11 responses to “Quote of the Day”

1. 

   Victor Dang

   22 December 2014

   I’m constantly impressed with how they were able to apply the “real” camera effects (or others) on the animation frames that you often saw on these news programs of the day. E.g. notice the weird tilt angle they were able to achieve above. Gave the show a pretty good close-to-realistic feel at times, IMO.

   1. 

      Stan

      23 December 2014

      They just drew it like that, don’t see anything special about it.

      1. 

         Victor Dang

         23 December 2014

         Nnnope, camera tilt is clearly used on the scene, you can see it here (WMP required, only place I can find it ATM though): http://blog.daum.net/rlagmldus1108/2429440

         Looking at it again, it seems to me that they must have animated three scenes, the left side where Kent is, the right side where Dr. Monroe is, and the background with the SMARTLINE logo and Brockman and Monroe’s names on the bottom. Also, look at the perspective lines, especially on Monroe’s side. With how crude the animation was back then, no way could that tilt effect have been imitated by hand.

         Like I said, it’s the special touches that count…

         1. 

            Victor Dang

            23 December 2014

            Speaking of special touches: that background intro music to SMARTLINE is sublime, I gotta say. It actually sounds like it could be a theme to a real news special. They really utilized the live orchestra to great effect back in those days…

         2. 

            Victor Dang

            23 December 2014

            Oooh, it should also be noted that other than the camera tilt, which must have been done post-production, everything else was hand-animated, right down to the text describers on the bottom. Pretty crude-looking, but pretty cool.

            1. 

               torbiecat

               23 December 2014

               I think if anything else other than the camera tilt was animated by other means than by hand-drawn cel animation–such as using Scanimate on the text (which I’ll admit that it’s one of those little oddities from the past I seem to miss more than most people)–it would had stuck out like a sore thumb. It’s pretty cool that you had taken notice of how this scene was animated.

               1. 

                  Victor Dang

                  26 December 2014

                  Why, thank you. I take great fortitudinous pleasure in noticing little details that others would smartly ignore.

            2. 

               D.N.

               23 December 2014

               I love the hand-drawn text in the earlier seasons.

               1. 

                  torbiecat

                  23 December 2014

                  Same here. It fit in well with the rest of the Simpsons’ universe.

2. 

   jbwarner86

   23 December 2014

   “Why did we kill this guy? …Oh right, ’cause we hated him.”

   1. 

      Peabo Castella

      23 December 2014

      It wasn’t just the fact that the staff hated him. It was because Harry Shearer always complained that his voice hurt every time he did Dr. Marvin Monroe’s voice.