Talked to a retired animator at a diner last week and now I'm rethinking my whole workflow

Guy was like 80, eating eggs, saw me sketching on my iPad and asked if I ever use a light table. I laughed it off at first but then he pulled out this old sketchbook from the 70s showing how he did hand inbetweening for a Disney movie. Dude had perfect consistency without any undo button or layers. I asked him how he kept his wrist from cramping up and he just said "you get used to it." Made me wonder if I rely too much on digital shortcuts. Anyone else get humbled by an old school pro before?

2 comments

2 Comments

reeseanderson2d ago

Heard a similar story from my buddy who works at a studio in Burbank. He met this old Warner Bros guy at a coffee shop who showed him how they used to paint cels with actual ink and a brush, no layers or opacity sliders. My friend tried to replicate it at home the next weekend and said he trashed like 10 drawings before he got one that looked half decent. Definitely made him stop complaining about lag on his Cintiq for a while.

reese5512d ago

Does your buddy ever try to sell you on going back to the old way? I feel like there's something humbling about learning how hard the pros had it, but I also love my undo button too much to ever give it up. Glad he gained some respect for the craft though, that kind of perspective is good for all of us.