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Sunday 6 November 2011

Squash stretch and smear

i found this video on cartoon brew and i couldent put my finger on why i found it so appealing. ts another classic example of that fantastic zaney animation from warner bros but after i downloaded it to take a look at the animation as i an a sad looser i found it had loads of smears and streaks in the whacky parts of the animation. i am no way qualified to talk about animation like this but i thought i would give it a try. streaks and smears are a fantastic way of getting animation to snap and pop on the screen very quickly. also if you are a lazy and impatient basterd like me it cuts down on the amount of cells you have to draw and paint. lets take a look at the villain. Dan Backslide. he has this great serpentine way of moving.
he zips and streaks around the screen which affords some great and surreal frames.
this sort of forth wall breaking is also great for setting up the chracter. its traits like this that is later used for the joker in the batman animated series. a character i'll give a entire post to later.
but its not just dan backslide that gets some fantastic animation, the heroes are also given just as much attention to give them life and energy
a fantastic walk cycle follows. another motion here where the camera follows the action in a medium shot that just about overwhelms.
The thing with streaks is that although it does give the animation a charming childishness, it can become a little creepy. her arms will haunt me forever.
I like to use smears myself in my work but they aren't that adventurous.
but i have yet to do something as adventurous as this.

1 comment:

  1. fun post! Dover Boys uses really weird smears in that even non-animators notice them. the bits involving him "loading" and "unloading" her into the car are especially weird.

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