Thundercats Opening

Man, the Thundercats opening was pretty bad ass. Constantly flowing imagery, explosive transitions and liberal use of energy beams combined with a wicked soundtrackâ€â€?well, that’s motion graphics gold!

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All right, so technically it’s all cel animation, but I’d argue that it qualifies for motion graphics just the same (further muddying my already vague definition of the field).

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

13 Comments

THA_DON

Dude,
I think you are depressed or going thruogh some kind of crisis. After the long-ass soby post the other day and now this… common man whats up bro…..
“explosive transitions and liberal use of energy beams..”
just read and look at what you are posting yourself man…. i think you have lost it. Perhaps you really want to go to journalist school or something…..

As for this crap, its a cartoon show from a while back, everyone has fond memories of the past bro, but dude, common…..

Franco Barroeta

If you can’t appreciate this…you’re in the wrong business buddy

phyzoe

Dude, thanks for posting this!!!! One of my unrealized dreams (till now) was to be able to watch this thing frame by frame!! Now I can go on and get a life!

steven

Checkout the openings for Silverhwaks and Visionaries, must be the same company that did all these back in the 80’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBfm3vUB6M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBpgSkolmXc

These are great examples as to why I wanted to get into animation when I was a kid.

carniceria

Shows like Thundercats were heavily inspired by the Japanese animation style of series like Voltron and Speed Racer. Shows like thundercats totally inspired the mograph of the generation.

Video games and thundercats make good friggin mograph.

2e

So dynamic. This is amazing. Its great that you were able to find a hi res version of this. If you could also find a hi res version of this
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3KaMFxGwSRw
that would be great.

THA_DON

ohhh snap…
I am getting into the spirit now!

If we found the hi-res version of this that would be super!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=y2WTARyipwU
Good transistions, and particles too.
Tread might have this bookmarked maybe…

bigO

Hi All,
Now it must have been because I cycled 10 miles to work this morning but i almost had a fit watching that. I loved it as a kid. Definately getting old. classic explosions (Michael Gagne’esque)and some properly good perspective shots.BO!

O./

2e

Step to this_DON

onscreen

wow – that thundercats title has gotta be one of the top ten subliminal influences for all animators – nice find

The Crabster

What’s up with the guitar solo in the Silverhawk Open?

Bevan7

I agree. Points taken off for unneccessary use of a glam rock guitar solo. However this is classic, thanks for the post – great bit of nostalgia.

eoghank

thundercats motion graphic appreciation was so last year.

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