Cel animated TV-shows

[Rumpelstiltskin]

We all know when Disney stopped using cels in theatrical animation, but when did the shift happen in TV-animation and direct-to-video? Gummi Bears was at least done on cels in the first seasons, but don't know if they continued into the 90s. The same with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Darkwing Duck. CAPS was only used for theatrical project, and so they would have to wait for another digitial ink and paint tool for TV. I have tried to google it, but no luck so far.

[blackcauldron85]

I will help you look. The Disney Wiki has a book releasing next year that may give us more answers on the production of the Disney Afternoon shows:
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Disn ... enaissance

(I never had luck finding more info on the Robin Hood backgrounds, but I will try and help you find info for this new topic!)

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Thanks. Sometimes books are still better than the net when you're looking for information.

And don't worry about the Robin Hood backgrounds. If the facts are out there somewhere, they will probably surface eventually.

[DisneyBluLife]

I think they had cels up until shows like Recess. Earlier seasons of Recess was drawn on cels and then switched to digital during the later seasons.

[blackcauldron85]

I have a bunch of windows open on the computer to weed through.

I came across this (obviously there is no proof or anything!):
https://www.nohomers.net/showthread.php ... 0f1341f378

disney doug was digital

But the Disney Wiki said that Doug used cels:
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Disney%27s_Doug

The animation is smoother, despite the show still using hand-painted cels.

(again, no proof or anything)

I need to get ready for work, so sorry for this nothing post, but know that I am on the case!

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I think they had cels up until shows like Recess. Earlier seasons of Recess was drawn on cels and then switched to digital during the later seasons.

Perhaps different shows switched to digital at various times. DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp was the last Disney feature (between The Little Mermaid and the featurette The Prince and the Pauper) which used cel animation. While it was a Disneytoon Studios production and not from Disney Animation Studios, it shows that other forms of digital tools than CAPS didn't take long to arrive at other studios.

I have a bunch of windows open on the computer to weed through.

I came across this (obviously there is no proof or anything!):
https://www.nohomers.net/showthread.php ... 0f1341f378

disney doug was digital

But the Disney Wiki said that Doug used cels:
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Disney%27s_Doug

The animation is smoother, despite the show still using hand-painted cels.

(again, no proof or anything)

Yes, it is hard to know for sure unless we see documentation or hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

Some more info about CAPS (I'm adding it here instead of bumping old threads), from Computer Graphics World, July 1994. There is not much new information, but still interesting:

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.an ... OkkuV0Yr7w

On screen, a film loop of a black and white pencil test is playing. "This is a simple multiplane scene," says Tucker, who realizes what she's said, and laughs. "There used to be no way you could put the words 'simple' and 'multiplane' together. There are seven pieces of art here. That was the limit conventionally." Now there are no limits. It's not unusual for a scene to have from 50 to 100 layers.
"In Little Mermaid there are three multiplane shots because that's all we could afford and all we could really manipulate. In The Lion King there are hundreds."

Various sections of one painted background might be scanned at different resolutions to accommodate camera moves yet efficiently manage data requirements. For example, as the camera zooms in on the stained glass window in the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast, the window is scanned at higher resolutions. "I scan exactly what's needed as it's needed and only that," says Robyn Roberts, supervisor of Scanning.

"We used to have a limited number of palettes for a film--about nine--although in Mermaid we had a lot."

The original goal for CAPS was to keep the Disney animation process, streamline it, and bring back the quality that had been lost after 1950. "Disney reached its low point in animation 10 years ago with the release of Black Cauldron," says Schneider. "By and large, no one thought there was any value in animation." To create the movies of the '30s and '40s by hand at Disney would have been tremendously expensive, and the little new technology introduced in the production process, the Xerox machine, had actually hurt the image quality.

"It was really Roy Disney who, in the takeover, ended up with the animation division," says Schneider. "He said to Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, 'Wait a minute, go off and fix live action. But the animation division is very special. Don't touch it.' " Disney and Schneider pushed through a proposal for the CAPS system, a proposal meticulously developed (and cost-justified) by Lem Davis and other Disney engineers earlier, but not acted upon. Then, Disney contracted with Pixar and began working with Alvy Ray Smith on system specifications.

"The system wasn't tested," adds Hahn. "It wasn't really finished."

"If you look back on it, it was a stupid decision we made, because what if it hadn't really worked?" says Schneider. "It was very exciting. It was really pioneering. But it was on the edge the entire way. We were all here 24 hours a day for weeks."

The graphics system has been ported from the proprietary Pixar Image Computers onto general-purpose workstations. The port took nearly two years, but it's done. "I have it running on several platforms," says Yanover. "We don't want it to be tied to any platform. We want it to be open."

Then we get to know that CAPS has been used in "Nightmare Before Christmas, Dave, and other movies". Can't remember a Disney movie called Dave, and what other movies? The features in the canon, or someone else?

We can expect this new CAPS to include new features. Already, Hahn and his team have added live-action special effects in response to a request from Disney's Buena Vista division. The effects have been used in Nightmare Before Christmas, Dave, and other movies.

Here it sounds like they had huge plans for hand-drawn animation. They were working on Pocahontas when the article was written. After that, only 13 more were made (11 CAPS, 2 ToonBoom), and the rest is computer animated.

The switch to workstations is timed to take place with the move to a new, flashier building in December-- the fulfillment of a promise to Feature Animation from Michael Eisner after the success of Beauty and the Beast.

"There will be a lot of new functions and tools to provide artists new ways to do things," says Mark Kimball, who has been largely responsible for the system logistics. "I believe the new tools will have as much impact in the future as CAPS has had up until now."

Adds Schneider: "I look at CAPS as a first step, sort of the engine that allows us to do everything we do filmmaking-wise, whether it's the rack focus, the 360-degree camera shot, the wildebeests, the dust, the multiple images.

[blackcauldron85]

Very cool article- thanks for sharing it!! (And I still have those windows open, I just have to have time to weed through them!)

That's so mind-boggling that TLM only had 3 multiplane shots, but TLK had hundreds- only 5 years apart!

There was a WB film called Dave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_(film)

[Rumpelstiltskin]

You're welcome. And there's no rush.

Considering that Lion King is not even 90 minutes long, and there were hundreds multiplane scenes, it means more than once a minute, which means practically all the time on average.

The title Dave and the time is correct, but did Disney really use CAPS on a live action Warner Bros movie? It does sound weird.

It was about this time that the production process really became streamlined, and dates were set for each movie as it became an industry. One of the inkers on Sleeping Beauty:

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/i ... and-paint/

The one thing about Disney, compared to everywhere else I worked is that you had time. When we did a feature, we did it until we finished it. There wasn’t a pre-determined “finish date”, a time we had to be done by. At least I was never aware of one. We took six years to do Sleeping Beauty!

They had the inking department upstairs, which we never understood. We inked so fine, the people had to shuffle through the corridor. You couldn’t walk through or it would shake the floor and ruin the inking.

A movie can be delayed today, but there is nothing of the luxury of the old days when no date was set during production, if the story is right.

[blackcauldron85]

Some stuff I have found...

101 Dalmatians: The Series:
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/101_Dalm ... The_Series

Not much merchandise has been made of this series unlike other Disney series, the only ones being:
...Rare episode cels

We knew this, but
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/DuckTale ... _Lost_Lamp

This was also the last animated Disney theatrical film to be produced in hand-painted cel animation, since all subsequent 2D Disney films beginning with The Rescuers Down Under would be produced in digital ink and paint instead.

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_A ... e_the_Pooh

Like most other cartoons, the animation was outsourced to other countries. This was mainly done for cost purposes and the limited availability of artists in the United States. All the writing, music, direction, character design, and color was worked by around 30 Disney employees in Hollywood. After this, everything was sent overseas for the animation. Approximately 300 employees would work on inking and printing. An unusually high number of animation cels were used for the show, with 20,000 cels in each episode as opposed to 8,000–12,000 for typical cartoons. The show had more drawings per minute than any other television cartoon at the time.

https://www.proxibid.com/asp/CatalogPrint.asp?aid=20219
Cels from Aladdin, Gargoyles, Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World, Timon & Pumbaa, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, Lilo & Stitch (2004 episode), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000 episode)

https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threa ... d.4705831/

This has probably been asked before, but I'm curious and want to know if there's any cartoon in the world that still uses Xerox/ink and paint cels? The last time I saw it was in 2004 on Ed, Edd, n Eddy.

No, I believe EEnE was the last.

According to my research, a vast majority of 2D (digitally inked and painted) movies/TV shows nowadays are created by animation software created by Toon Boom Animation. (http://www.toonboom.com) Toon Boom Animation is a software company located in Canada that creates animation software used pretty much by everyone (Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Television Animation, Nelvana, Warner Bros. Animation, Mercury Filmworks, Toonz India Ltd, eMation, Rough Draft Korea, etc.)
Their products have been used on The Simpsons Movie, Family Guy, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, almost every Disney direct-to-video movie (starting with Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas), The Rugrats Movie, Looney Tunes Back in Action, 6Teen, need I go on?

https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threa ... g.5782621/

Cel Animated Show That Switched to Digital Coloring
A list of shows that were previously animated with hand ink and paint that switched over to digital ink and paint.

Disney
101 Dalmatians: The Series
Episode 48 - "A Christmas Curella" (only episode)
Pepper Ann
Episode 14a - “Quiz Bowl”
Hercules: The Animated Series
Episode 34 - "Hercules and the Dream Date" (only episode)
Recess
Only 13 segments used digital coloring
32a - Recess is Cancelled
35a - Prickly is Leaving
38a - The Biggest Trouble Ever
39a - Gus and Misdemeanors
40b - Here Comes Mr. Perfect
41 - Good Luck Charm / Diggers Split Up
43a - Schoolworld
44b - Bonky Fever
45b - This Brain for Hire
46 - The Barnaby Boys / Buried Treasure
47b - The Ratings Game
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
TBD

Recess:
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Ashley_Tomassian

In traditional cel-animated episodes, her hair color is dark brown, but in digital ink-and-paint animated episodes, her hair color is medium-brown.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126170/tr ... tt_trv_trv

It is evident that there was a change in the style of animation between the first season and the second, this was mainly due to the fact that the first season was illustrated by hand and with real ink while from the second season the series becomes digitally animated causing the change in the color palette of some characters.

I still have a lot of windows open, so I will post more if I find more!

*edit*
Mickey Mouse Works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_Works

Pluto Vs. The Watchdog – Because of Pluto's ineptitude at watch-dogging, Mickey gets a new watchdog. Little does he realize the new dog is part of Pete's plot to rob Mickey's house. (Note – One of 7 shorts to be animated with traditional cel animation.)

Also: Pluto Runs Away, Donald's Dinner Date, Mickey's Remedy, Mickey Tries To Cook, Donald and the Big Nut, Topsy Turvy Town

*edit*
https://allears.net/2018/08/15/kim-poss ... n-the-lot/

“Recess” was one of the last cel-animated shows at Disney before the big switch to digital.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

That's a lot of information about the topic. Even if not a Disney animator, one of the last to use cels was independent animator Bill Plympton. For all I know he is still using them.

And speaking of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, it used the same CGI approach as the other cel animated movies back then: printing it out on paper first and then xerox it onto cels.

On imdb Michael Peraza Jr. and Patricia Peraza are listed as computer animators.

That means The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, The Prince and the Pauper and DuckTales the Movie all used the CGI and xerox combination. I don't think any other Disney project belongs on the list.