This is fantastic—it must have been a ton of work to scan the entire book! I can’t wait to download and pore over it. Thank you—a treat to begin the week with.
It was, absolutely, a ton of work! Way more than we'd even expected (and our expectation was that it would be time-consuming). Hope you like going through the book as much as we do!
Cartoon Modern is one my favourite animation books to read and look through, from the recounts of stories and interviews to the careful peppering of production art from various shorts. It really is a great book that I've referenced and looked back on multiple times in my studies and its great to think that all the insight and art the book is brimming with will be more accessible to everyone.
It's truly a one-of-a-kind book. We're still picking up new things from it every time we go back. Here's hoping that it can become a favorite for many more people!
Is it possible to donate your scans to OpenLibrary (the book preservation section of archive.org)? I would definitely look into how to contribute this resource there!
Yeah, this is great! We'll find time to contribute the uncompressed pages as well. Not sure if the Internet Archive's interface will be able to handle such large files, but it's for the best if they're preserved in a more permanent place than Mega.
Thanks for this! Fourier transforms are definitely the way to go when it comes to descreening. There's a really flexible script for GIMP that does this, too. If you tune the settings just right, it works like magic for individual images.
I got Cartoon Modern immediately when it came out. It's the book we lovers of UPA and Stylized Animation were waiting for and definitively a jewel. Kudos to Amid Amidi for his talent and generosity and you guys for the initiative. If I find the time I will try to deescreen some of the images.
Thanks very much! We absolutely put a lot of time into this project, but it's been wonderful to watch people stumble across it in the years since. Happy to bring such an important book to the world again. We're still getting use out of it ourselves!
Thanks for this! Have seen the book on eBay and had it in my wishlist for a bit, but quite expensive.
ps, regarding cartoon modern, etc - when I was a kid I remember seeing a cartoon on TV in this style but I just can't remember the name of it. The end credits I seem to remember showed a house, and everything was colored blue (the house and the background the same color - maybe it's night), and I think a man comes home ( a dad) and goes into the house. Not sure if he drives home or is walking home. It used to be on every weekend here. But it was in the cartoon modern style. Any idea what it might have been?
Thanks so much for your hard work scanning this. Looking forward to staring at it endlessly!
You're very welcome -- we hope you enjoy the book!
Both copies of Cartoon Modern have been uploaded to the Internet Archive, which is easier to browse.
smaller pdf - https://archive.org/details/cartoonmodern/
4 gig cbz of raw scans, for future descreening - https://archive.org/details/cartoon-modern-uncompressed
This is fantastic—it must have been a ton of work to scan the entire book! I can’t wait to download and pore over it. Thank you—a treat to begin the week with.
It was, absolutely, a ton of work! Way more than we'd even expected (and our expectation was that it would be time-consuming). Hope you like going through the book as much as we do!
Cartoon Modern is one my favourite animation books to read and look through, from the recounts of stories and interviews to the careful peppering of production art from various shorts. It really is a great book that I've referenced and looked back on multiple times in my studies and its great to think that all the insight and art the book is brimming with will be more accessible to everyone.
It's truly a one-of-a-kind book. We're still picking up new things from it every time we go back. Here's hoping that it can become a favorite for many more people!
Thanks a lot is amazing!
You're very welcome! Happy to hear you're enjoying the book.
Is it possible to donate your scans to OpenLibrary (the book preservation section of archive.org)? I would definitely look into how to contribute this resource there!
Thank you for the suggestion -- we'll look into it!
It looks like Amid Amidi uploaded the pdf to the Internet Archive, which has a pleasant reading interface - https://archive.org/details/cartoonmodern/mode/1up
Yeah, this is great! We'll find time to contribute the uncompressed pages as well. Not sure if the Internet Archive's interface will be able to handle such large files, but it's for the best if they're preserved in a more permanent place than Mega.
About descreening, I recently saw an article about using FFTs to do some neat halftone removal - https://www.getrevue.co/profile/shift-happens/issues/moire-no-more-688319
Thanks for this! Fourier transforms are definitely the way to go when it comes to descreening. There's a really flexible script for GIMP that does this, too. If you tune the settings just right, it works like magic for individual images.
What a wonderful book. A treasury of inspiration. Thank you so much.
Happy to share it! Amazing to know it’s still reaching people even 3 years later.
I got Cartoon Modern immediately when it came out. It's the book we lovers of UPA and Stylized Animation were waiting for and definitively a jewel. Kudos to Amid Amidi for his talent and generosity and you guys for the initiative. If I find the time I will try to deescreen some of the images.
I have scanned books at work and it's A LOT of work!
Thanks very much! We absolutely put a lot of time into this project, but it's been wonderful to watch people stumble across it in the years since. Happy to bring such an important book to the world again. We're still getting use out of it ourselves!
Thanks for this! Have seen the book on eBay and had it in my wishlist for a bit, but quite expensive.
ps, regarding cartoon modern, etc - when I was a kid I remember seeing a cartoon on TV in this style but I just can't remember the name of it. The end credits I seem to remember showed a house, and everything was colored blue (the house and the background the same color - maybe it's night), and I think a man comes home ( a dad) and goes into the house. Not sure if he drives home or is walking home. It used to be on every weekend here. But it was in the cartoon modern style. Any idea what it might have been?
Happy to share the book! And sorry -- we're not sure what this one could be. Do you remember any other details about the show?
That really neat!
Thank you!