WHO IS SOOT

Soot Studio opened in 1934 in the attic above Elder Kettle’s cottage. Two cup-headed apprentices, one pot-bellied mentor and a bottomless pot of ink.

We draw the way the old pictures did: pencil first, ink on vellum, paint on glass — one honest frame after another. No tricks, no copying machines. The ink is mixed by hand and the metronome never lies.

What we shoot: title sequences, story-driven shorts, museum screens and the occasional campaign that needs real smoke instead of cheap sparkles.

  • 12 480hand-inked cels
  • 24 fpsalways, no exceptions
  • 0computers harmed
OUR ONE RULE — animators and developers talk before the shot, not after. (Saves a reel of headaches — a lesson borrowed, with thanks, from whoisguilty.com.)
Elder Kettle teaching the two cups, 1934
t Elder Kettle teaching the ropes — ink & paint day, 1934.
Mugman
MUGMANSenior in-betweener · blinks a lot
Ms. Chalice
MS. CHALICELead, frame-by-frame
Wally Warbles
WALLYJazz score keeper · whistles off-key
Cagney Carnation
CAGNEYOffice plant · morale department
THE HOUSES WE WORSHIP
  • Fleischer Studios — smuggled smoke & rotoscope (1919–)
  • Ub Iwerks — rubber arms of the first Mickey (1928)
  • Van Beuren — sweet little oddballs (1930–)
  • Terrytoons — brave scrap-yard heroes (1929–)

★ OPEN SINCE 1934 — and the ink is still wet