This may not seem like something entirely new to so many people who have become accustomed to using digital drawing tablets and working with software like Photoshop and Painter for many years now, but not enough emphasis can be put on how far the technology has come. The natural feel of the pen on the drawing surface of the Cintiq is quite amazing, and the ability to rotate the entire tablet much like an old school animation disc is also a huge asset. I can’t believe how quickly many of my old-school pencil and paper artist friends are catching on to the Cintiq, and raving about its astounding functionality.

Old school pencil and paper artists are astounded by how far technology has come. Products like Cintiq allow creative teams to present their drawing ideas quickly, compressing the time it takes to deliver a project.

Today, creative teams are able to send their drawing ideas quickly and directly to the director or lead designer, who can then make changes, notes and suggestions on a new level directly on top of the artwork and send it back to the artists in the blink of an eye. The time saved by an artistic director who once had to be constantly on the go, moving from artist to artist, making suggestions and changes out on the floor of the studio, is enormous. Of course if a more hands on approach, face to face interaction is desired, that can still be done, but the options available to manage the flow of our creative ideas are far greater with these new tools working as well as they do today.

Software too has been catching up quickly to the desire for a natural drawing experience on a computer, and Alias (Autodesk) Sketchbook Pro 1.1 is another tool that is catching on like wildfire, because of its extremely user friendly, intuitive tools, pencils, pens, brushes and levels. The learning curve is extremely fast, no real need for training or leafing through weighty user manuals.

This is the kind of tool traditional artists have been waiting a long time for. No fuss, no superior computer skills required, just a fast intuitive way to draw on a computer. For a purely straightforward piece of drawing software, it is hard to beat, although of course there are bugs to be worked out, and countless improvements that should be, and I’m sure will be made.

Personally, seeing the work being created in my current production workspace using the Cintiq and Sketchbook Pro, I am finally becoming convinced that “paperless” animation production may one day become a reality, even at the earlier design stages where it is still common to see artists using every thing, from charcoal to oil paint, to create design ideas, character, location, special effects prop designs, color palettes, and conceptual ‘look of picture’ designs of all kinds.

If these tools become even better than they are now, we will see more and more old school artists giving up their beloved paints and pencils, and moving, if somewhat reluctantly, onto the world of digital drawing.

The Alias SketchBook Pro, with its ability to capture ideas quickly, might replace the pencil and napkin. It is extremely user friendly with no real need for training. © Alias Systems Corp.

Beyond the earlier stages of development, design and storyboarding that I have detailed here, of course we have seen digital ink-and-paint and particularly, Flash transform 2D animation into a process that takes a fraction of the time to produce than the old animator assistant/inbetweener/production model of years past. No need to go over that here, we all know the process is speeding up, some of the resulting animation is looking better and better, and not necessarily too far removed from the “high quality” animation that we all want to see being produced.

It looks to me like digital “2D” animation, is really coming into a new and exciting era. Even with shrinking budgets and schedules, we can look forward to creating better looking shows than ever if we embrace and exploit the super efficient digital tools that we have at our fingertips today. Even this crusty, narrow minded, old school, hand-drawn, animator’s survival kit thumping animator can see that we are entering an era of a much broader and less restricted visual vocabulary.

Of course I for one will never stop emphasizing the need for good old school hands-on training for our students of the craft, if only for the purpose of teaching them the importance and the value of every frame that we deal with in animation. Letting the computer do too much of the work too early on in an artist’s development may severely stunt their ability to process creative ideas thoroughly in their imaginations before committing them to paper, uh, that is, their digital tablet… But even the earliest, teaching, design and development stages of animation production may be done on digital drawing tablets some day soon, as these products become more widely available and affordable.

One by one, my industry friends who use the Cintiq at work are getting them for their home studios as well (at least those who can afford the still rather high price tag). Keep in mind folks, I certainly don’t write about animation to advertise these products! In my mind, this phase of technological development is one of the most important developments in the history of our industry, up there with Technicolor, digital ink-and-paint and 3D CGI technology.

Visit a few studios these days, and these new drawing tablets are conspicuously evident everywhere you look. And they are giving us greater and greater creative freedom, as well as making it possible for more new shows to be developed and produced affordably, (even in spite of their somewhat lofty price tag), and within the time constraints of an ever more demanding clientele. Hopefully this will challenge more and more companies to develop and offer us even better and more importantly, even more affordable new digital drawing tools.

In his 30-year animation career, Joseph Gilland has worked with studios as diverse Walt Disney Feature Animation and the National Film Board of Canada. He has worked on all styles of animation, experimental films, television series, commercials, theatrical feature films, stop motion, title sequences, live-action films and documentaries. Formerly the head of the classical and digital character animation programs at the Vancouver Film School, Gilland is writing a passionate book about the art of animation.