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The Line and the Classical animation, epitomized by the work of Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios, revolves around the artistically principled, highly developed line-and-cel technique. We can d$ne c/assica/ aninlation as the art ofmovements that are dravn in such a way ax to mate the i//usionof&. According to this standard , to animate is to pull forth form moving emotively through space in a sequence of hand-drawn lines. If classical animation centers on the Line, which aesthetic or technique defines the paragon of computer animation? Or, does digital animation, in its chameleonlike complexity, merely disappear into a sea of filmmaking techniques and their traditions? In classical animation, the Line is the formal measure of the art, and drawing skill defines artistic excellence. Many can draw lines, but few can achieve the confident series of Lines that holds weight and precise volume during a 60-frame ease-out that travels a minute distance on the screen. The Line is the container of shape, the membrane that holds a volume together as it turns through space, the twining contour of anatomy fractioned mid-motion on the page. Style invests the Line with character and weight, decrees its timing and flexibility, its curved or jagged gesture. The final animated picture is the matrix of Lines blown sheet by sheet across the retina in the wind of the projector, Lines fragle as lace spun down the aisles of production by a flock of hands-talented, masterful, insurance-worthy hands that can pull forth the Line in any style you like. Traditional animation resembles a performing art in the fluidity of skill required. Every act of drawing for animation is a repetition, a recital, a rendering of the film’s scored and scripted composition . Draw, you say? The hands of the classical animator can draw anything, everything-fireworks and wind, earthquakes and ocean storms, fish and furry four-legged friends, human agony and mirth, inhuman sadism and superhuman forgiveness. The master can reel in the Line time after time with unfailing authority, confidence, expression. Such accomplished hands know the Line’s inexhaustible nature, its sinuous variety of length and juxtaposition with other Lines. The resulting fabrics are borne like trophies to the colorist, who bewitches each tile of the webwork lattice into limbs, clothes, hair, eyes, shadows, lights-with a Tinkerbell tint of form. What elevates the rendering of a master animator above the imprecise sketch of the art school student or the shaky ribbon of the apprentice animator is the ability to draw-from imagination and memory--each clean mysterious arc “on model.” This art yields a living character whose Lines never stray from the film’s aesthetic, whose wildest gestures adhere to the style sheets, and whose multiple authors remain anonymous. Compare, if you will, the Line of Disney’s Hercules with the selfdescribed “Squigglevision” in any episode of HBO’s Dr. fit? The doubly classical Herculex contains hillsides and women’s torsos alike etched in the profile of a Grecian urn, clouds and chins that curl like the drapery on Greek statues, clothes that pleat into Doric folds, thunderbolts that not only zigzag but meander in the classical Greek motif you find as far and wide as those blue and white paper coffee cups that declare It’s Our Pleasure to Serve You. The nonclassical Dr. fit5 at the minimalist end of the spectrum, is nothing more than wavery storyboards, a production hinged on stand-up comedian’s voices: 90 percent vocal performance, 8 percent eye blinks and twitches, 2 percent staging-in short, visual radio. You could mrn off the picture and catch the emotional drift entirely through the sound. Insofar as visual artistic skill remains a measure of excellence, Dr. fit? requires astonishingly little; one wouldn’t train for a decade to acquire such drawing ability, as one must to draw the Line of a Disney animated feature. This contrast clarifies the Line’s aesthetic standard-setting function: the three-frame cycles of jiggling lines in Dr. fit? could be traced by practically anyone who can drag a drawing implement over a page. I enjoy Dr. fit? for its wry and witty words, but since I...

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