Here comes everyone in the golden age of animation

When we think of traditional cell animators we think of Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Disney's Nine Old Men, and the other 'superstars.' Because their drawing styles were distinctive and they tended to set up scenes in unique ways, they rarely moved from one studio to another. The personality of their drawings didn't fit the look of another studio easily. But inkers and painters, who carried out their ideas, had no look of their own.

Our current book is Living Life Inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation, (public library) by Martha Sigall. As a painter and later an inker, she moved from studio to studio easily and worked for virtually everyone but Disney (although she would work on their cells when Disney needed to farm their work out to other studios to meet a deadline).

Martha offers an unparalleled overview of the day-to-day life in the studios, and of the animators in their working lives. She saw the gags and stunts they played on one another in the job, and partied with them after the workday ended. She describes the working conditions, office romances, work strikes that lead to unions, studio parties and so on. She describes how one assistant animator doubled his salary very so often by raffling his paycheck, selling twice as many chances as its worth. We meet the animators and characters they created, and understand the personalities of the individual studios.

Martha started in 1932 (when all of her paints were grayscale), and retired in 1989, offering a 53-year history of the industry from the bottom up. Well worth a read, if for nothing else, to understand how office politics have changed in the animation industry.

Can't Wait to Try It

Grand Theft Auto V is a huge leap forward in visually compelling game worlds. Stunning water, skies and environments produce a nearly-cinematic reality. The character, one of three main characters, can not only drive and shoot, but ride bikes, play tennis, drive powerboats and go hang-gliding. Games like these are creating a new experience, taking players to a place somewhere between game and film worlds, and between narration and simulation. Though the content of the game has long been criticized (theft is after all in the title and violence is a major theme), GTA V and open world games in general are as much about the interplay of complex visual elements in a virtual world—surfaces, textures, lighting—as about accomplishing game missions.  Grant Theft Auto V

What we're reading now

Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation is veteran traditional animator and USC prof Tom Sito's new book. It is a great tour of animation history from early experimental filmmakers to the advent of CG. Very readable, and full of the interesting and odd twists and turns that have made the art what it is today. For anyone headed to Siggraph in Anaheim this year, Sito will be there to sign his book.

First thoughts

Welcome to Smart Talk's blog. The members of Smart Talk will share their experiences in the design, communication and animation fields. We are an interdisciplinary group and our blog will range across topics and technologies that interest us from a variety of domains.