Cel Animated Show That Switched to Digital Coloring

[Dylan James Yi]

I think the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Karen's Virus" used the footage from the Season 1/cel-animated episode "Plankton"...

 

[wiley207]

I'm pretty sure Arthur DID use cels pre-1999, but they're incredibly, incredibly rare. Here's one, I dunno what episode it's from.

View attachment 306973

However this is the ONLY one I could find.

I think that's actually one of those reproduction cels, meant to be displayed as a piece of artwork from the start. Someone had also once posted such a cel from "Stolen Bike"...

Some of the colors are different from that shot in the actual episode, most notably Sue Ellen's hair and George's complexion being mis-colored the same dark brown as his antlers.
I still stand by what Greg Bailey said, the show being digitally colored from the start. There's the early Season 1 episodes (the ones where characters have abnormally light-colored tongues and the more cartoonish movements) looking similar to the animation digitally colored and composited using the Hanna-Barbera computer system (AKOM must've had such a system in place, since some prints of "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend" briefly show a digital AKOM slate at the start of the whip-pan shot when Buster is calling Arthur on the phone to tune into the TV commercial.)

 

[CassieTheDragon]

I think that's actually one of those reproduction cels, meant to be displayed as a piece of artwork from the start. Someone had also once posted such a cel from "Stolen Bike"...
View attachment 307551
Some of the colors are different from that shot in the actual episode, most notably Sue Ellen's hair and George's complexion being mis-colored the same dark brown as his antlers.
I still stand by what Greg Bailey said, the show being digitally colored from the start. There's the early Season 1 episodes (the ones where characters have abnormally light-colored tongues and the more cartoonish movements) looking similar to the animation digitally colored and composited using the Hanna-Barbera computer system (AKOM must've had such a system in place, since some prints of "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend" briefly show a digital AKOM slate at the start of the whip-pan shot when Buster is calling Arthur on the phone to tune into the TV commercial.)

Has anyone ever contacted any of the animators who worked on Season 1-3 Arthur and asked them about this? Like, i've love some confirmation

 

[MTAF1976]

Is there a thread similar to this but for cartoons that switched aspect ratio during their run / shows made in widescreen early or 4:3 late?

 

[Dylan James Yi]

Is there a thread similar to this but for cartoons that switched aspect ratio during their run / shows made in widescreen early or 4:3 late?

Shoud have make this thread about it.

The Simpsons started switched to widescreen ratio since the half of season 20, Family Guy started using the widescreen ratio since Season 9.

SpongeBob SquarePants tested with the widescreen ratio on the 2009 special "Truth or Square", which wasn't used here until the episode "Eek, an Urchin!", but the show still uses the 4:3 ratio for this theme song which is still cel animated until this was changed since 2016 starting with "Lame and Fortune" (despite SpongeBob still using his original Season 1 design).

 

[Dylan James Yi]

As we say not to count with the other cel animated shows that used digital coloring in any episodes (like Recess, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, The Snorks, The Smurfs (1981), Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series, and Sandokan) aside from Mickey Mouse Works, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Yo Yogi, "Effie Shrugged" is the last Pepper Ann episode to use cels here, while "All the Way From the Country of the Future" is the last cel animated episode of the 1979 anime series of Doraemon.

SpongeBob SquarePants, 1999 (final episode segment produced with cel-animation is season 1 episode segment Sleepy Time, switched to digital in 2000 for season 2 premiere segment Your Shoe's Untied)

Actually, the last aired SpongeBob SquarePants episode to use cels was "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II".

And since Arthur wasn't included here, "D.W.'s Library Card" is the first aired episode to use digital coloring, I can't think if there was the first season 4 episode of Arthur in production order... I don't really know...

And the Cyborg Kuro-chan episode "Big Shopping Date Duel!" was the final episode since this episode used digital coloring at that time.

 

[wiley207]

• Pac-Man (1982)
  • Episode 13 - "Nighty Nightmares / The Pac-Mummy" (only episode)

While watching that, it does indeed appear to be the first appearance of Hanna-Barbera's computer system they used in the 1980s and then sent to Wang Film Productions in the early 1990s. But, unlike most of the stuff animated on that computer, the finished animation was transferred to film, creating a rather unique look. (I could definitely tell it was colored using the computer system by some of those digital transitions.) I guess ultimately H-B found it easier to just keep the digital animation on videotape.

 

[ChrisSkeeter]

While watching that, it does indeed appear to be the first appearance of Hanna-Barbera's computer system they used in the 1980s and then sent to Wang Film Productions in the early 1990s. But, unlike most of the stuff animated on that computer, the finished animation was transferred to film, creating a rather unique look. (I could definitely tell it was colored using the computer system by some of those digital transitions.) I guess ultimately H-B found it easier to just keep the digital animation on videotape.

It was also the earliest digital ink and paint production ever

 

[wiley207]

It was also the earliest digital ink and paint production ever

Yep. These 1983 Scotland commercials also appear to have been animated using the computer system and then transferred to film, like that "Pac-Man" episode.
Maybe it was starting in 1984 when Hanna-Barbera decided it was easier to just output their digital animation onto videotape.

 

[cheril59]

Yep. These 1983 Scotland commercials also appear to have been animated using the computer system and then transferred to film, like that "Pac-Man" episode.
Maybe it was starting in 1984 when Hanna-Barbera decided it was easier to just output their digital animation onto videotape.

These Top Cat Scotland adverts was the only time a laugh track was utilized in computer colored material by HB.

 

[PrevueLovesAnimeTV]

The SpongeBob SquarePants season one episodes "Jellyfish Jam" and "SB-129" are both to test with digital ink and paint animation used for "Jellyfish Jam" for the shot were SpongeBob is on top of the rocky hills and on "SB-129" for that shot were Primitive Sponge and Primitive Star are drooling.

Franklin was switched from cel animation to digital ink and paint sometimes in 2000, I guess...

Caillou was even the first Cinar production to used digital ink and paint animation for season one.

Kipper used digital ink and paint instead of being cel animation.

The 1995 british/france series for Mr. Men and Little Miss doesn't used cel animation, instead it used digital ink and paint animation.

Well, Dora the Explorer had used digital ink and paint animation since season 1 until ended in 2015.

I'm glad that Family Guy was even the first FOX animated show to use digital ink and paint animation since season 1 until around later switch to be animated with Toon Boom (But not count on this, the first to use this was on The Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man").

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episodes from Count Koopula to Robo Koopa had used digital ink and paint animation, that was the first DiC show to use this before The Wacky World of Tex Avery.

The Oh Yeah! Cartoons Chalkzone shorts have used the digital ink and paint animation instead of cel animated which was the first Nicktoon to use digital ink and paint animation (Not counting with The Ren & Stimpy Show).

Nelvana started using Digital Paint in 1995 and they digitized their animation process in 2000 and also did Flash, They Started using NelNet in 2004 and then they Stopped Scanning Hand-Drawn Storyboards in 2008

 

[PrevueLovesAnimeTV]

Samurai Jack already used digital ink and paint from the start.
And yes, Babar's sixth season used digital ink and paint.

The Sixth Season aired and was produced in 2000

 

[cheril59]

Nelvana started using Digital Paint in 1995 and they digitized their animation process in 2000 and also did Flash, They Started using NelNet in 2004 and then they Stopped Scanning Hand-Drawn Storyboards in 2008

Actually, the earliest use of digital ink and paint for Nelvana was, I think, "Tales from the Cryptkeeper" in 1993.

 

[ChrisSkeeter]

Actually, the earliest use of digital ink and paint for Nelvana was, I think, "Tales from the Cryptkeeper" in 1993.

Upon rewatching it, Tales from the Cryptkeeper indeed appears to have been digitally animated, since it lacks the artefacs typically seen in cel animation, like telecine wobble and cue dots. A few cels have been made, though these were only used as promotional art.

 

[PrevueLovesAnimeTV]

Upon rewatching it, Tales from the Cryptkeeper indeed appears to have been digitally animated, since it lacks the artefacs typically seen in cel animation, like telecine wobble and cue dots. A few cels have been made, though these were only used as promotional art.

that's true, but the digital animation came from Overseas due to the studio (Wang) having the system that H-B (under Taft) gave to them