Today’s cel completes the core line-up of the Ghostbuster crew with Winston Zeddmore (Zeddemore in the movies) and Ray Stanz. As opposed to yesterday’s cels, both characters are painted on the same layer which I think is kind of weird. Like I mentioned, I’m kind of confused as to when animators will combine characters on the same cel or split them up. I sort of figure that characters would be separated when one or both are "moving" so as to make it easier to keep them independent or save on mistakes, but in this cel it appears that Winston and Ray are having a conversation which would imply movement, at least in their heads and mouths. I don’t know…
Also in the vein of yesterday’s discussion, I wanted to note that Winston also underwent a change between the movies and the cartoon in that the character seems much younger and enthusiastic, while dropping the almost burnt out mellowness of Ernie Hudson’s live-action portrayal. I think character-wise he ended up changing the most, probably to make him more appealing to kids.
One of the other aspects that this cel illustrates is how much cheaper the actual paint stock seems in comparison to cels from other cartoons. It’s thin enough so that you can clearly see the photocopied line work on the cel through the layers of paint.
Lastly, even though I always felt that the Real Ghostbusters had much better animation that a lot of its contemporaries, I’m not so sure now. Looking at the pencil line work above for instance there seems to be a less sure hand at work. It’s either that or it was drawn super fast as a lot of the lines don’t connect or feel kind of wavy, not nearly as fluid as some of the other pencil under drawing work that I’ve seen. Again, because of super hectic animation schedules or less experienced animators, I’ll probably never know…
