What “Digital Ink and Paint” is & How it Changed Animation

And now, for something completely different!

[@EmployeeAMillion]

Many of the animated series I’ve covered on this channel came out at a particular time in animation history, where hand painted cel animation was declining in use, and more shows tested digital colouring methods. I think we’re at a point in animation history where we take computer technology as a given, so I wanted to go back and compare how certain shows looked before and after they switched. There were plenty that never did, and most from 1999 onward were entirely digitally inked, so this is a niche sort of subject that is best discussed by fans of these series. I didn’t cover everything, and especially not in heavy detail, but I hope this provided a good enough overview of how it affected our perception of animation in the 21st century, for TV in particular.

[@DennisTamayo]

You forgot to mention the 1980s Hanna-Barbera shows, it also used digital ink & paint prior to The Rescuers Down Under!

[@romanrodriguez3643]

We Need To Make A Patishtion To Bring Back Cel Animation

[@watchforever1724]

Yeah I know

[@meaganh637]

Most of the shows are now animated by Adobe Animate (Flash) and Toon Boom Harmony software.

[@Zachman229]

I loved season 1 in traditional ink and paint it was cool and all and very different from the rest of the show and SpongeBob’s voice is much lighter and more relaxed whereas the newest seasons(seasons 11-12) everything is more vibrant and SpongeBob’s voice almost has like a higher pitch

[@smithydavis1033]

I Never had a problem with digital, my problem was the handrawn style was abandoned all together. Whether it drawn digital or not wasn't the problem, because it was still at least hand drawn and animated with frames just without a camera to snap the photos.

[@ExtremeWreck]

Well you're certainly gonna have a hard time watching Purno de Purno(and after that, there's the show itself which is an absolute mind screw of a show & also despite being made for kids, has some visible... TALENT that I don't think Japan would allow on kids' TV).

[@juiceoverflow]

there's something about the jankiness and obvious low budget most hand animated projects had that makes them appealing, if i had my own tv show i'd want to intentionally get a low budget studio to animate it with cels

[@iknoweverything4959]

I always wondered why they didn't try to imitate the paint texture when they went digital, similar to how South Park uses cardboard construction paper texture. South Park really looked made out of paper, even though it was done digitally, especially during that fourth season and the film.

[@YuktubeIsDaFunniOne]

Kappa mikey did a good job retaining the hand drawn style for all the japanese characters

[@sammyjaohnson5631]

Handrawn style isnt abandoned at all shows like spongebob are still hand drawn and hand inked only digital colored heck the back grounds are still hand painted they just use digital tech to add small details like shadows

[@Doodlebugthegoldenhamster]

I want a modern digitally animated show to momentarily regress back to cell animation as a gag. Imagine the possibilities!

[@saltysyd99]

There is a gag in the Phineas and Ferb movie "Candace Against the Universe" where it jumps all the way to the producers looking at storyboards, which isn't quite the same but still close!

[@matteste]

I thick Bocchi the Rock did such a gag at one point, though I am not sure, might be mixing it up with something else.

[@strawberrysoulforever8336]

I miss cell animation, personally. Things have to move forward, but I'm pretty nostalgic for it. It's what I grew up on.

[@BadringerGronger]

Cel not cell

[@strawberrysoulforever8336]

@@BadringerGronger Ok, sorry.

[@BadringerGronger]

@@strawberrysoulforever8336 sorry too

[@wfanking1187]

Cel animation was true work of art, digital animation is cheap fast track work and lacks lots of detailed stuff like complex facial expressions.

[@OakTreeIsaac]

@@wfanking1187 Tf? You know you can still get “complex expressions” with digital. I don’t know what type of shows or movies you watch that make you think that.

[@issybella66]

I like both digital and traditional animation and to me it depends on the art style and the feel of the show as to which medium is better and I wish there was more 2D and traditional animation because most shows these days seem to be CGI

[@meaganh637]

What about Adobe Flash and Toon Boom?

[@wesmcinerny4524]

Traditional animation, both cel and digital, still thrives in countries like Japan. 3D CGI isn't very popular over there.

[@petercampi2840]

@@meaganh637 I know Flash is still around, but the way Adobe has handled it's Flash animation software by turning its most recent versions into a cloud-based service has made it a less accessible and rather unpalatable animation option. The only Flash programs I would imagine indie animators to use would be cracked or licensed distributions of Adobe Flash CS6 or earlier. Why? Well, with a monthly price tag of over $20 a month instead of a one-time purchase, you can see how that would be a problem. Large companies would be able to absorb the cost, but then again, companies like Disney are more likely to use their own animation methods to keep things under their full control rather than to be at the mercy of Adobe. Outside of animation specifically, Adobe Flash is incredibly useful for making video game graphical user interfaces (GUI)! For instance, id Software's Rage (2011) uses menus and heads up displays (HUD) created and scripted in Flash's Small Web Format (SWF, aka "ShockWave Format" or "swift").

[@wesmcinerny4524]

We have gotten some 2D animation on the Western big screen recently.

[@musad20]

A lot of shows were and some are still drawn traditionally on paper. The only difference is now that the paper drawings are scanned into a computer and digitally colored. Newer shows like Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, Amphibia, Modern SpongeBob, Modern Simpsons were and are still animated this way.

[@KremBotop]

An idea for a follow up is the next natural transition: SD 4:3 to HD 16:9. 2009 was when the majority of ongoing animations around the world did the transition. Some even happened mid-season. But certain series took much longer to do the switch (like some Nickelodeon shows) and others were apparently already made in HD years in advance or something, like a handful of CN shows made during the mid to late 00s. South Park studios even remastered all of their older SD episodes to widescreen HD after making the switch halfway through S12.

[@MegaMet98]

Honestly, if streaming services were given the option to change a show's aspect ratios. When Disney+ added The Simpsons when the service launched, the aspect ratios of Season 1-19 were the 16:9 instead of 4:3, hence the idea of older shows not being good zoomed in.

[@Jvnet10]

Good idea. Part of it is that the HD technology existed since the 80s, but it wasn't fully adopted worldwide until 20+ years later. Only a handful of countries did. I think Disney TVA and Warner fully transitioned to 16:9 into early 2000s (Cartoon Network is part of Warner, but acts as a separated company, which is why only some originals had High Definition seasons) Regarding the South Park being remastered, I think the creators said that they kept the assets of the older episodes, making the task of changing the aspect ratio rather effortless. Same thing with Mucha Lucha series, which also has a HD version floating around the web.

[@Deezboyofficial]

the entirety of disney’s teachers pet was animated in widescreen hd… in 2001.

[@mariodelrio2387]

@@Deezboyofficial why

[@robblequoffle8456]

Family Guy remained in the 4:3 aspect ratio until 2010

[@justju0rd]

Season 1 SpongeBob definitely has the charm. I always thought it was rough and grimey though tbh. So I prefer Season 2-4’s animation due to how visually appealing it looks and the character designs. Shows that digital animation can help a few shows if done right

[@SpongeBobGuy4341]

I Agree Same With The Fairly Oddparents I Like The Digital Animation More Then The Cel Animation From The Original Shorts In My Opinion

[@toastybutondifferentacc5775]

I can legitimately see you getting huge in the future, I honestly expected this video to have thousands of views when I first clicked on it, the quality is neck and neck to other bigger KZbinrs.

[@MilkLadsForever]

I wish the second season of Spongebob was done on cels. Some of the series’s most iconic episodes would be awesome to be immortalized on cels. I would love cels of Patrick getting his head stuck in a trombone, Bold and Brash, and Patrick putting his hand on the lid.

[@petercampi2840]

The one thing that cel animation could do that digital 2D cannot is lighting SFX. Because cels are animated with back-lighting instead of being simply colored, you can also make use of in-camera optical lighting FX that aren't possible if your canvas isn't in real space. It's just one of the reasons that some digital switch overs were so noticeable back in the day.

[@FloatingSunfish]

Traditional cel animation will always have its charm, but unfortunately, it's just too darn expensive to do nowadays. We only stuck with it back in the day because we didn't have any alternatives.

[@MrBongers]

The Little Mermaid only had a single shot digitally painted with the CAPS system. The real changeover to digital ink & paint did not happen until The Rescuer's Down Under. (concurrently with The Rescuers Down Under , the Mickey Mouse featurette The Prince and The Pauper was made with the traditional cel painted method because Disney did not have enough computer workstations to handle both productions at the same time) . The development of CAPS was a joint effort between Disney and Pixar, not only Pixar as you state at 1:38 . You also said that Disney and Pixar had a _"tumultuous relationship"_ . No, not at that time. Pixar was grateful to have the contract with Disney to collaborate on developing the CAPS system (at a time when Pixar was still mostly a software development company, not a movie studio). If the relationship became "tumultuous" later on it was after several years of Disney supporting Pixar financially by pouring money into their early films like Toy Story and A Bug's Life. In 1992, the team that developed CAPS won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scientific and Engineering Award. They were: Randy Cartwright (Disney) David B. Coons (Disney) Lemuel Davis (Disney) James Houston (Disney) Mark Kimball (Disney) Dylan W. Kohler (Disney) David F. Wolf (Disney) Thomas Hahn (Pixar) Peter Nye (Pixar) Michael Shantzis (Pixar)

[@computerkid1416]

I much prefer the cel look too. I don't know why these companies can't make more efforts to make digital animation "mimmick" cel drawn ones. Such as the colors which look less vibrant in cells, that would be something that should be easy to mimmick.

[@icecreamhero2375]

I love digital ink and paint. When I make art I prefer to draw it on paper, scan it into the computer, then color it. I love the handmade quality and it makes it look more professional than crayons or colored pencils. It's also easier to go back and fix errors.

[@DennisTamayo]

Well, my rule for it is that the animators would animate a character or characters on paper with pencil on the rough stage before scanning into the computer for digital ink & paint (or digital clean-up & coloring if I prefer). Only for my future projects.

[@watchforever1724]

Yeah I know

[@blastradius9136]

I like the painted cels more because it has a nice texture on it that digital doesn't have. It looks more natural and less artificial. Same with film. Imo 16 and 35 mm film looks better because of its unique texture. It looks like film unlike digital. Digital films looks to clean and souless.

[@isatherebel1520]

Yo Beavis and Butt-head's revival actually looks good even when the animation switched over to digital, it still have the same charm as the original series but I'll always prefer the original series use and look of cel animation over the digital, there just something about the original that looks beautiful and organic and grainy

[@itsjayden8002]

I always love seeing HD upscales or remasters of traditionally animated media, and noticing little imperfections. I don’t really have the same excitement with seeing some thing that was digitally animated in HD. With traditionally animated stuff, films can be damaged or degraded, and we’ll be stuck with a crappy quality print. With most digital media, the digital source will be used for most releases. Unless it’s something like A Pup Named Scooby-Doo! that was colored digitally for it’s first season, but moved to cells for the rest of the series. Season 1 was made before storing and archiving digital animation was commonplace, so we’re probably be stuck with the same crappy quality forever. The other seasons were animated on cells, and they seemed to be remastered in HD from the film reels, and looks 10x better than the old versions that were most likely taken from TV prints saved on VHS. 4:03 I think the reason that Futurama was colored digitally was because of the amount of CGI. The CG artists could more accurately blend and composite the CGI models in the digital files. Fun Fact: The crew on Invader Zim asked the Futurama crew for tips regarding how to blend 2D and 3D animation seamlessly.

[@dontMrDoc]

To be honest now watching old animations you can really see the cells.

[@watchforever1724]

I know

[@vincejabroni8338]

Chromacolour Cel Paint is only produced in 37 colours today. (The cel paint was used for Who Framed Roger Rabbit) They used to have 3 palettes with 600 colours each; totaling 1800 colours. Series 100, Series 600, & Series 1200. In 2000, they sold the 1800 colours as digital palettes for Crater Software's CTP program. Then, in 2005, the digital palettes were expanded for Macromedia Flash. No one has uploaded the RGB values for the palettes as far as I can find. 1800 traditional cel paint colours are just missing.

[@Jvnet10]

It's cool seeing a video dedicated to this subject. I rarely see people commenting on it, since digital animation became the norm. Personally I like the feel of early Simpsons and the occasional "off model" moments (which ironically the creator despises lol). Since the digital tests were so apart until the permanent change, I can assume the staff weren't so sure about going into a different production method. But, it's also interesting to notice that the transition allowed them to do more elaborated sequences and huge crowd shots. I've grown to appreciate the attempts to make the characters movements more lively in the newer seasons. Insider recently released a video about how The Simpsons' animation evolved since it's conception. I think the late 90's Disney cartoons had a rocky time adjusting to the new tech, some digital episodes of Recess, Hercules and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command were pretty awful in my opinion. And the episodes order being shuffled during airing made things even more confusing. Maybe it has something to do with the overseas studios, but the details about the production of such shows are scarse online. Also, I totally agree with your take on Hey Arnold, the transition was seamless, with the color pallet being adjusted to fit the feel of the previous seasons. Good video overall, and I'm glad youtube recommended me your channel.

[@garonmario99]

Some Hanna-Barbera shows from the 1980s were the first to switch to digital ink and paint. Sort of... They went back to cel animation!

[@Nagasakevideo]

I wish Phineas and Ferb has cells to collect.

[@forgottenplaces9780]

King of the hill had one digital episode in 2001 but didnt switch to digital fully until 2 seasons later in 2003

[@jonathanwilkinson4299]

I think every show should at least do one minute of cell animation a season just so people could still collect the cells and personally, I think cell animation looks better. They could do something really fun like a fantasy sequence or something.

[@BadringerGronger]

cel not cell

[@occmglxy8251]

Some things: 1. Would've wanted to hear about how some some shows in the early 2000s or even in the late 90s were done already in HD like Kim Possible, Baby Looney Tunes, Magical Doremi etc 2. How the cel digital transition applied to anime. Personally, western shows handled it mostly well, but early digipaint anime looked ugly ex. Cel Animated Hunter X Hunter vs the Greed Island Hunter X Hunter OVAs.

[@JonDan]

Yeah I would like to hear about that and things like why the Jetsons episodes digitally painted in the 80's are not available in HD while the traditionally painted episodes received an excellent HD remaster, and there are a lot of this examples like older animes getting HD remaster like YuYu Hakusho, Cowboy Beboo, Berserk but no those ones made digitally before the HD Era or why the f*ck is not remastering their old Nicktoons

[@ExtremeWreck]

There are some early digipaint Western-made cartoons that looked a bit ugly(or just outright bizarre) too. The Neverending Story cartoon is one example of being ugly while Purno de Purno is an example of it looking bizarre(then again, the show ITSELF is totally bizarre, especially after the 1st episode).

[@ExtremeWreck]

"Would've wanted to hear about how some some shows in the early 2000s or even in the late 90s" Or even as far back as 1989 with the 1st season of Purno de Purno, before switching to the regular 4:3 ratio, presumably after the realization that CRTs pretty much just couldn't project the whole episode properly without pan & scan.

[@pablocasas5906]

There's an obscure anime from Sunrise (Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass) called Betterman, which was animated on wide-screen despite being a TV show from 1998 Also, I think the first TV anime made in HD was Samurai 7 from 2003

[@ArtieArchives]

As for as I know, Ed Edd n Eddy and King of the Hill were the two last animated series to be traditionally cel animated in North America. Both series switched to digital sometime in 2004.

[@nonameman7114]

Was the Ed Edd n Eddy movie digital as well then?

[@ArtieArchives]

@@nonameman7114 Yeah, it came out in 2009

[@nonameman7114]

@@ArtieArchives damn I never even realized the difference.

[@bluecord5746]

KOTH actually switched in late 2003.

[@PinataTime]

I've always had a persanel love for shows done on cels, that LOOK like their done on cels, for better or for worse. but I am happy digital is here as well. I thought I was pretty good at spotting cels and digital coloring, but some of the examples you showed that where digital I didn't even know was digital. so I guess it really doesn't matter at the end of the day. but to me, cels will always be more charming hands down. but thats because I'm a old grumpy loser! hahah. also to have a home movies or dr Katz cel would rock, but those shows wouldn't be if it wasn't for digital, so thats ok.

[@rengarsanger9016]

I was looking for a drawing tutorial to make my drawings looks like traditional animations. And I found this jewel.

[@mariodelrio2387]

Maybe buyng a cell, some ink and paint could help

[@desvendandoaculturapop5516]

an interesting case is that of enchanted from 2007 that used cel animation in all animated parts because the objective was to pay homage to the disney classics, it was the last hand-painted disney movie

[@BadringerGronger]

Cel not cell

[@desvendandoaculturapop5516]

@@BadringerGronger sorry

[@BadringerGronger]

@@desvendandoaculturapop5516 sorry

[@Galomortalbr]

Cuphead was digitally painted, i really think it's more of a issue of color palette than the form that is colored.

[@AvitalShtap]

As well as the lineart used. The thin lines we're used to is certainly a post-2010 trend.

[@Danosauruscrecks]

I think combining them somehow would be the best way to move forward

[@EpikBirb]

digital ink and paint?? Idk

[@Danosauruscrecks]

@@EpikBirb not necessarily but I've seen them combine 2d and 3d before

[@patriciacutri1030]

1990s: Rebel era (Cel animation) 2000s: Geometric era (Digital animation)

[@Made_In_Heaven88]

How about something like Tiny Toons? which was done by several studios were they all cel animated? because TMS's episodes colors would always pop and the animation was so fluid

[@lawich9943]

Tiny Toons was animated entirely on cels. The colors would differ from one studio to another mainly because of different camera and lighting settings. And the fluidity of the animation itself depended on how much frames were drawn and how the movements were planned out, TMS was known for their high quality work.

[@thema1998]

I've always had more of a preference for digital ink and paint. It's what I mostly grew up with!

[@Illumisepoolist]

Wish The Loud House had cel animation, then I could own a frame of Lola tooting her horn.

[@droidigan]

i don't know if the stiffness is a thing that comes from executing in digital animation. today, for higher budget media, pencil tests and roughs are still made on paper. i think the issue lies more in if the *entire process* is made digitally, and if the right staff is hired. i believe a skillful animator can make any medium look just as good, depending on what their forté is. it's good to remember that digitalization is to cut cost and time. additionally, stiffness can be the product of companies sending their rough drafts or tie downs to be inked in other countries where it's cheaper. yeah, it's all about money. though as an animator i wouldn't want to be working on cells. that pressure and skill level needed would be immense!

[@levmyshkin8366]

The entire process can be digital, that has no effect on fluidity of animation. It’s correlation, not causation.

[@BananaPhoPhilly]

Wasn't futurama still animated on paper by hand, then inked and painted digitally? I think that's what made the 2D elements look so natural and fluid. Same with Angry Beavers and many other Nickelodeon cartoons, Spongebob started doing it again after having been animated fully by computers for 18 years. I think one thing that helps the transition from cel to digital ink and paint is keeping the same colour palette. A lot of american cartoons and especially anime suffered due to dull shading and coloring in the early digital age

[@liamwebster3699]

Actually SpongeBob was never animated fully by computers. Yes the characters were painted digitally, but they were always drawn by hand (also the backgrounds are hand-painted too)

[@thepeternetwork]

Back in the hand-drawn era of animation, there were cel-painting kits on the market. Most of these were sold in the Disney theme parks, mostly in the animation gift shop at MGM Studios. Each kit came with two ink-printed cels with matching background and frames, a pair of color guides, a brush, and a set of paints plus tips on how to paint the cels. Other cartoons like Looney Tunes, Superman TAS, and even a Yogi Bear kit put out by Spumco existed. These kits were replaced by actual art technique books on drawing the characters. As an artist, I lament and mourn the loss of cel animation as an art form. Now with the rise of AI art, computers have become more invasive than before in creating animated content. We can only hope that someday traditional cel animation will make a comeback, if not for long-form animation but in short clips as embraced by TikTok, KZbin Shorts, or wherever short form content is found.

[@Vaxeri]

Something about the muted and less contrasty colors on cell animation makes it very pleasent to watch for long sessions. With digital animation I often come across colors that are so bright and saturated that it can get eye soring after a while. I wish animaters would use natural colors more often and not always go with the deepest blacks and brightest whites.

[@OakTreeIsaac]

I wish they wouldn’t either. But, they’ve been using those bright colors even when everything was on cels. They actually didn’t intended for everything to look so dark. That’s just what happened when cels are photographed and transferred to tv screens.

[@Zachman229]

SpongeBob season 1 traditional ink and paint: step 1 they draw ✍️ the outline of the character on the celluloid sheet step 2 they then physically on the physical cel get out physical paint 🎨 like gouache or acrylic and get out a brush and dip the brush in the paint and brush the paint on the character on the sheet step 3 they then film 🎥 it. SpongeBob newest season(seasons 11-12) digital ink and paint: step 1 they draw ✍️ the character on the physical cel sheet step 2 they scan the cel sheet and put it on a computer 🖥️ and select a DIGITAL color pallet and fill in the character step 3 they film 🎥 it.

[@Zachman229]

I loved/love season 1 cus it was more warm and welcoming and the episodes were pretty cool(a half hour) but i definitely like seasons 11-12 more cus the episodes and adventures are cooler and a BIT longer and the colors were more vibrant

[@AvitalShtap]

Really fantastic analysis and collection of opinions! Thanks for sharing!

[@DennisTamayo]

It also happened with Wakko's Wish & the Animaniacs revival for Hulu.

[@johnclark926]

I feel like the debate between cel vs digital is kind of overblown tbh. They’re both just mediums for animation; it really depends on the artists and animators as to whether it looks good or not. IMO the occasional decline in quality we see in some shows that have switched is more likely the result of animators being rushed, budgets being cut, or key creatives being replaced, rather than the change in medium.

[@juneru2]

Yeah like many DiC cartoons often look strange/ugly due to production quality, and those were cel animated. But many digital shows look bland/samey to cut costs. Like you said one certainly ain't better than the other

[@allisoncurty650]

Imagine if Regular Show was cel animated!

[@PaceFilmsProductions]

Even as a kid I noticed a difference in the shows I was watching and the newer episodes, even though I had no way of knowing why it looked different or the terminology. I’m almost always like 99.9% of the time prefer the look of traditional ink and paint in animated tv shows. I know technically you can do more with digital but there’s something about the look digital can’t replicate. Which is weird with all the advancements with digital technology you think someone would have been able to re-create the specific look of ink and paint coloring with a digital program. Imagine how they made a modern Grindhouse look like it was filmed on older grainy celluloid, that but done for animation to bring back the ink and paint look while keeping all the advantages and features of digital coloring.

[@caleb1413]

Great video! I've always been fascinated by traditional animation and the journey towards digital ink and paint. One interesting case is Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. All the episodes were made around the same time, yet about half were cel animated and half were digital. Another interesting note is the fact that Hey Arnold (1996), The Angry Beavers (1997), CatDog (1998), and The Wild Thornberrys (1998) all had digitally inked and painted intros from day 1, despite none switching to digital for the actual episodes until 1999. Makes me wonder if they planned on eventually switching all along. P.S. King of the Hill switched in 2003, not 2001. The 2001 episode was just a test.

[@bernhardblocksberg1278]

Regarding the digitally inked intros for cel-animated shows: These were often not animated overseas but by small western studios. A recent example of this way of doing things is DuckTales 2017, where the episodes were animated by Toon City in the Philippines, but the intro was animated by Golden Wolf in the UK.

[@pablocasas5906]

In the case of anime, Pokémon second opening, the Japanese version at least though a fragment was kept in the 4Kids version, had a short sequence that was digitally colored, despite the rest of the opening and the show itself being made in cels. Pokémon's third Japanese opening sequence was colored entirely digitally while the show was still made with cels, the 260th episode, which aired on August, 8th 2002, was the last traditionally painted episode

[@digitalmovies5863]

Dont worry guys I'm creating. A show soon that will be cel painted it will be in an 80s anime and American 80s cartoon style as well I know it will be alot of work but its worth it I'm going to be the animatior director and also draw inbetween and key frames as well

[@Scenario_animations]

Can i see Wish you luck 😂😂😂

[@icecreamhero2375]

I would love to see Bob's Burgers hand-drawn or on cels.

[@watchforever1724]

Yeah I know

[@HetareKing]

I keep seeing cel animation referred to using this term, but digital ink and paint animation is still hand-drawn. Sometimes even on paper! It's not like they're rendering 3D models to look like drawings (there are shows that do that, but at that point it's no longer digital ink and paint). You can say that the "inking" isn't done by hand, but that hasn't been the case for cel animation for a long time either; they just photocopied the original drawings onto cels and the only actual inking that happened was to fill in any gaps left by the copying process (something still done to make the fill tool work correctly).

[@BeckhamProductions2004]

That case that Pepper Ann underwent a downgrade that went digital at the start of Season 2 in 1998, "Def Comedy Mom", "Effie Shrugged" and "The Beans of Wrath", episodes reverted back to cel animation process.

[@SuperGamer61499]

Honestly, I think I vastly prefer how Spongebob looked on digital art. It is a really good conversion if you ask me. I think it can depend on how the tools are used. It's like how CGI is not worse than traditional animation. Both just have to be used well for different priorities. I think when it comes to Classic Simpsons I find it more expressive on cell tbh. And Disney movies making the jump to digital art imo made them look even better and more creative for animation.

[@icecreamhero2375]

Matt Groening was always against the more expressive animation and tried to fight against it. He hates it when the characters go off model. It's not the fault of digital. Spongebob is expressive and done with digital.

[@SuperGamer61499]

@@icecreamhero2375 I'm aware. But Simpsons felt more static in character movements when it turned to digital. I wouldn't mind but Simpsons also got hit bad by seasonal rot. Honestly, you're right. Spongebob got more expressive with digital. Even more so now.

[@icecreamhero2375]

@@SuperGamer61499 Actually they went over the animation change in this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHbMloyZpLqkgqM

[@icecreamhero2375]

@@SuperGamer61499 In my opinion for the Simpsons season 1-26 is a masterpice. After that its super hit and miss.

[@thebombingsoda]

I feel like it would be cool if we got a new cel animated cartoon, it could be like only 6-8 episodes, but it would look so interesting in the modern day

[@silverdamascus2023]

While I think digital animation is more pleasing to the eyes, I still love cel animation, we should get more digitally-animated cartoons using filters and techniques to look like they were made with animation cels.

[@juneru2]

I think that's the route animation is going, digital animation trying to look more traditional. Spiderverse and Puss in Boots 2 are good examples of this. I wish more TV cartoons would try to look less digital, though.

[@claykid]

Actually SpongeBob and Big City Greens are still both animated on paper. OK KO and a lot of other cartoons are too, even Family Guy surprisingly

[@TheAdventuresOfJimiJaden]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the 1998 pilot might’ve animated with cel. The animation was pretty rough and there wasn’t really any pure white color on people’s eyes and Brian’s fur.

[@leftyfourguns]

Studio Ghibli still hand draws and animates the majority of their films on cels, using CGI only in the editing process and more special effects. But you’re right about TV, will probably never come back. Quantity is more important than quality or artistry in that medium.

[@sezanimate]

Actually, this is incorrect. "Princess Mononoke" was Ghibli's first film to switch to digital ink and paint, although the majority of the film still used cels. Their reasoning for the change is because it was much easier to blend 3D with 2D animation, and it proved to be very useful when they were on a time crunch. It also proved to be very expensive for Ghibli, but it ultimately paid off. The digital artists did a fantastic job making the shots look consistent. After Mononoke, they never looked back; in spite of its watercolored look, "My Neighbors the Yamadas" was actually Ghibli's first film to fully utilize digital ink and paint. Fun fact: OpenToonz, a free and open source animation program, is based on Ghibli's modified version of Toonz, which was used in all of their hand-drawn films from 1997 onwards. Hope this info made sense.

[@berg450]

A part of this transition was understanding the new technology and how to effectively use it, but also the creators of the show itself. You can see this a lot with early 2000s anime which started to transition, lots of the cell drawn animation could look really detailed and they got out of zooming or panning across the backgrounds to make it seem like there was movement. You can look at Turn A Gundam verses Gundam SEED as a large franchise that went to digital, SEED looks awful in some areas but that was a chaotic production cycle and the new technology, however it never looked much better in its sequel, Destiny. Yet with the advent of 3D post processing techniques being added to animation I think digital animation has completely overtaken traditionally drawn works.

[@Joshua_N-A]

Were SEED and SEED Destiny's animation drawn 100% on a tablet?

[@Joshua_N-A]

Were SEED and SEED Destiny's animation drawn 100% on a tablet?

[@kenocanic635]

Funfact: First season of Johnny Test (2005-2006) was cel animated, so Ed Edd n Eddy wasn't the last to use cels

[@kenocanic635]

Yeah, I'm dumb. I just realized that it was digital

[@kenocanic635]

But there's an ASK Air video about the downfall of Johnny Test, and he says it kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppuUl2qqhsh1m84

[@mrfredwilford]

To answer your question at the end, I would say the Mr bean cartoon series original run of 3 seasons that lasted until 2004, so much fluidity in the animation of the pilot episode although the show used 3d objects with a cel shader which was impressive for the time

[@WhoIsJohnGaltt]

How exactly did they get hey arnold to look identical to cel on digital? Seems like that would be the ideal of maintaining the look/charm and economics Because at the end of the day it’s about the look and not being so “perfect”

[@OakTreeIsaac]

I wish I knew too. I’d imagine that they took a picture of the characters and color picked from that. But I guess it’s just down to the show having a darker color palette in general. Usually the bright colors that we associate with digital animation are actually the true colors on physical cels. But either the colors were darken due to being shot on camera, or 90s technology made it look darker than it actually was.

[@Zachman229]

Plus I guy called nerdstalgic called the digital ink and paint(too as well) digital animation once he started talkin bout how when SpongeBob switched to digital ink and paint during S2

[@Zachman229]

He referred to it as digital ANIMATION

[@ShadowKirbo0]

You forgot to mention Hanna Barbara, in the 80s some of their shows were animated digitally.

[@ARDIZsq]

I would actually like the heavily argue against the thought that printing out a screenshot is the same as owning a cel. Sure, they might look the same at first, but when you take the time to look at it for more than a few seconds, which if you're putting it on a wall or something you will, you'll notice all of the differences. First would be the quality of the lines. A screenshot would be limited by the quality of the source you took it from, as well as video compression. The line quality would drop, the colors could have pixel artifacts in them, and unless you're getting them professionally printed, they're going to look duller and blurrier, especially if your printer messes up. A real cel has that paint texture you can't recreate with a printer. The way the light passes through the cel and paint just isn't conveyed through a print, not to mention one has isolated characters on a clear sheet, giving off a glossy finish, while the other is a matte image on the background. Also, due to the background being part of the print, you don't get the drop shadow you sometimes see from the cel being slightly raised off of the background. I get that for modern shows buying a cel is literally impossible, but they weren't meant to be presented in this way in the first place. Besides, if you want a cel of a modern cartoon or anime, you can always make one yourself. The effort will 100% make for a nicer product than a printed screenshot. As for cels I would like to own, anything from Neon Genesis Evangelion (my favorite anime) would be the greatest. For a digitally animated show I wish had cels, the original Ben 10 from 2005 comes to mind. It was just out of reach of having cel animation, and I wonder if maybe any early concepts were done with cels.

[@FriedFrogLegsAnimations]

well as a animator i prefer computer animation in general i so say digital ink and paint computers make animating easier

[@kevinsupreme_ph36yearsago59]

Good thing is that digital can replicate the look of cel animation.

[@gregorsamsa2271]

Still isn't the same to me. We need traditional and cel animation back. Not everything needs to be done through digitalized techniques, it takes the soul of the Art out in my honest opinion.

[@edwinve4112]

@Gregor Samsa Its's very expensive.

[@andilouis8770]

@@edwinve4112 why not make a 1 or 2-minute animation using cel w/o a watermark. That would be a masterpiece in 60-120 secs

[@totallynotgay553]

@@edwinve4112 an expensive and time consuming process for sure but the outcome is absolutely worth it

[@mariodelrio2387]

@@edwinve4112 yeah it is

[@LucSonFunPol]

If I had to choose between using cel animation, digital ink and paint animation, or full-on computer animation, I'd take digital ink and paint for SURE. The cel animation is nice in terms of how fluid it is, but it's way too time-consuming, and the colors aren't that bright anyway. You'd be lucky to get 10 seconds of a cel cartoon done in a day. And personally, I think full-on computer animation for 2D cartoons is just ugly, because you either end up with the stiff, lifeless animation of Season 4 of Phineas and Ferb, or the weird animation of Season 10 of The Fairly Oddparents that... I don't know how to explain it. Computer-made cartoons don't employ squash-and-stretch techniques, anyway, which just ruins it altogether. Digital ink and paint, however, is both of those things in a good way. The designs are very colorful, but the animation is still really smooth. It's just a complete masterpiece.

[@baylordiamond8819]

I thought the adobe flash fop episodes looked really good. It helps that fop uses minimalist designs.

[@EpikBirb]

I agree

[@LucSonFunPol]

@@baylordiamond8819 I mean, flash animation is good in general (it works great on Wow Wow Wubbzy), but I just don't think it works on The Fairly OddParents because it's a serious downgrade from the earlier seasons' animation. But I guess I can see your point.

[@imonly1man_]

ik it's been a year, but I'm legit curious how you see Phineas and Ferb's animation as stiff and robotic in Season 4. Like, I can tell that in some places, the animation quality was worse, but to me, it never looked robotic since the animation wasn't rigged (second Cliptastic Countdown not withstanding)

[@LucSonFunPol]

@@imonly1man_ Okay, maybe "robotic" wasn't the right word to describe it. But the movement was definitely a lot stiffer than earlier seasons and there were obviously a LOT less frames being used. There are scenes where characters just stand still with their mouths moving; sometimes not even that. I guess the animation is passable most of the time (especially compared to the atrocious animation of Candace Against the Universe), but it's still less lively and energetic than what came before it.

[@Zachman229]

He said “some so&so(s) used chalk boards while others used CELS and started separating the characters from the background with CELLULOIDS and thus TRADITIONAL ink and paint was born”

[@Zachman229]

Even tho he said u know (sorry can’t remember forgot)

[@royalgarden18]

The late 90s was an interesting time for this. Even in anime. Both One Piece and Hunter X Hunter (the first adaptation) premiered the same week on the same channel in 1999 but both looked like they were from different eras all together. One Piece had a way more modern look since it was done completely digital and Hunter X Hunter being done with cels made it look like it was a decade older than One Piece.

[@pablocasas5906]

The way anime production switched from hand-colored cels to digital ink & paint was pretty rough, some of the early digitally painted anime like Excel Saga looked fine, but I find it very hard to go back to anime from the early 2000s before the switch to HD, save for a few exceptions like Fullmetal Alchemist '03 or Eureka Seven It's also pretty jarring in the case of anime like Pokémon that switched from cels to digital ink & paint during the last Jhotto episodes The over reliance on GCI was pretty noticeable as well, especially on mecha shows, nowadays it's seems Sunrise is the only studio that draws their mechas by hand instead of making CGI models, save for some Gundam movies in which the mechs have more complex designs

[@fridaynightnicktoons6885]

The ideal situation is we keep coloring things digitally,BUT we use classic cel colors. Modern digital coloring is plastic looking,(dragonball super) BUT dbs broly looked great and like cel colors ( on the characters,the background was still digitally modern and metallic/plastic looking.

[@icecreamhero2375]

Thank the Lord for digital it certainly helped us be entertained during quarantine.

[@watchforever1724]

Yeah I know

[@Blitzer1001]

I would like the cuphead show to be drawn on cells. It makes the 1930's cartoon vibe better. Just look at the game!

[@Toyslasher]

I doubt this comment will get surfaced but I've been trying to return to cel lately. I even have a very short cel video on my channel. It still needs lots of tweaks and fixes but It's a start overall. I plan on creating a show in cel, even relasing a pilot in the near future. I also have a small team of animators and voice actors we're working with to get this project finished. I'll even get my drawing light box tomorrow to finally sketch out the scenes. I don't think i'll bring back cel, rather it's for this one show but I hope it gets lots of attention in the future. Until then I gotta keep moving.

[@mariodelrio2387]

Thats pretty cool you still ha e the passion. I still perfer digital animation overall compared to cel, but I like both

[@Poop56566]

@@mariodelrio2387 no hate but why do you like digital more?

[@airconditionedstudios1011]

I’m an environmentalist so I’m pro digital (even if I really want to get an animation cell but can’t because of its affect on the environment)

[@thebatterymill]

The Radioactive Man Simpsons episode also looks like every character is a metal emboss

[@iknoweverything4959]

King of the Hill actually didn't switch full time until 2004. They used digital color/composition on and off as early as 1997 with their commercials.

[@galacticglamourgirl]

I wouldn't say either look better than the other in general. Cel and digital animation can both look amazing, but in terms of which looks better? It depends on the show. For example, PPG definitely looked better while cel animated, but Ed Edd N Eddy looked way better when it switched to digital ink and paint. I'd never suggest that animation should go back to cels ever again though; all it would do is make the animator's jobs even more of a hassle. Plus you can replicate that look with digital animation anyway, so there's no point.

[@sirmoony5633]

To be as civil as possible, but at the end of the day, using digital art programs are like another tool to use when it comes to making art. Whether it's animation or not. I actually do like both cels and digital and both tools can make animation look great in their own way! Besides, I'm not some dumb purist or nostalgiatard who hates digital art programs! I embrace both analog and digital no matter what kind of medium that is represented in! ^_^

[@OakTreeIsaac]

True! I feel that some (not all) of the people who hate digital mediums have never actually used it before and only know about the surface level tools.

[@sirmoony5633]

@@OakTreeIsaac Exactly! Besides, using digital programs to make art has major strengths of their own too! The one big factor is that it doesn't require pieces of paper to use unless you wanted to make sketches on paper and then inking them with a digital program! ^_^

[@silverdamascus2023]

Buying animation cels is much better than buying NFTs. Each cel is actually unique and it's a physical item you can hold in your hands and keep it in your home, NFTs are just a receipt saying you own a digital file, the receipt is said to be impossible to delete, but the file is still stored in the regular internet. Only after the cartoon becomes a success, the cels become valuable for reselling, NFT value is pure speculation. Cartoons are not made just to have more cels to be sold, while even though each NFT is unique, they were made by truckloads and lost their value. NFTs are often really ugly, while even cels from bad cartoons can look great. And since cartoons are no longer made with animation cels, the ones around are even more rare and unique.

[@dontkootunes]

Even though I love both cel and digital ink and paint, Cels are always the best. (But to be fair, they are both very indistinguishable since they are both still part of traditional animation).

[@DragonSword227]

I wish the One Piece Anime was Traditional. It'd fit so well with that anime I feel.

[@kevinrosario2729]

I believe the first movie was traditional. It suits the artstyle more.

[@odette4059]

Good examples of where you can see obvious changes in animation is anime, for example Naruto, One Piece, DBZ etc. Hunter x Hunter had some of the most visually endearing scenes and animation in all of anime, but when it got its reboot in 2011 which wasn’t in cell anymore, it didn’t feel nearly the same, same goes for others like Neon Genesis Evangelion. The tones and colour palettes were no longer rich, the backgrounds weren’t nearly as detailed, all lines had to be filled and the magical effect was gone. Someone said in another video that the imperfections cell animation gave was what made them special. Yeah they were a little inconsistent and costly, but there’s a specific vibe to them that makes it feel more real. Too bad it’s not coming back.

[@pablocasas5906]

I think One Piece was colored digitally since day one, unless you count the OVA that was made by different studio for a anime festival. I fact, Toei Animation began coloring their shows digitally since '97 with the fourth version of Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, so shows from the late 90s like the original Digimon Adventure and Magical DoReMi were colored digitally

[@desvendandoaculturapop5516]

I particularly like digital painting, I think it gave a better quality to the image and I don't understand why for so long the drawings for TV use cel

[@wesmcinerny4524]

Maybe KZbin should release a 2D-animated feature film (it can be either the traditional ink-and-paint and camera process or the CAPS process or something similar).

[@greshaminc156]

I have a big plan in my animation future that’ll I’ll plan to make a movie or a short that returns to the glory days of cel animation

[@icecreamhero2375]

Its obsolete and nobody wants to do it anymore. Also, they only did it because that is all they had at the time. If CGi was around in 1930 Snow White would be done in CGI.

[@greshaminc156]

@@icecreamhero2375 I know that, but I’m gonna find a way so people would be interested into trying and experimenting with the old fashion way

[@icecreamhero2375]

@@greshaminc156 Best of luck.

[@DennisTamayo]

Well, the future season of Dexter's Lab will possibly upgrade from 4:3 to 16:9 next year. & by 16:9, I mean 1.78:1.

[@watchforever1724]

Yeah I know

[@bombabombom3603]

I never had the issue with digital inking, I just had the issue that over the time after digital became the norm, inbetweening and natural timing became so simplified and automatic to the point where no one even tries to do it anymore and now with every show you see on TV or online, it all has that "flash cartoon"-like cheapassness to it. Where it's all just constant model-rigging instead of just drawing it. No hand-crafted motion, just click and bend. And now everyone is trying to adopt the anime-style where they just nix consistent inbetweening altogether and now you got pretty drawings darting half a mile each foot step instead of actually filling between the shots.

[@JulioAnt2000]

Extreme Ghostbusters and Men in Black The Animated Series would be cels I’d love to own. Another show I really would love and I know had cels produced for would be the very underrated show Mission Hill.

[@abneramaya1736]

6:28 I'm sorry if I'm going to sound a bit too biased since I've seen so much of the Timon and Pumbaa show, but the episodes that were done by both Walt Disney Australia and Toon City are some of the best looking episodes of the show on cels. I know it's not as good as the movies but I still love the look and feel from both studios.

[@jilliancrawford7577]

Despite all the changes, I think traditional methods could still keep a lifeline andeven thrive in spaces like analog horror. Even if it's obsolete in big studios, it still has its place and just a more niche market.

[@standepain]

Unfortunately it's dead. Just too time consuming an especially costly for small studios. Between the cels, the paint, camera equipment and it's easier to make revisions digitally. Also cel vinyl manufacturers are almost gone. ...I think Chroma Colour is the last one standing. I loath animation done in the computer but it would take a miracle to bring back traditional.

[@DivineBanana]

Awesome vid, awesome explanation and awesome relevant clips. Thanks for this! You earned a new subscriber! I would have liked if you touched on the Phenakistiscope as it is arguably an even earlier form of animation, but nonetheless still a great video and I can see why you would leave it out to keep the video more on topic. Thanks again and keep up the great work!

[@SparkzEnt]

In terms of the TV realm, Hanna-Barbera was actually one of, if not, the first to implement digital ink and paint on TV animation using a specially developed system created by Marc Levoy, which they would use for a third of their output from 1984 to 1996

[@Zachman229]

Ig rlly all seasons of SpongeBob were rlly all (cel[animation]) but different types like both season 1 and ALL the other seasons all after season 1 are all both cel animation but just different types of ink and paint, like ALL seasons(seasons 1 to 12) were all cel animation(all drawn by cel[ig]) but with different types of INK AND PAINT, like for example(like) season 1 was (ofc) cel animation, so here’s how I’ll explain it to yall, S1) animation type: cel animation S1) ink and paint: traditional ink and paint Seasons 2&12) animation type: cel animation Seasons 2&12) ink and paint: digital ink and paint. See both season 1 and seasons 2-12 are CEL animation so they both hav same type of animation they just hav different types of INK AND PAINT, season 1 is traditional ink and paint whereas seasons 2-12 are digital ink and paint, season 1 is TRADITIONAL(ink and paint) whereas seasons 1-12 are DIGITAL (ink and paint)

[@Zachman229]

So, Season 1 is traditional vs the rest which is digital

[@Zachman229]

Like the literal entire show(all seasons) is cel animation but just the rest is using DIGITAL ink and paint instead of TRADITIONAL ink and paint which was wut SEASON 1 used

[@dailydoseofsunshine2319]

I would love to see an episode of avatar remade where they took the original drawings they used but instead traced them on cells and painted them.

[@garfieldlazylasagna1234]

9:27 cybershell definitely likes sonic 4 💀

[@icecreamhero2375]

I think the Simpsons looks better digitally colored. My fav look is the current seasons and the middle teens where they used a filter to make it look cel-animated. Also with digital, they can do more complex camera shots and have more characters in one scene.

[@watchforever1724]

In my opinion both are good

[@icecreamhero2375]

@urbanyouths I think it looks great. Also I don't think most people would be able to tell they used a filter if I didn't point is out. Season 14-19 of the Simpsons looks great.

[@icecreamhero2375]

@urbanyouths I thought it looked Similar to the original but a bit more crisp so I love it. No more paint going out side the characters and drop shadows.

[@FeroxX_Gosu]

Cel animation = GOD

[@tegami-lawrence]

Dang, I Love Tegami Bachi, I own some of the Rough Sketch Cels.. I would Love to own one of the Colored Cels One Day.

[@I_WANT_MY_SLAW]

Traditional animation is the best animation.

[@jadetealaaron2003]

I wish Teen Titans had collectable cels

[@dorothytheuyfanatic5118]

If I want to take an animation career, I would go with digital.