Recently, I was talking to my illustration students about what it was like back in the dark ages, before Photoshop and Illustrator ruled our world. One of my students asked how they managed to do the all the stuff they did before they had computers. I could think of no better example than this video, a making-of featurette on the “new” HBO TV intro from 1983.
This is craftsmanship at its finest. Need a fancy 3-D metal HBO logo spinning through space? Buy some metal, build a big logo, and spin it in front of a starry background. Need a city to fly over? Build a thirty-foot scale model on a giant table and craft every detail, from the peeling paint to the potted plants, by hand. The commitment of these artists is awe inspiring, and the soundtrack (“Pay a little closer attention … to detail!”) can’t be beat.