Why on old cartoons, did a scenery object look brighter if the characters were going to interact with it? Why would the quality differ regardless?
In: Technology
The short answer is that background plates were often rendered with different media than the more limited choices available for ink and paint that made up the animation cels. If the director wanted a watercolor look to their scenery, they could get that, but then the animated elements would stand out from their surroundings because the ink and paint you could use on celluloid (cel) was very bright and defined, and therefore created a harsh contrast with the backgrounds that allowed subtle gradations in color.
They were being drawn in different layers.
Old cartoons were literally drawn on clear plastic sheets like you’d get on an overhead projector. Character’s movements therefore had to be drawn and redrawn for each frame. The background didn’t. It would stay the same for multiple shots. These different layers would be stacked on top of each other and a picture.would be taken. Then, the character pictures would be swapped out for the next frame. Maybe the background would be moved a bit too. If an object was going to move, it would have to be on a separate layer from the background.
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