Sunday, July 22, 2018

Amazing Background Art of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace

In the 1980's Don Bluth produced Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp. A series of laserdisc video games using hand-drawn animation. The animation from Bluth, and other animation greats such as Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy is irresistibly appealing, exciting and definitely fun.  Fans still dream of a Dragon's Lair (in my case Space Ace) hand-drawn feature film that recaptures the pacing and fun of the originals.  

A major part of what gave these projects an amazing sense of scope and a very clear universe were the background paintings.  They are are amazing and a must study in terms of color, design, and creative use of perspective. 

According to Gary Goldman the background painters who worked on these films were Don Moore, Ron Diaz, Dave Goetz and William Lorencz.  

The games are available as downloadable applications for mobile devices now.   Totally worth getting if anything for study and analysis. 

Below is an interview I found with Ron Diaz.  Obviously a tremendous talent and a fun individual with a great odyssey in the animation industry.