Balance Studios Animation is embarking upon an internal project with the notion of reviving classic techniques abandoned by most animation studios in pursuit of faster and cheaper methods.
Throughout the past decade-or-more, the advancing power/availability of desktop computers has introduced alternatives to certain established processes and forms of labor in the production pipelines of animation. But this “progress” has come at the extremely unfortunate expense of one hundred years’ worth of mastery and wisdom cultivated around the art of hand-drawn animation.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, insightful techniques had been discovered, pioneered, taught and apprenticed down through the masters at Disney, Warners, and other great studios, and there was really no other way to learn the “secret” nuances of animation, except from within a working studio.
However, around the turn of our last century, pink-slips started flying and the old-guard was driven out, while punky upstart schools churned out fresh-faced graduates to take their place, hastily trained in the use of clever software programs.
Today there are multiple routes to the creation of animated content where a pencil and paper are completely unnecessary anywhere in the process. It’s a post-modern age, and often the warmth of human craftsmanship is missing from the final product. But there’s a resurgence afoot! Disney Animation, for one, is making every effort they can to recapture the expertise they foolishly tossed away in their quests for easy profit. Hand-drawn animation is once again a “fresh” thing to see. (Give or take a hundred years.)
So with this same spirit in mind, Balance is delving into the creation of a hand-drawn, pencil-on-paper, short animated cartoon entitled “Happy Birthday, Victoria!”, about a medieval birthday party and the interaction between a chubby dragon “piñata” and the adorably scrappy little girl trying to smack it silly. The piece shall be designed and drawn on paper, and then brought into the computer world for coloring, compositing, and additional CG components.
For now, here’s a peek at some conceptual artwork — and we’ll let you know how to screen the finished piece when the time comes!