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Tiger Mom Attack

March 25, 2016, 11:18 pm
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© Andreas Deja

A quick update on my film Mushka.
I just finished animating the sequence when Sarah encounters the tiger cub for the first time.
Obviously the cub's mother nearby isn't too happy about the human contact, she charges.
Above you see one of the key drawings, below is the first rough pass of the same drawing.
In tying down the pose I pushed the right shoulder because the weight is on that leg.
Another section I finished shows Sarah arriving in Siberia on a train, followed by meeting her father for the first time.
So thrilled to see how things are coming together. Also, proud to be able to animate scenes like this one, or shots with human characters without live action reference. I think I am close to 25 % animated.
Prepare to use some Kleenex when you'll see the final film. I still can't tell the film's story without getting teary eyed. This is a VERY personal film.


© Andreas Deja

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Lambert

March 28, 2016, 11:19 pm
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I really like this charming Disney short from 1952. Bill Peet was the main story artist on Lambert, theSheepish Lion. Look at this beautiful nighttime scene above. Wether Pecos Bill, Peter Pan, Cinderella or other films, the night scenes always transported me to another world.
If I may be so blunt though, I do not find any "A" type animation in the short. Eric Larson and John Lounsbery are listed among the animators' credits, but no performance really stands out. It's the clever and emotional story that is the real star here.

A few cels featuring the main characters.









An early model sheet, no idea who drew it.




Milt Kahl didn't animate on the film., but he helped out with design and drawing. Here is an example from a previous post:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/milt-kahl-ii.html


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Lost in Translation

March 30, 2016, 1:31 am
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Story sketch artist James Bodrero came up with terrific designs for Fantasia's Pastoral sequence.
Particularly the male centaurs with their robust anatomy fit right into the greek mythological settings. Bodrero combined a Clydesdale horse with the upper body of a Greek warrior. These sketches are loose, and parts of the designs are unresolved, therefor not quite ready for animation. But the overall direction in terms of intriguing designs feels right.





By the time final animation models were needed, these centaurs had undergone an unfortunate transformation. Bodrero's solid draughtsmanship is nowhere to be seen. Instead, heavy simplification helped turn these guys into California beach boys (I am quoting from a film critic's observation after the film's release).
The movie's other fantasy creatures, the winged horses, work very well. But the centaurs never reached the design and animation standard they deserved.




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Why this Scene Looks so Amazing

March 31, 2016, 10:48 pm
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The dog characters in Lady & the Tramp were drawn extremely carefully. The design style called for dimensional realism like the film Bambi, years earlier. This is one of the most iconic scenes in Disney animation, and one of the most beloved. Many of you know that Frank Thomas animated this masterpiece. Two dogs falling in love while eating spaghetti with meatballs. It turned out to be one of those Thomas scenes that shows a kind of life that becomes detached from the animator. These characters live on their own, it seems no artist conceived any of this.

It is interesting to find out that the scene's overall brilliance was the result of teamwork. No question, this is Frank Thomas at his best, but he did get some drawing help from a couple of artists.
Iwao Takamoto had been Milt Kahl's assistant for a number of years, and he was able to absorb some of his boss' master draughtsmanship. On Lady & the Tramp he was put in charge of Lady, making sure that differing drawing styles by a number of animators would be unified in clean up,  Iwao was not an animator, but he knew animation principles, and became a perfectionist when it came to bringing a character "on model". He paid insane attention to eyes, eye lids, eye lashes, and the raised volume around eye brows. Iwao's contribution to Lady's appealing look is immeasurable.

He made these drawings over some of Frank's keys as a guide for final clean up. I talked about sculpted drawings before, that's what these are.











Milt Kahl drew a few keys over Frank's roughs such as this one below.  Ultimate appeal.



One of Frank's animation roughs for the iconic scene.



Walt Disney very much encouraged this type of team work in order to get superior results.

More about Iwao Takamoto and his work on the following feature Sleeping Beauty 
in this post:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/01/iwao-takamoto.html


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Happy Birthday, Mary Costa!

April 3, 2016, 8:48 pm
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Please,  join me in wishing legendary opera star and voice of Sleeping Beauty, Mary Costa a Happy Birthday. Feel free to leave any congratulatory comments here, and I will get them to Mary's attention. Here is an open letter from Mary:




After my recent post on Sleeping Beauty I received the loveliest personal note from Mary, which I will treasure. Here is that post from January:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2016/01/mary-costa.html

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Edgar Starr

April 5, 2016, 1:01 pm
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Edgar Starr was one of Disney's background painters during the Golden Age of Animation. Among his credits are films like Pinocchio, Fantasia (see his develpoment piece above), Song of the South as well as Bongo from the feature Fun & Fancy Free.
Like most Disney background painters Starr was a prolific plain air artist on his own time. The following two paintings were created during his many trips to Mexico.
Edgar Starr was born in 1908 and died in 1971.






Starr's qualities as a painter are evident in these beautiful book illustrations from a 1947 edition of Bongo.






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More Bongo

April 5, 2016, 11:55 pm
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More pages from the 1947 edition of Bongo, beautifully illustrated by background painter Edgar Starr, who poured his heart and soul into these paintings.














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The Moviola

April 8, 2016, 1:30 am
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This film viewing contraption, called the Moviola, was in use at Disney for many decades, all the way into the 1980s. In the photo you see Ollie Johnston examining a 35 mm filmstrip, most likely a pencil test from one of his scenes for Bambi. By his side is Marian Darlington, who whistled imitations of every bird in the forest for the film.
The piece of film was viewed on a loop, allowing for a thorough inspection and search for mistakes.
Fast forward a few decades.

After about one year sketching character designs for The Black Cauldron, I moved into a different office in order to start animation. Clean up artist Rebecca had moved out of this office, but before I settled in, she had somewhat of a warning for me. She pointed out that the Moviola in this room used to belong to animator John Lounsbery (who had passed away a few years prior).
How cool, I said, that's fantastic.
But...according to Rebecca who had spent many late nights trying to help finish clean up on The Fox & the Hound, the Moviola's foot peddle occasionally went down by itself setting the machine in motion. She was dead serious.
I was really looking forward to encountering the ghost of Lounsbery, but despite some of my own late hours in the office, that never happened.


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The Moviola II

April 9, 2016, 11:19 pm
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These pice were taken by Hans Bacher after we had just moved out of Disney's original animation studio into a "temporary" facility in Glendale. John Lounsbery's Moviola moved with me into my new office.
We were not on the Disney lot anymore, but I sure wanted to be surrounded by Disney visuals. So I made up these framed collages on the wall from movie stills.

Below a sheet of expression studies for an early version of Creeper.




A copy showing Milt Kahl's version of Taran and Eilonwy.



In doing some research on Cauldron online I was sorry to came across the news that Susan Sheridan, who voiced Eilonwy, passed away last year.



More of my early development designs for the film here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/11/early-black-cauldron.html

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Bambi Art & Artists

April 11, 2016, 5:19 pm
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Some years ago I had the chance to ask a few key artists from the Bambi crew to sign my copy of Frank & Ollie's book. Quite the title page!
The inscription on top of the page was written by Frank Thomas. Donnie Dunagan is the voice of Bambi, and Peter Behn did Thumper. Then there is Mel Shaw as well as Tyrus Wong.

I am not sure who created this amazing artwork for the romantic sequence in the film (I bring You a Song).  All I know is that such a sentimental treatment can go down the drain really fast and become kitsch. I am sure that there are people who think that's exactly what it is...but to me these visuals look stunning.








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Alice Art

April 13, 2016, 11:26 pm
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Sometimes I think there isn't enough love for Alice in Wonderland. People question the film's narrative, and I get that, but I do like the fact that this movie is different. One zany sequence follows another, and the in the end you feel like you've been on this nutty but fun ride.
Alice is the only realistic character in the film (aside from her sister), a concept Marc Davis agreed with. "You can have all the crazy stuff in the world, but if the heroine isn't handled in a believable way, the whole film falls apart."

A couple of beautiful animation drawings by Ollie Johnston, who always makes it look so easy.






Eric Larson animated the opening scenes with Alice and her cat Dinah, such as this one.




These few cels showcase the extraordinary craftsmanship of the ink & paint department.
Amazing colors choices for the characters.











One of the old background painters once noted that a background by itself without any characters should look like a deserted stage set. The image will look complete once combined with the character cels. The BG below proves that point very clearly. Terrific painting!



Images Heritage Auctions and Howard Lowery.

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Colonel Hathi

April 15, 2016, 8:14 pm
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I had the chance to watch the new live action/cg version of The Jungle Book last night.
Really liked it. Great script, and the jungle they created for the film is pretty spectacular. For the most part the animal motion looks pretty good. The one thing I could have brought to the film is an improvement in all the dialogue scenes. The animators seemed to have been a little timid in defining mouth shapes that reflect the actor's voice reading within the realistic mouth configuration of each animal.
That being said, I recommend the movie highly, it's epic.

As a reminder if the 1967 animated version, I want to post keys from a scene by one of Disney's unsung heroes, Eric Cleworth. His work on The Jungle Book as well as other films is every bit as good as that of the supervising animators. Here Colonel Hathi brags in front of the herd about his past military glory: "It was then I received the Victoria Cross for bravery above and beyond the call of duty!"
Cleworth mimicked the walk of a human drill sergeant, pompous and very pleased with himself.
What can I tell you...I LOVE this scene. The way Hathi slowly puts one foot in front of the other, before clicking his heels together at the end. Putting his bamboo stick behind his ear adds a nice acting touch.
Everything is applied here, the massive weight of an elephant, perspective and character attitude.
The end result looks entertaining and utterly believable. Brilliant!!



























To revisit the film's great cast of animal characters, go here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/07/cast-of-jungle-book.html


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Jungle Book Mix

April 19, 2016, 12:45 am
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More Jungle Book.
As I said before, the film had so much going against it, it could have been a disaster. To quote Woolie Reitherman: "Walt checked out half way through the picture."
Story genius Bill Peet quit the studio even sooner, how are you going to pick up the pieces and create a film worthy of Disney. Well, they did.
It's no secret that had this film not been a box office hit, Disney animation might have been finished right then and there. Executives were eager to stop animated feature production, too expensive. They were counting on revenues from future re-releases of the classic films, and focus on future live action movies instead.
It took a few decades to finish the job. Classic Pencil animation was finally halted in favor of CG and live action films.

I love this Ken Anderson sketch of Mowgli, acting like a wolf cub by scratching his head with his foot. This moment should have been in the movie, the kid was raised by wolves...show it!
Missed opportunity.





One of Ken Anderson's many inspirational doodles, showing Mowgli in relation to a vast, wild  jungle.



A couple of Ollie Johnston's sketches, as he explores Baloo's pleasure of scratching.




A couple of rough layouts. Outside of the wolves' den, and high in the trees, a path for Bagheera to travel on.






Frank Thomas almost animated 1/4 of Jungle Book. Like all animators on this movie, he surely FELT the characters' personality.







It seems you can't come up with a bad character composition, when a snake is involved. Another Frank Thomas sequence.





The Sherman brothers working with Louis Prima, the voice of King Louie. What a great sequence this turned out to be.




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Helene Stanley/ Cinderella

April 21, 2016, 2:57 pm
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Actress Helene Stanley acted out all of Cinderella's scenes for the animators. Here she takes an imaginary shower at the beginning of the film.
This requires the same acting talent as scenes that would be a live action/animation combination such as Mary Poppins and Roger Rabbit.
Here Stanley throws her robe backward over a divider. Birds catch it during the final scene. Then she imagines a cold water splash coming from a wet sponge, also carried by birds.

You can compare final frames to live action photostats, which have been drawn over by a layout artist, who added birds, props as well as ideas for environment.









This gag didn't make it into the movie. A little bird who was standing by, got drenched during the splash. He shakes off the water and is visibly displeased. Cinderella reacts sympathetically to the little guy.





It is obvious why Disney had Stanley act out other animated parts such as Sleeping Beauty and Anita in 101 Dalmatians. She completely understands what animators are looking for. Clear poses and movement that reveals the character's thinking and personality. It would be easy to over- or underact those scenes.


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A Little Milestone

April 24, 2016, 3:48 pm
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© Andreas Deja

This is one of the last animation drawings of Mushka as a cub. In the film he appears in three sequences, which are just about finished in animation. It's  been a blast but from now on I'll continue animating him as a grown tiger. Quite a few dramatic as well as emotional scenes coming up.
The most recent issue of Animation Magazine features a nice article about the production of Mushka.


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Wart & Kay

April 26, 2016, 7:20 pm
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Sitting on a tree branch, Wart is watching Kay, who aims at a deer he just spotted. Suddenly the branch breaks off, and Wart falls straight down, taking Kay with him.
The solidity in Milt Kahl's drawings of human characters never seizes to amaze me. Look at the first image. Beautifully caricatured anatomy, presented within strong graphic shapes. 
That level of sophistication is maintained throughout the scene as both human figures react to gravity.
A short continuity scene executed to perfection.










These are photo copies of the original drawings. It is interesting to see that the effects animation was drawn on the same sheets as the characters (in most cases effects are drawn on a different level).
It was probably more economical for the Ink & Paint department to only have to deal with one cel level.

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Roger Rabbit Scenes III

April 28, 2016, 11:37 pm
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After having finished a few scenes that involved combining animation drawings with live action photo stats, I was starting to feel relieved and a bit more comfortable tackling new assignments.
As usual it was super important to make sure that the physical contact between cartoon character and live actor would come off as believable.
Here Roger is resisting Bob Hoskins' attempt to throw him out of the apartment. He is yelling and kicking throughout these scenes, but the area of contact (Hoskins' hands and Roger's rear) needed to be in sync. No sliding around allowed!





The love letter was held up by thin robotic arms, which I needed to cover up with Roger's body.



Really loved animating this scene with Smartass, leader of the Weasels. He grabs a live action chair, pushes it across the room before jumping on to it in order to get closer to Hoskins' face.





The live action pistol again was manipulated by a thin robotic arm. "Where's the rabbit?"
This stuff wasn't easy to do, but at the same time SO MUCH FUN!



More of my work on Roger Rabbit Here:


and here:



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Sarah Tumbling

May 1, 2016, 10:37 pm
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Here are a few first pass rough animation key drawings from a scene in which Sarah looses her balance before falling to the ground. Adult Mushka has just leaped across the screen, right on front of her.
The scene takes place during summer, Sarah is bare feet and wearing a loose t-shirt and rolled up jeans.















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Ellie Mae & Luke

May 3, 2016, 4:11 pm
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During development and production of The Rescuers the parts of swamp folk characters Ellie Mae and Luke were reduced to minor, supporting characters. Frank & Ollie write in The Illusion of Life:

The muskrat family in The Rescuers consisted of Elie Mae, the bossy, bustling wife, and Luke, her shiftless husband with his jug of "swamp juice". Jeanette Nolan, in contributing the voice of Ellie Mae, added more dimension by giving a delicate warmth to the bustling traits, and a shattering shriek to the aggressive side when the character was excited. Unfortunately , as the story evolved, there was no place to show these qualities and Ellie Mae ended up as a more conventional motherly type.

To me there was also a problem with the final character designs on the screen. Milt Kahl drew these early charming explorations, which show a lot of potential for appealing acting business. Ellie Mae's and Luke's proportions look dead on. Beautiful subtle facial features, and their overall body sizes are short, these are little characters.
Somehow the animators couldn't capture Milt's nuanced depictions, and the screen versions look tall, ordinary and generic.
Pre-production sometimes looks superior over the final result in these big feature productions.







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Get This Book!

May 5, 2016, 11:21 pm
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...Ward Kimball says so. John Canemaker's beautiful book on the art and lives of Disney's Nine Old Men was first published in 2001. John chronicles the career of these artists thoroughly. There is plenty of art as well as rare photographs. This book is a must have for any animation professional or any Disney fan. I told John once that I feel he wrote this book for me, because I always felt there should be so much more known about them.
Fourteen years later I wrote another volume with my take on the art of these influential artists. Consider it an encore to John's book with a hefty offering of some of their best work.

If you want to complete your Nine Old Men collection, get the Bluray disc of Peter Pan. The bonus material includes Ted Thomas' fantastic documentary Growing up with Nine Old Men. (Outside of theUS the documentary was released with The Jungle Book).






Woolie Reitherman working on Mickey and the Beanstalk.



A very young Milt Kahl working on graphic advertisement art a few years before joining Disney Studios.




Here is the link to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disneys-Nine-Old-Animation/dp/0786864966?ie=UTF8&keywords=canemaker%20nine%20old%20men&qid=1462515562&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

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