Oddity Archive: Episode 177 - Scanimate 

I know you joke about your history lessons but I genuinely enjoy those parts of the archive.

We don't care that this wasn't "Definitive", we just care that it's being remembered at all...Good episode, Ben

OH HEY, FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE IS COVERING SCANIMATE, THANK YOU SO MUCH BEN, I LOVE SCANIMATE! And yes I really gotta get those DVDs! Also may I recommend Ed Kramer's channel. He's an early CG Historian and he actually has commentary on how he did some of the logos. Fun fact: When they had to animate a spark, they actually had to use an actual sparkler! No joke!

Surprised there isn't any Electric Company/70's Sesame Street footage. They used the hell out of Scanimate back in the day.

The moment computers, be they PC or Mac or whatever, got powerful enough to render stuff, like, say, the Genesis sequence in Wrath of Khan, dedicated machines like that were dead. Not surprised they didn't survive the 80s.

Non-interesting piece of trivia: the Scanimate machine used a bank of sliding switches produced by Cherry to enter data. These are identical to the switch banks used for patching on the ARP 2500 audio synthesizer from the same time period, most famously used to contact aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Amazing episode about "Scanimate", they were really psychedelically ahead of its time especially with the logos of TV & Movie logos, TV Stations ID, Movie/Special Intro/Outros, Commercials and a whole a lot more!

Actually found that video one of the most fascinating Archive segments in recent times. Was always curious which animation technique was used in those early music videos you mentioned (Kool & The Gang had one like that too). Never got an answer since those I'd see them with tended to have their head on high with the "haha look at all the old clothes and hairstyles" jokes. Happy to know now thanks to this archive episode.

I FINALLY ordered my copy of Dream Machine. Scanimate has inspired me so much. It's my inspiration when making graphics. Stuff like this needs to be preserved. Thank you, Dave, and all the others who made all of this possible.

6:48 Ladies and gentlemen, CEEFAX ON DRUGS. 19:06 Oh my. That angry bird scanimate scares me at the end! But congrats on 3,000 subs, Ben! Lookin' forward for Oddity Archive: Episode 200!

Old Computers? Vintage TV? Cartoons? SIGN ME UP!

Watching the classic NASCAR races during the early CBS TBS and ESPN days late 70s to mid 80s was full of SCANAMATE for in race advertising, leaderboards etc

As one of the people who requested this subject (and a proud owner of DVD-1) I was elated to see this episode! I think you handled it very well. Your history lesson was very informative, and it reminds me of what got me hooked on this channel in the first place. I love hearing other people's perspectives on the audiovisual ephemera that fascinated me as a child, and learning about the things they find interesting as well. That's what brought me here, and that's what'll keep me watching. Thank you for this video, and I won't fault you if you add S*******e to your list of censored words. ;)

I totally forgot this....uh, analog video synthesis? - existed pre digital effects. Thanks so much for this history lesson! I'm sure growing up I saw a lot of Scanimate renderings!

Scanimate is awesome! Don't disrespect it. It has some awesome capabilities making it much quicker than digital. Sesame Street and Electric Company in the 70s had lots of Scanimate produced clips. Dave Seig really should find technicians who used them back in the day and get their input on using them. The more sophisticated setups had a control room and lots of programming inputs. Scanimate could conceivably be updated to output high definition video if someone wanted to try.

One thing that you did not mention is that there are a lot of products that you can buy for simulating the Scanimate experience. They are made mostly by LZX and cost a lot of money.

The Scanimation episode is the history lesson I've wanted for a long time but didn't know it until it came out. Finally, a source for all those weird, too-old-for-computer-animation-but-still-look-computer-animated clips shown of company logos.

I've been secretly awaiting this installment since I first started watching this show. My life is complete.

Nothing more disturbing than a disembodied Shaggy knockoff.

"It's an episode that's 100% history lesson..." Me: 'FUUUUUCK YESSSSSSS"

4:38 - Techmoan has a thing with oscilloscopes. I wonder if we'll get to see his Techbone Generator?

The fantastic thing is how it’s all done in the analogue domain

I think one of the systems that might have outcompeted the Scanimate would have the Quantel Paintbox. I think RetroGamerVGX has one. It would make for an interesting episode, but I think the Quantel Paintbox was only designed to work in PAL and so I don't think it was used much in America.

Great episode...knew Scanimate was prevalent in vintage TV, but didn't realize just how much until now!

An observation: every time Ben says “New York City” I cant help but think of Pace Picante and ask myself “NEW YORK CITY??” This usually doesn’t happen when other people say New York City.

Do you know if any of the eight machines were shipped to the UK at all? Just a seen a few idents for UK stations (mostly ITV regions) and they're a lot sharper/clearer than the US ones because of the higher resolution of PAL.

I love the Scanimate so much, I'm so happy you covered this one!

A fascinating walk through history. For me the most memorable scanimations were from The Electric Company and Sesame Street.

Here in the Philippines, ABS-CBN also used the Scanimate graphics package just for promos, idents and titlecards of several shows.

Thanks for this video. I remember scanimation used in Australia for TV stations when I was a kid.

I'll see that Turn On dancer in my nightmares tonight. Thanks, Ben!

My 'experience' with Scanimate is all the use it got in The Electric Company. Of course, I had no idea about any of that since I was a little kid, but the style is so distinctive that you can't mistake it. (And, as an aside, two episodes of Turn On - presumably the only ones fully completed - have leaked and made their way onto RU-vid. It's as awful as contemporary accounts described it.)

This was very educational. Thank you!

Congrats on reaching 30,000 subscribers Ben.

The whole early bone thing reminds me of some modern animation software that uses bones, like Adobe Animate, Moho, and Toon Boom Harmony. Adobe Character Animator uses a lot of the same concepts, too.

"Fill-in-the-blankwave fans will love it." I'm surprised no one has turned Fill-in-the-blankwave into an actual "genre". Yet.

As for whom the Bell Tolls? It tolls for the people in Guatemala at the time.

A new Archive video means I get to enjoy it

While in North America Scanimate became really common, in Latin America the technique usage from machines bought for the region is more rare. Here in Chile, for example, the public broadcaster (TVN) was the only one to have its own Scanimate machine (and they used it really well) while competitors, like the leader Canal 13, had to ask North American companies for their Scanimate. And don't ask for the rest of South America: apart from Chile and Brazil, own Scanimate in South America is (almost) non-existent! (PS: for TVN, it seems that the Pinochet dictatorship had the money to buy the technology for the channel but no money for the population back then 😥)

They used Scanimate on a local TV show in St. Louis, Missouri called "The Letter People".

Thank you for covering this! Scanamate is what got me into video graphics. Unfortunately, it's hard to create that look using digital software. I've discovered some tricks. Like making the graphic, then pointing the camera at the computer screen to create that glowing look. I get a thrill watching scanamate videos

All I could make out of the Lufthansa ad was "Allemania," the Spanish word for Germany.

My grandfather had a couple of Philco televisions into the 90s. Probably because he had worked for Ford, and thus felt obligated to buy Philco sets. I've definitely seen some of the Scanimate radio station ads. Speaking of which, I know radio is not your forte, Ben, but I would love to see an OA on the long-dead Beautiful Music format. I bet a lot of people will find it interesting.

I was always curious how some of these animated logos and those green-screen-looking Kool & The Gang effects were made back in the 70s before digital computer animation. Once I learned about Scanimate I immediately looked it up. As you mentioned, the information on this topic is (to this day) still limited; thank you for putting together such a pleasant, straightforward rundown of the history! I couldn't quite wrap my head around the concept of an analog computer until you compared it to an analog synthesizer and it all suddenly made sense! Very interesting technology. News from the future: previously unavailable, three episodes of the infamous "Turn On "show were released just last year!

oh wow, totally missed this one! great to see more coverage of scanimate

Holy shit, RU-vid actually sent me a notification of one of your videos. I thought I'd never see the day

Yay, history lesson episode! No, seriously, these are the best :D

You know your a geek when you would rather watch stuff like this instead of let's play and box openings videos on RU-vid or even porn. Lol.

Gonna be honest, that motion capture suit is pretty easy on the eyes! What a Turn On.

I, for one, love your history lesson episodes. And congrats on 30k!

omg, thank you for this. I love scanimate so, so much!

the *bone generator*

8:09 WTF? And, 9:30 the only show to have been ever cancelled midway. I read about that back in the 90's. They sure broke out the ol' Hammond organ to play on the radio with a screen, tee-vee. 10:59 printed to videotape? 🤔 or *recorded* to video tape? 😉 14:09 OMG! As a kid in the very early 80's in LA I used to stay up late to watch Benny Hill on KCOP-13! I remember that station ID perfectly! Ah, memories!

This being an American product it should be called Scanimate 4000

A E S T H E T I C

I am subscribed to you since year or two ago yet I have not been recommended a video of yours for almost a year. And I was not even recommended this video I just realized how long I've been missing this content as I am cruel saying, ben's junk etc. smaller fare are not as interesting as grand topics into (my personal) unknown like this video turned out to be. In moments the question I never posed "how did they get their effects in seventies etc." was answered, extensively, interestingly, through it's history and notable output I may have seen before. Very good video given the characteristic of this channel's lower budget look and feel... Which is very delightful as it compliments the analog video intros and such. Yet we never stop to think how much actual work it is to tape something to tape, rip it, edit it, tape it again possibly, and "scan" the tape video again for totally aesthetic end results. I do hope fascination with the analog does not die down as there is some marvelous stuff in analog space that is mechanical marvels beyond belief, when only mechanical component now is usually a fan... and even those are being killed off from our digital future.

So basically, this is the birth of motion capture, and would later be a major part of video game development.

Interesting. Wasn't The Chyron Company doing computer generated tv logos and effects in the early 70's too? The Chyron company's technology was so groundbreaking and popular that it is now a generic term for the graphics, wipes, and effects for tv.

This was one of the best episodes in a long time, I could have easily watched a video on this topic twice as long!

Yesterday I was watching Mad Men and there’s a throwaway reference to Turn On in one of the 7th season episodes. Right as SCP gets their new computer, Harry mentions there was a show that was run by a computer but it got cancelled 11 minutes in.

4:04 That Johnny Cash song one piece at a time. Except Johnny Cash's doing car parts

awesome job on this episode. love the history!

Great video as always Ben, keep up the excellent work!

you may want to look at one of tatsunoko's anime's Time Bokan, its opening aswell as the series use a system very similar t oscanimate, manipulating and transforming cels

Thanks for putting this one out, Ben! Scanimate was before my time, but it’s still so fascinating to see computer animation in its infancy.

I always wondered how these types of animations were done, this was awesome to learn!

This was absolutely fascinating! I fall into the category of having seen "scanimation" but never knowing what it was/how it was done. Thanks, Ben, great episode!

I love the history lessons. Im learning so much about things i never knew i cared about

This was genuinely interesting! Well all your episodes are but this one in particular

Being quite familiar with Scanimate and computers since the mid-70s... this was a fabulous look at the origins of the technology... thanks. HAHA! I think the guy at 11:40 and 11:42 is an old colleague of mine...

Found out fairly recently, for those familiar with Tatsunoko's 1975 anime "Time Bokan", the Time Travel effects were done in Scanimate

I didn’t know anything about this computer stuff before watching nor did I really care, but this is actually super interesting and I want to keep researching it. Thank you. Great video

Oddity Archive, for when the acid kicks in.

Te history lessons are the reason I started watching you. I watch you now because you're funny, too, but I started for history.

WOW! You KNOW you have a bad show when you're cancelled halfway through the first episode...and don't even get to finish that!

great video!

As a person who dabbles in animation, this is actually really fucking cool.

Everytime I remember to buy his DVD, I don't have money. I need to buy it. Not just bc of the rad graphics, but bc scanimate motivated me to get into making graphics.

Now I finally understand how the logo animation of old TV shows were made looking 3D or glittering without the cgi tech we have today.

Ooh, at 9:27 you show an excerpt from the newspaper where I grew up! Fun to see it was way back then

0:11 - when you drop acid and it hits just as Oddity Archive starts

Oh cool! Never heard of this before, thanks! This just confused the heck out of my grasp on the history visual effects once again, darn.

6:46 I am acquiring a taste for it already.

The Children's Television Workshop used the Scanimate heavily on early Sesame Street and all over its show The Electric Company. Here's a trippy one from Sesame Street: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--9fn2tBnh9I.html

Really good episode Ben keep up the good work! ❣

Some of this was downright terrifying. Great job, Ben!

7:17 It all comes back to CO, no Ben?

good video!!! found your video from H & M videos!

Congrats on 30k subs ;)

Wow, thanks for putting this together. oh and 18:58..HE GETS SUCKED INTO THE ENGINE!!

The CAESAR machine.

I never do this but... the tech/engineer at 16:28... wow... the stuff of nerd dreams. Great video. 👍

14:36 I wasn't onboard with KB101 until that extra text raced in to save the day. Now I'm ready to rock out!

There's also all of the international usage which, in some cases, actually lasted far longer than in America. Brazil and Japan are some of the more notable cases, the former being most famously used by Rede Globo and the latter having reported usage up to the early 2000's.

Little known fact: "Bone Generator" was the initial name for Viagra.

Congrats on 30k only 70 more for that coveted silver play button

I love learning about primitive technology from you.

i carnt belive that scanimate was used in flight of the navigator

It never gets old seeing Torgo trying to show his affection in the intro. He just wanted one lady friend! The master is a hog

Caesar is really fascinating to me just because of how reminiscent it is of some more modern animation techniques. Conceptually. it's practically identical to the way a lot of cheap flash cartoons are made!