In september the international animation festival hosted a preveiw and discustion by the director of the Disney animated a short called Paperman. John Kahrs spoke and demonstrated the techniques and tools used to create the black and white short film. Although the story in many ways is your standard, "boy meets girl, loses girl, finds girl again, happy ever after" story - the attention to detail and single-minded desire to create a B&W black ink brushed quality and respect the gestural drawings of the character designers and animators creates a feel that looks very analogue - but was mostly created using vector-based digital drawing tools. "You can make drawings that are resolution independent and you can manipulate the lines after you’ve created them. Ultimately, the end product really lives happily in the space between 2D and 3D." - John Kahrs
Congratulations are definitely due for this Oscar ( Disney's first since Its tough to be a Bird in 1969) for what is a poetic demonstration of the potential harmony between digital and analogue, each drawing from their strengths.
John Kahrs after a marathon of 2+ hours of signing posters at The Ottawa International Animation Festival