cuphead, over the garden wall, vintage cartoon visuals

lately i've been noticing the popularity of the 'vintage' cartoon visuals coming back - in examples such as the video game cuphead (which is splendid, everything handrawn painted and animated), (which I also saw a small expert visually similar from the animated series bojack horseman), and also the series over the garden wall made for cartoon network. there is something so lovely, cute, and grotesque about this type of aesthetic/style, when you utilise it in the right way it can be really chilling. (as I think all of these works have done)

I've always been very inspired by the hand-drawn cartoon style, of course, (when I collaged the rabbits onto that painting) and it's definitely somewhere I want to collage more from. it's easy to get a cliché effect, I think, depends how you play it... anyway, I just dropped some visuals/videos I looked at further here:

over the garden wall (a short series - but perfect)

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for cuphead, the behind the scenes is truly impressive, I didn't know they used some three dimensional models to make some of the props in the game e.g. rotating castle, maze, the hand-bound book (and carved and painted, he had to teach himself to do it) and it was made by two brothers with no experience - "From remortgaging their homes to selling a million copies, here's the story of how two brothers with no experience went on to make Cuphead, one the biggest surprise hits of 2017." (youtube description)

How Cuphead's Devs Gambled On A Dream | The Making of Cuphead

-project grew bigger (esp after E3) and hired more people, wanted to hand-draw animation which is a huge task for just one or two with no training

-always joked about making a game inspired by 1930's animation (when they would do everything to make them alive, no law of physics, etc.)

-had many ideas in the beginning e.g. elementary school theme of levels like arts and crafts

-everything is hand-done, hand-drawn and inked, backgrounds are watercolour paintings, and some are physical models, music live recorded (they wanted to do everything as if it were made in the 1930s and not rely on the digital too much/shortcuts) (drawn on paper, inked, scanned, and - the only thing - digital colouring / actually tried using gouache but putting in the game as a test cant really tell the difference between digital and paint so - shaved years off the process by digital colouring)

- a lot of extra work even after the art is complete - to development and production team, in animating and making formulas, timing etc (old cartoons use a lot of looping which transferred beautifully in this video game)

-became known for its difficulty (repeatedly dying) but they weren't thinking about the difficulty at all when designing

-had ambitious ideas e.g. one music level where cuphead is battling on a music stanza and notes would come to attack - but would have to work with a song and cannot be repetitive and learnable pattern. so they held off on that idea

-typically when you see a game themed around cartoon its usually for younger children/low skill set

-they think it's not much harder than some retro games - like the first Mario - and its all about repetition and remembering patterns, the satisfaction to say I did it. at the same time, they said, difficult games aren't for anyone. (I wish there was an easier mode so I can actually admire the art)

-not many big run-and-gun games (emphasis on dodging enemy fire)

-in the studio most are actually family (his wife is a producer/inker, cousin..etc) but also people who they actually game with.

-excited to be a company to employ people for 2D art - no matter how you cut it classical will always be more expensive (but can always feel humanity in it like the scratchy inkwork that outline cupheads characters, same intimacy in the studio.)

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also really liked this video where he explains the subtle nuance of the 'death animations' of the characters and also the hidden homages to other retro games, there's around 2-6 in each..