Welcome! Glad you could join us. This is another Sunday edition of the Animation Obsessive newsletter — and here’s the plan:

• 1. Why animation is for anyone.

• 2. Newsbits.

With that, let’s go!

1. Problem solvers

It’s no secret that animation is tough work. Anyone who’s tried it can tell you as much. And certain styles and studios are especially taxing: more than once, Walt Disney ordered a dozen-plus retakes of individual shots, for example.1

Even Disney’s best artists didn’t reach his standards easily. This type of perfectionism created Snow White (1937) — his people got pushed beyond all they’d done before. Years and immense resources went into training a team to work in the Snow White style on the Snow White level.

That was an anomaly in the ‘30s. Even today, most don’t get the opportunity to learn all that the Disney people learned back then. Like an artist from the Snow White era recalled, the studio:

… was like a marvelous big Renaissance Craft Hall in that it had a terrific teaching program and a lot of training that went with it. Young people coming in got a terrific break, I believe, because they were given a chance to study drawing, composition, animation, action. We studied old movies, layout, art direction. All of us were encouraged to study these free courses. Out of that came advancements, too. They were very anxious to find the exceptional people and move them up fast.2

It’s impressive — and, viewed one way, maybe demoralizing. Who’s got the time or access to learn to draw like Grim Natwick, one of Snow White’s leads? And isn’t that what real animation demands? The competitive, kind-of-elitist attitude of the old Disney school often seemed to suggest it. Maybe you’ve been left out.

These are real feelings. And, in recent years, they’ve gotten used in a core GenAI sales pitch to artists. Allegedly, art is inaccessible and only for a lucky few; slop services level the playing field. The idea is that generated animation gives everyone a shot.

Despite the many problems with GenAI videos and images, that sense of left-outness can be powerful. Drawing like a Disney great really is off the table for some people. But perspective matters here, because the hyper-technical Disney style was only ever one option — one of