Animation Toolworks' Video LunchBox. © Animation Toolworks.	Inside the LunchBox...© Animation Toolworks.

A LunchBox holds more than just pastrami on rye these days. That's right, there's more going for a LunchBox then housing HB pencils, watercolors, and charcoal sticks. Now, I'm not talking about fly fishing hooks and live worm bait, nor am I talking about wrenches, screwdrivers and duct tape.

Don't be confused by its ordinary name, for inside Animation Toolworks' Video LunchBox lies quite another innovative story.

"A terrific tool for stop-motion and cel animators...the world's best testing system for animation." - Webster Colcord, senior character animator, Pacific Data Images

"We instantly noticed an increase in the quality of the animation and the fact that, suddenly, there were a lot fewer reshoots...an invaluable tool...frees the animator to concentrate on performance rather than registration." - Doug Aberle, director/animator, Will Vinton Studios

To Good To Be True?
When I got this assignment, I had my doubts. I'm an independent art director and producer and I'm pretty tired of learning supposedly `new' and `better' ways to execute what I already know. Before I even looked at it, I was already asking myself, "What's this thing got that's so darn cool?! Why should I bother? I don't need another `thingy' to learn and get frustrated with. What's in it for me?"

These are great questions. Questions that all of us in the industry, whether we are newbies or 20-year veterans, would be asking. But as we all know, most good advancements come from someone's cry for help. Shooting tests of animation is necessary to help the animator and director see how the shot will work before they dedicate it to film or video. The Video LunchBox answers the cry for an easier pencil test machine, or `framegrabber.'

Animators at Will Vinton Studios use more than 25 Video LunchBox units for the production of stop-motion commercials and TV series. © Will Vinton Studios.

Talking to Users
"The Video LunchBox was designed for teaching animation as well as for the professional animator as a pencil test or reference test device. It is superlative at improving productivity during the early stages of cel animation, or during the filming of stop-motion animation. With the Video LunchBox, the animator, you, get to see your animation instantly. You can learn to use it in minutes." - The Animation Toolworks press kit

I began my research by indeed interviewing professionals and educators alike. Miraculously, like the press kit said, both groups praised the usefulness of this machine. Granted, how the strengths of the product is utilized varies between the two groups but what is important is that everyone using this little machine seems pretty darn happy.