Jul 9, 2019

How did you do it? 1920's rubber hose animation style for "Waldo's Dream"

The Chilean animated feature Homeless, produced by Fábula and Lunes Animation Studio, has a contemporary look, but the directors wanted to create short sequences in the style of old Disney cartoons from the 1920s and early 1930s. The film is titled "Waldo's Dream. To create that sequence, titled "Waldo's Dream," they turned to the Venturia Animation Studio in Colombia and director Juan M. Urbina.

The first half of the "Waldo's Dream" sequence, a nod to a certain famous American animator, is in the classic rubber band style of old Mickey Mouse and Fleischer cartoons, while the second half has the lush look of a 1940s Technicolor animated short The result. The sequence has since been shown as a stand-alone short at animation festivals such as Annecy, Hiroshima, and Anima Mundi, and can be seen at:

Cartoon Brew, where the Venturian artists achieved an authentic 1920s atmosphere with this sequence. We spoke with Urbina about the techniques used by the Venturian artists to achieve an authentic 1920s atmosphere in this sequence:

Venturia Animation: "No matter how authentic the actual character animation process is, the character and background designs must follow the rules of that era. Otherwise, the design would look too modern. Our scenic artist, Carlos Velázquez, used digital tools to mimic the watercolor backgrounds of the time and nailed the painterly look."

Venturia Animation "The way the Rubber Horse Animation style is achieved is not only by hand-drawing the characters in funny vintage proportions (which comes from the design), but also by the way the animation arc is planned and especially the quirky in the combination of timing and excessive looping. In the old days, all the characters in a frame were constantly moving (for fear that the audience would be bored without movement!) ), looping meant that the same animation was used over and over again in order to avoid spending too much money on each shot. Richard Manuel Plata, who served as animation supervisor, was a master of that style. Plata and his assistant Maryza Mayor made a lot of intentional ink and paint mistakes in some of the shots to make them more authentic."

Venturia Animation "Finally, there is the compositing. Juan Fermin Mouret, who did all the compositing for this film, studied old cartoons a lot. He played shorts such as the Mickey Mouse film "The Mad Doctor" (1933) on one screen while he ran After Effects on the other. He added many intentional errors, scratches, and overexposures to his work. An important element is that before inking and painting was done with computers, animated characters were physical sheets of celluloid over a background drawn on a board. The intentional addition of this detail in most shots completed the authentic look."

Creative Services by Venturia Animation Studios for Fabra, Lunes Cine TV Sequence Director Juan M. Urbina Line Producer Julian Urbina Background Carlos Velasquez Compositing Juan Fermin Mouret Animation Supervisor Richard Manuel Plata Animation Joshua Schneider, Jose Gregorio Moreno, Camilo Ayala Nieto, Michael Abarca, Richard Manuel Plata Animation Assistant Laura Meliza Mayor Director's Cut Sound Design Carlos Reis Serrano Animatics Jose Navarro

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