Published between 1982 and 1995
The world of animation has been severely handicapped because it has never been classified according to its nature, its character and its type as so many other art movements have. This lack of classification has, unfortunately, contributed to the fact that the general public still thinks all animation is of the comic type which, as … Read more
Ray Fields was principal lecturer in AV studies at Liverpool Polytechnic. He gave the following workshop lecture to a group of international students at the Stuttgart Animation Festival 1988. I would like to concentrate on education – visual education, education and movement. I intend to examine a number of apparent opposites. My theme is the … Read more
Students are quite naturally interested in how they are going to earn their money, so they need certain training. In the British educational system, government is now demanding that the students should be trained in specialisation almost immediately. Obviously philistine governments don’t understand about aspects of intuition or sensibilities or feeling. They want the goods, … Read more
Catalyst Pictures Ltd was formed in June 1985 by Nik Lever, Caroline Titley and Paul Miller to produce TV commercials and corporate films, particularly animation. Report by David Jefferson. All three directors previously worked for Orchid Productions Ltd in Manchester – the largest independent animation/live action house outside London. They left in order to concentrate … Read more
DJ: Did you manage to hold the focus between the cutouts and the background? NL: On a wide shot, yes. On a tight shot, no, but that worked in our favour because it is easier to read an image when the background is out of focus, and we were quite pleased with that. We shot … Read more
DJ: Can you tell me about the Irish Bank Commercial. It looks to me as if you used a combination of 3D animation and cel animation. NL: The action was painted on cels, we achieved the appearance of depth by the use of multi-plane. We have been experimenting with multi-plane to overcome the inherent problems. … Read more
DJ: How does the amount of work compare with a cel film? NL: The thing about cel is it can be used in so many ways. You can have limited animation where a body may be static while the head moves. When you do that eel is very quick and crayoning would be phenomenally longer, … Read more
DJ: What do you take along to the dubbing studio in the way of pre-recorded sound? NL: In this particular instance they had all the music and all the voices and edits of the shows that had already been done. They must have spent the first day or so recording sound effects because they had … Read more
DJ: What about transferring for the American market as their television runs at sixty-fields-per second whilst in Britain it is fifty? NL: The system used is called standards conversion. Every fourth field is seen twice for NTSC. DJ: When American programmes are transferred for British television you often see strobing on fast movements. NL: That … Read more