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[-] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

There were quite a few movies that used this technique after that, including some produced by Disney (most notably Who Framed Rodger Rabbit). It was pretty common, at least for effects shots, will into the 90s and early 2000s.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 4 points 17 hours ago

Yes and no, I was specifically talking about the practical effect of combining animation with live action. Every movie that came after had some form of computer assistance whether in camera control or in using CG for the actual combination even if the animation was still hand drawn or in some other way. The Black Hole used some computer help but at that time there were only a couple entities, like the newly formed ILM, that could do things the new way and they were all tied up with other projects like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Alien. So a bunch of the shots in The Black Hole were done using the same double exposure techniques used in Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks among others.

[-] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

It sounds like you are trying to describe the sodium vapor process, which would be a more accurate way of saying this. Hand drawn animation was used a lot, this specific process was not, and the differentiation is not "using computers" or "CG". It was a Disney developed process that was not used by anyone else, so obviously it would only appear in Disney films or collaborations.

Its a pretty elegent way of doing this and it looks better than even a lot of modern computer equivalents because it essentially places the animated sequences on the same plane as the live action. It also required a lot of bespoke equipment and knowledge that no one was able to effectively copy.

Its why the animated sequences in the films that used it look better than a lot of the stuff that came after.

this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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