D animation we must always look back to the past and obtain knowledge then apply it to our chosen medium. With programs like Mirage, Photoshop, Painter and others being used to create digital backgrounds it's nice to look back at artwork created by the traditional mediums. Here is a painting done by Annie Guenther when she worked on my crew at Warner Bros. This painting was originally painted for the Tiny Toons Halloween special but due to my fault it needed to be redone to make the time of day as midnight. Annie being the great person she is said no problem then went off and did a new painting. These days those type of changes can be handles much easier without having to repaint. I was able to later use it for the opening titles of the Pinky and the Brain Halloween special. Looking back at work like this or some of the classic Disney and Warner Bros. and UPA films can help keep that life that is often missing in newer animation. There is still high style and design in these works and one hurdle I often have a hard time getting over when viewing newer work is the design. It often overwhelms the viewer to the point that it's difficult to follow. There is always room to experiment and I love see something new and different but not when I get bored due to lack of restraint. All of these Studios as well as others tried new styles and mediums from limited animation to stop motion. One thing we can learn from their work is how they animated high style designs without losing the style but still keeping the motion clear.
I'll share with you drawing I did when we were looking to create parents and possible other relatives of Pinky and Brain. This is what eventually became Pinky's father. The little guy though cute was never used because the style didn't match the show. Besides a script never got written that included relatives other than his mom and dad. I keep a file of all this artwork along with copies of old Disney and Warner Bros. animation for reference. Sometimes even some of your old artwork can be inspiring.