There was to be a new, huge display board at the Montreal Forum (what
became a Jumbotron), where the NHL hockey team, Les Canadiens, played.
It would make announcements, have scores and other items we are used
to seeing today. They wanted some animation, funny silent little bits
that could be put onscreen as a kind of comment on the plays. If
someone was not going after the puck aggressively, for example, there
would be an animated chicken playing on the ice. If someone got a
penalty for holding, a cartoon octopus would be seen grabbing a hockey
player. The animation would not be filmed for its final use, it would be shown
on the large screen which would be covered in light bulbs, in effect,
though not as crude as that. The actual drawings would be in effect
digitized into a computer. On the screen, some “light bulbs” would be
turned on, others turned off, and at a distance, sitting in the
stands, you would see the drawing in this translated form. The screen
would go from one drawing to the next, lighting some areas, leaving
dark others, and at the proper rate of speed the effect would be
animation. We had to design a new type of exposure sheet for ourselves and for
the technician who would, instead of filming our drawings, translate
them onto the computer, then program the sequence on the scoreboard to
achieve animation. The timing was different from regular film
animation, being eight drawings per second of screen time. We had to
design our animation and our concepts to fit these constraints, and
make sure that the lines on the animation were thick and dark. The
final drawings were cleaned up with magic markers rather than pencil. The news and sports reports on the new scoreboard and the animation
were all positive. We went on to do some commercials in this system
for the scoreboard later as well. You can judge the results for
yourself by clicking on the link below. It will take you to some of
the hockey scenes we did. This footage is from studio pencil tests of
the original rough animation before cleanup and digitization
became a Jumbotron), where the NHL hockey team, Les Canadiens, played.
It would make announcements, have scores and other items we are used
to seeing today. They wanted some animation, funny silent little bits
that could be put onscreen as a kind of comment on the plays. If
someone was not going after the puck aggressively, for example, there
would be an animated chicken playing on the ice. If someone got a
penalty for holding, a cartoon octopus would be seen grabbing a hockey
player. The animation would not be filmed for its final use, it would be shown
on the large screen which would be covered in light bulbs, in effect,
though not as crude as that. The actual drawings would be in effect
digitized into a computer. On the screen, some “light bulbs” would be
turned on, others turned off, and at a distance, sitting in the
stands, you would see the drawing in this translated form. The screen
would go from one drawing to the next, lighting some areas, leaving
dark others, and at the proper rate of speed the effect would be
animation. We had to design a new type of exposure sheet for ourselves and for
the technician who would, instead of filming our drawings, translate
them onto the computer, then program the sequence on the scoreboard to
achieve animation. The timing was different from regular film
animation, being eight drawings per second of screen time. We had to
design our animation and our concepts to fit these constraints, and
make sure that the lines on the animation were thick and dark. The
final drawings were cleaned up with magic markers rather than pencil. The news and sports reports on the new scoreboard and the animation
were all positive. We went on to do some commercials in this system
for the scoreboard later as well. You can judge the results for
yourself by clicking on the link below. It will take you to some of
the hockey scenes we did. This footage is from studio pencil tests of
the original rough animation before cleanup and digitization
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