Excerpt from:
Animating "The Black Cauldron"
by Brain Lowery
https://www.dix-project.net/item/3061/starlog-magazine-issue-97-animating-the-black-cauldron
"One of the problems we've had in the last few years," Hale admits, "is that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and others have moved in and taken over special effects – they do in live action what we used to do only in animation. If we are going to have any kind of an impact and keep this industry going, we must go farther in animation than they have in live action."
Inspired by the CG the Disney animators were doing for "Basil of Baker Street" (later "The Great Mouse Detective"), Joe Hale asked them to do some computer animation for The Black Cauldron.
Excerpt from Computers in the 'Cauldron'
by Patricia Berry
March 1985
https://www.dix-project.net/item/2926/enter-magazine-issue-2-5-computers-in-the-cauldron
This animated fantasy took Disney five years to make. All of the characters and most other moving objects were done by hand by Disney's staff of artists, But computers helped with the animation of solid objects,
and with the filming process itself.
On many scenes, a computerized device, appropriately called the Animators' Helper System, assisted the artistic staff.
The Animators' Helper improved and speeded up the work, according to Cauldron's producer, Joe Hale. "In one scene, we have a boat that Taran and Eilonwy escape in," says Hale.
"First, the boat's just sitting in the water. But when the kids get in, it tips with their weight, and balances again.
"It takes a very long time to make that kind of movement look real by hand-drawing each frame," Hale explains. "If it's not done precisely, you get a kind of rubbery look instead of a fluid movement."
But with the computer, animators simply had to input the dimensions of the boat, its various angles, and the directions in which it was to move. The computer then printed outlines for each position of the boat.
The computer can do some fancy work that hand-drawn animation can't.
But Disney's animators didn't want to use the full power of the computer For example, in the boat scene, the computer drawings could show three dimensions of the boat,
including the inside ribs that you wouldn't normally see. But that would have looked very different than the rest of the animation.
"So we traced only the part you'd see from the front," explains Hate, "for the painters to fill in later"
In the filming process, computers helped Disney artists create depth of field. This is very difficult to achieve in the two-dimensional world of animation.
By using a multiplane camera with precisely timed computer-controlled exposures, the filmmakers were able to get an image that seemed deeper and more lifelike.
Yet while computers have proved very helpful, there are certain aspects of animated filmmaking that are off-limits to these machines. For instance, says Hale,
"we don't use the computer to add color [to the animation]. We do all that by hand. We even grind our own pigments."
Computers also do not play a part in creating the studio's memorable animated characters, Disney animators pride themselves on creating life-like characters — like the Horned King and Taran — out of pen, paper and paint.
"While [the computer] is great for animating solid, geometric objects that have [little or no] human characteristics, I doubt if the computer will ever be used tor animating personality," says Hale,
"The computer can save thousands of hours for us, but it's just a tool," he concludes. "The real work is done by the artists. A computer will never replace them."
Excerpt from Mike Pareza 's "Cauldron of Chaos, Part 3"
"A new process was also developed during Cauldron called APT which was meant to replace Xerography at the studio. Dave Spencer would go on to receive an technical merit Aademy Award for the process however it never did take the place of Xerox as foretold. Computers would eventually provide that little change."
