Paperman est un court métrage d’animation américain en noir et blanc, sorti en 2012. Mélangeant les techniques traditionnelles d’animation et la 3D, entièrement réalisé en noir & blanc par John Kahrs et les équipes de Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Un employé de bureau rencontre une jeune femme dans le New York des années 1940. Découvrant qu’elle travaille dans un immeuble en face de son bureau, il tentera d’attirer son attention avec des avions en papier, mais échoue à chaque fois. Déçu, il abandonne quand tout d’un coup, ses avions en papier s’animent et vont l’aider à retrouver celle qu’il aime…

« Paperman » director John Kahrs

Animators and animation fans can see the future of 2D animation in this inside look of the 85th Academy Award Oscar winning short « Paperman », the animated short film that is now playing in front of « Wreck It Ralph ». The behind-the-scenes featurette demonstrates some of the techniques used to combine 2D animation and 3D animation. The technique uses traditional hand drawn 2D animation by carrying the information with the 3D CG using a program dubbed « Meander » created by Eric Daniels.

« Paperman » director John Kahrs has described the process: « It’s not like a texture map. It’s just like painting on the surface of the CG. It acutally moves on a 2D layer that’s driven by the CG. » John Kahrs goes on to describe the working process of animating: « …folds in the fabric, hair silhouettes and the like come from of the commited design decision-making that comes with the 2D drawn process. Our animators can change things, actually erase away the CG underlayer if they want, and change the profile of the arm. »

2D animation has, for some time now, taken a backseat to 3D computer graphics but John Kahrs has stated that although he does not believe they are ready to do a feature length film using the technique that it is a direction that they are eventually going to move toward and that Disney believes there is a strong future ahead for this technology.