I look forward to this newsletter every week. It was fascinating to learn about Bacher and his principles, let alone be able to download the PDF documents.
I was exciting to learn about 'The Art of El Tigre' coming out soon. Loved the show and Jorge Gutierrez's work.
I am also excited to learn about Lupi & Baduki coming soon to Max.
Minha esposa é brasileira e estou tentando melhorar meu português. Adoro desenhos animados brasileiros.
Thank you, Andy! Hope you enjoy the guides -- and glad you got so much out of this issue, not just in the main article but in the newsbits. Lupi & Baduki looks really ambitious and it would be great if it succeeded. There's real animation talent in Brazil even if it doesn't get a ton of recognition!
Thanks so much, Coleen! It means a lot. And we were amazed to see that comment from him -- so exciting. It's crazy that the Coraline PDF is still making the rounds!
I was only 10 or 11 when Mulan came out but it has since been my favorite movie. As a young artist, this was the kind of information I was hungry for! Every now and then there would be a short (probably on the Disney channel) that shared behind-the-scenes to making the animated movies, and learning about the watercolor backgrounds in Lilo&Stitch is what inspired me to take up watercolor. Oh how I would have DEVOURED any information like this for Mulan at that age!
This is impressive. I think this is my favourite newsletter of Animation Obsessive until now! I didn't know about this Bacher's Bible and I am fascinated. Looking forward to open my sketchbook and read the style guide taking notes. Thanks!
Excellent writing as ever - it's really cool to see these design principles broken down explicitly with examples like this! Design is all about contrasts, and the detail/flatness one is so relevant. As fun as the final film is, I'd be fascinated to see the version of Mulan that pushes the classical Chinese painting inspiration further - maybe even approaches Te Wei's style, can you imagine. With the current donghua renaissance, I hope we'll see if we'll get a Chinese traditionally-animated film with the same kind of historical setting. There are so many stories it would be great to adapt from works like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Surely we can't let 'Paripi Kongming' steal all the thunder!
but... ok I'm down here to grouse about something else ^^' I was curious to see a new article about SEK in North Korea, since it's been hard to get a lot of information about them, but the article has such a weirdly conspiratorial tone applied to activities like 'working' and 'watching Disney movies' - don't you know anything done by any North Korean is actually a cunning scheme to further the evil nuclear plans of the government? Someone noticed our outsourcing to the lowest bidder made its way down the chain to North Korea? Better start an Investigation about it, we wouldn't want those guys to eat.
I'm sure you've got a lot of projects in the works, but I'd be very interested if you guys ever wrote about the history of SEK in North Korea. Especially given your access to Chinese-language sources, since at least in China you can admit to dealing with them. It's definitely true that a lot of SEK's works like 'Squirrel and Hedgehog' have a bit of a nationalist/militaristic tone - though honestly, not much more than the average Western spy movie. But I feel like very few people seem to bother taking their work seriously as animation, or view it in historical context (e.g. drawing parallels with Chinese series like Black Cat Detective). Western writing about North Korea and North Koreans so often seems to treat them as the forever unknowable Other, but I bet there are so many interesting stories of what it was like to work at SEK over the years, just as there are with Shanghai Animation Film Studio's long history.
Thank you! That's really kind. And it's definitely true that a more authentic approach has a ton of potential. There's that one scene in Mulan with a digital ink-wash style, likely inspired by the old Shanghai Animation films, and it looks great. Going further in that direction (or even doing something akin to the look of Chang'an, but in 2D) could produce really cool results.
As for the report about North Korea, it's not perfect by any means! We were more intrigued by the level of detail when it came to some of the facts -- stuff like the existence of SEK at all (which was new to us), the way its business seems to operate or the links to its animation on YouTube. Despite the article's description of this work as cheap propaganda, it's clear just watching a little of it that SEK's artists aren't amateurs. We'll keep an eye out for more information. It might not be possible to find raw, uncensored histories like the ones shared by Shanghai Animation artists post-Mao, but there could be something useful out there. We appreciate the suggestion!
I’ve always loved the Chinese inspired art style of Mulan, but I never realised the level of attention to the backgrounds. The style guide having the contrasting shapes of the characters and the landscape is so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing!!
I loved today's newsletter!! Always inspiring, thank you!
Thank you -- very glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating! What a wonderful resource and great insight to a beloved and beautiful film. I so appreciate this!
Thanks for the very kind message! Really appreciate it, and glad you liked the piece!
I look forward to this newsletter every week. It was fascinating to learn about Bacher and his principles, let alone be able to download the PDF documents.
I was exciting to learn about 'The Art of El Tigre' coming out soon. Loved the show and Jorge Gutierrez's work.
I am also excited to learn about Lupi & Baduki coming soon to Max.
Minha esposa é brasileira e estou tentando melhorar meu português. Adoro desenhos animados brasileiros.
Thank you, Andy! Hope you enjoy the guides -- and glad you got so much out of this issue, not just in the main article but in the newsbits. Lupi & Baduki looks really ambitious and it would be great if it succeeded. There's real animation talent in Brazil even if it doesn't get a ton of recognition!
This was such a fascinating and fun read!! And I'm tickled to see that Neil Gaiman himself has been spreading the word. Y'all deserve it <3
Thanks so much, Coleen! It means a lot. And we were amazed to see that comment from him -- so exciting. It's crazy that the Coraline PDF is still making the rounds!
I was only 10 or 11 when Mulan came out but it has since been my favorite movie. As a young artist, this was the kind of information I was hungry for! Every now and then there would be a short (probably on the Disney channel) that shared behind-the-scenes to making the animated movies, and learning about the watercolor backgrounds in Lilo&Stitch is what inspired me to take up watercolor. Oh how I would have DEVOURED any information like this for Mulan at that age!
Thank you very much! So cool to hear that a BTS video for that film got you into watercolors. Glad we could bring you these guides!
This is impressive. I think this is my favourite newsletter of Animation Obsessive until now! I didn't know about this Bacher's Bible and I am fascinated. Looking forward to open my sketchbook and read the style guide taking notes. Thanks!
Thank you very much! That's extremely kind. Glad you enjoyed the issue so much, and hope you get a lot out of the style guide!
Excellent writing as ever - it's really cool to see these design principles broken down explicitly with examples like this! Design is all about contrasts, and the detail/flatness one is so relevant. As fun as the final film is, I'd be fascinated to see the version of Mulan that pushes the classical Chinese painting inspiration further - maybe even approaches Te Wei's style, can you imagine. With the current donghua renaissance, I hope we'll see if we'll get a Chinese traditionally-animated film with the same kind of historical setting. There are so many stories it would be great to adapt from works like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Surely we can't let 'Paripi Kongming' steal all the thunder!
but... ok I'm down here to grouse about something else ^^' I was curious to see a new article about SEK in North Korea, since it's been hard to get a lot of information about them, but the article has such a weirdly conspiratorial tone applied to activities like 'working' and 'watching Disney movies' - don't you know anything done by any North Korean is actually a cunning scheme to further the evil nuclear plans of the government? Someone noticed our outsourcing to the lowest bidder made its way down the chain to North Korea? Better start an Investigation about it, we wouldn't want those guys to eat.
I'm sure you've got a lot of projects in the works, but I'd be very interested if you guys ever wrote about the history of SEK in North Korea. Especially given your access to Chinese-language sources, since at least in China you can admit to dealing with them. It's definitely true that a lot of SEK's works like 'Squirrel and Hedgehog' have a bit of a nationalist/militaristic tone - though honestly, not much more than the average Western spy movie. But I feel like very few people seem to bother taking their work seriously as animation, or view it in historical context (e.g. drawing parallels with Chinese series like Black Cat Detective). Western writing about North Korea and North Koreans so often seems to treat them as the forever unknowable Other, but I bet there are so many interesting stories of what it was like to work at SEK over the years, just as there are with Shanghai Animation Film Studio's long history.
Thank you! That's really kind. And it's definitely true that a more authentic approach has a ton of potential. There's that one scene in Mulan with a digital ink-wash style, likely inspired by the old Shanghai Animation films, and it looks great. Going further in that direction (or even doing something akin to the look of Chang'an, but in 2D) could produce really cool results.
As for the report about North Korea, it's not perfect by any means! We were more intrigued by the level of detail when it came to some of the facts -- stuff like the existence of SEK at all (which was new to us), the way its business seems to operate or the links to its animation on YouTube. Despite the article's description of this work as cheap propaganda, it's clear just watching a little of it that SEK's artists aren't amateurs. We'll keep an eye out for more information. It might not be possible to find raw, uncensored histories like the ones shared by Shanghai Animation artists post-Mao, but there could be something useful out there. We appreciate the suggestion!
Wow amazing work
Thank you!
I love this post! I’d love even more detail on Mulan.
Loved hearing about Bachers principles. Another stellar newsletter addition 👏🏻
This is super kind! We really appreciate it. Thanks as well for the suggestion -- we'll make a note to revisit Mulan in the future!
I’ve always loved the Chinese inspired art style of Mulan, but I never realised the level of attention to the backgrounds. The style guide having the contrasting shapes of the characters and the landscape is so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing!!