I flipped endlessly through the pages of moldy National Geographics I had bought in bulk from Value Village hoping to stumble upon on some mildly useful photographic reference. I even spent a couple of hundred bucks on the complete collection of the National Geographic magazine on CD Roms to use as my definitive ‘image library’.
Aaah CD Roms, somehow they sound even more dated than a typewriter.
From the start I knew that Creamers had to have a hand drawn, hand coloured look.
So I budgeted $2,210.25 for oil paint and markers and embarked on the path of achieving my ‘look’. A seemingly never ending stream of tests tried every medium from oil paint to chalk pastel to ink markers. Progress on the film was not propelled by any forward momentum but a process of elimination by learning what I didn’t want.
CREAMERS - Creamer Pastel, Oil Paint and Marker Tests from Hilary Moses on Vimeo.
I felt caught between the death of traditional 2D rendering methods (frosted cel, oil on glass) and first beginnings of the ‘paint by numbers flood fill bucket ‘ digital colouring systems. I explored all manner of software (Flipbook, ToonBoom) spent hours stuck underneath my desk trying to make my SCSI (yes SCSI) scanner work with my spanky new Crater software. What? My software is incompatible with my peripherals? God forbid. However, the upside of taking years to complete this project has been riding the waves of improved technology - cheaper technology and more user friendly technology. Enter TV Paint and my light as a feather USB scanner which works with everything. I have my ‘look’ with a colouring system that doesn’t cost 2 grand and it is good to know that 4 gigs of back up is not going to cost me $900. But in the age of 3D 3D
and mo cap, 2D frame by frame 'classical animation' is still very old school even if it is a little cheaper.
