Grand National is a moving portrayal of the very "real," even though it is painted with only black ink and dashes of color. The film opens on the empty streets surrounding the stadium--the quiet before the storm--then shows the arrival of hundreds upon hundreds of automobiles. As the crowds unfold onto the stadium like an irrepressible tide, the eye of the camera moves through the crowds, stopping to examine small huddles of race goers--blue collar workers comparing bets, rich women talking about the horses but actually evaluating each other's attire, young couples out for the day and impressed by all who are there to see and be seen.

The Grand National by Sue Loughlin.

The horses are led out, looking--with Loughlin's bold painted lines--like great beasts from legendary Troy. The jockeys arrive and Loughlin brings their racing colors to life with single strokes of purple, red, and blue. The race begins, and the sound of the crowd is at once deafening and utterly silent against the pounding of the horses' hooves. At each jump, riders and horses fall and brush, stripped away from the obstacle, flies toward the camera. The horses come around the corner on the last 400 yards and two horses are neck and neck. The remaining riders' colors blur together in a rainbow of power and speed. Rhyme & Reason crosses the finish line first and the jockey heads to the Winner's Circle. A typical day at the races.

But as the crowd moves out of the stands into their taxis and cars, the audience is left with unanswered questions. Why do people go to the races? What does racing and betting mean? And, if racing means so much, especially to people in a small town, what is left to look forward to during those interminable days between one Grand National and the next?

To complete Grand National Loughlin invented a new lightbox so that she could paint directly onto a cel without using a pencil first. "I wanted that spontaneity," she says, "which gets lost drawing first and then rendering later." So she created a design that would allow her to put a piece of glass over a wet cel, keeping each cel about an inch apart, while painting another cel on top. "I had a carpenter make it for me. It was trial and error though because I had to have two peg bars, one on top of the other. Still, to keep the cels registered, I have to keep my head in the same position each time. If I move it goes out of registration." Although the system may sound awkward, Loughlin says it is actually comfortable, works fine and served her purpose even as she made the transition to professional work while still in school.

Social Reform and Women's Rights
One of the most impressive projects completed early on with her newfangled lightbox, was for the Genesis World Tour of 1992. For Dreaming While You Sleep, a song about a reckless driver, Loughlin created images of cars driving through hill country. Her animation, which was projected during the tour, had atmospheric blue backgrounds and for the night scenes, bright yellow headlights that whirled and sped around dizzying curves. Dreaming While You Sleep led to other professional jobs about social reform and women's rights.

For an Amnesty International public service announcement, she created a world where an ordinary woman, a free sort of spirit, is torn apart from everything she has known. "It's like a black cloud comes over and rips her apart from her family," says Loughlin, who explains that the piece is full of symbolism, a tool she finds essential in much of her storytelling.