Thundercats & Jessica Rabbit’s Dress.

I was watching “Thundercats” the other day and reliving my youth a wee bit and was surprised at how good it still is.
No seriously it is!

I was thinking about all the effort that got put into cartoons in the 80’s.
The time it must have taken to draw a single episode etc…
It’s all up there on the screen and it looks good.

Big long flashy colourful animated opening credits,
Big matte painted background scenery and a big 80’s theme tune with loads of whamy bar guitars on it!

That’ll do for me!

“Thundercats” came out when?
1982?

Long before CGI took over the entire world and fucked it,
I used to wonder how animators and artists made things look shiny and sparkly.
Things like lightning and twinkles on metal.
It never looked like it was just painted or just drawn.
Know what I mean?
How was that done?

I still don’t understand it really…

Here’s some screen shots incase you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about:

It’s the same with Jessica Rabbit’s dress in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”
How did they make that sparkle?

Someone once told me that the film was physically scratched into by hand to create the sparkle on that dress but know what?

I don’t think I believe that.