Quantcast
Channel: Deja View
Viewing all 1316 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

"Don't tell me you're going in there..."

July 29, 2016, 9:05 pm
$
0
0


Dave Michener assisted Milt Kahl on this unusual scene. Wart has run away from Kay and is now hiding behind a tree in the forest. Kay seems surprised and shouts: "Oh, ha ha, oh don't tell me you're going in there? Oh, ha ha, why it's swarming with wolves."
Michener was amazed that Milt would be so bold and have Kay point right into camera. He told me: "I couldn't believe it, I had never seen anything like this."
Actually Milt used a similar gesture on Brom Bones during a song sequence years earlier:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/11/brom-bones.html

Still, this isn't an easy way to stage a pose with such crazy foreshortening. But then again, Milt challenged himself constantly in his draughtsmanship.














↧
Search

Great Disney Duos

August 1, 2016, 10:14 pm
$
0
0


As many of you now, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were lifelong friends and collaborators. They often worked on characters that had a lot of interaction like Captain Hook and Smee, or The Three Fairis in Sleeping Beauty.
Marc Davis and Milt Kahl animated personalities with a definite relationships like Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip or Anita Radcliff and Cruella De Vil. Marc and Milt remained friends throughout their lives.




Cartoon Brew just posted this incredible photo of Art Babbit and Bill Tytla, taken in 1967 in Montreal. Way back in 1941 when Babbit went on that infamous Disney animators strike, his friend Bill followed out of loyalty.





Richard and Robert Sherman dominated Disney music during the 1960s, in animated as well as lives action films. They also wrote for Disney TV shows and Disneyland.




And without the collaboration of these two young whippersnappers (which sometimes wasn't easy), animation of the highest level wouldn't have happened. Without the genius of Roy Disney the company would have folded many times over. How do you keep a studio afloat after major flops like Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi?



↧
↧

Roger Rabbit Scenes IV

August 3, 2016, 11:05 pm
$
0
0


I think this was the most labor intensive scene I ever animated (represented here by the first two film frames). It was toward the end of animation production, when I as asked to do the front row of characters racing through the hole in the ACME Factory's wall toward camera, and stopping in front of the melted villain, Judge Doom. The group of characters included Disney personalities, but other studios as well. Like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Roadrunner, and Betty Boop.
This wasn't a very long scene, just with a lot of characters. And everyone was supposed to move in character. That meant studying VHS tapes of classic short films from Warners and Fleischer.
I had a blast animating this great variety of cartoon icons, but I do remember being asked frequently by the production manager: "Andreas, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FINISH THAT SCENE?!"





We cut a little closer for comments by these animation a-list characters. To this day animator Nik Ranieri gives me grief for not drawing Bugs on model.






We cut even closer for Pinocchio's line of dialogue. I forgot I also drew Droopy and Speedy Gonzales  here. Maybe not 100% on model, but great fun to do.





↧

Milt Kahl in The National Enquirer

August 5, 2016, 11:46 pm
$
0
0


This article was published at the end of 1973 to help promote Disney's Robin Hood. (The footnote after the article is by Richard Williams.)
While it includes some good good information about Milt's research before he actually animates, most of the quotes just don't sound like him. I doubt that Milt went to the LA zoo regularly, he much preferred studying live action film of animal motion at the studio on his moviola. "The film required about 35.000 individual drawings"...?? Where does that ridiculously low number come from?
This reminds me of the utterly uninformed TV hostess from Dallas, who tried to interview Milt around the same time:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/11/milt-kahl-talks-robin-hood.html

As great as it is to find a newspaper article on any Disney animator, take this one with a grain of salt.


Milt's beautiful size comparison sheet, featuring some of the main characters. What a great variety of shapes and volumes.




These couple of drawings show how Milt went over John Lounsbery's poses for the Sheriff of Nottingham.






A model sheet made up of rough key drawings from Milt's animation of Little John.
The range of expressions, the appeal...speechless!




↧

Ostrich Studies for Fantasia

August 7, 2016, 10:16 pm
$
0
0


These are sketchbook pages from Disney artist and animal drawing teacher Bernard Garbutt. Beautiful, loose drawings from life. They give us an insight into the depth of research that was done in order to get a thorough understanding of ostriches' anatomy and motion. All this effort paid of when it came too animating these birds for Fantasia's Dance of the Hours.
This is what I've always loved about Disney's approach to animation. You learn as much as you possibly can about your subject, and then go to town with that knowledge in your animation.

These drawings go back as far as 1932, even though Fantasia wasn't released until 1940.
















More on Bernard Garbutt here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02/bernard-garbutt.html

↧
↧

Jungle Book Pre-Production

August 9, 2016, 3:36 pm
$
0
0


This beautiful concept painting from The Jungle Book was virtually unchanged for the final production painting below. Even the placement of the wolfs remained the same. A very atmospheric scene helped by the slightest clouds movement.




After several films with backgrounds that involved black xerox lines, the Disney painters went back to the earlier painting approach from the 1950s. No graphic Dalmatians styling here. Walt Disney asked his crew for a softer look as far as the Jungle Book backgrounds go.






Ken Anderson's character line up, based on Bill Peet's concepts. A pretty nifty group of contrasting personalities. (Shere Khan isn't quite the menace yet, we see in the movie.)




Character maquettes made by studio artists were used in the promotion of the film.




↧

The Trouble with Cels

August 12, 2016, 12:38 am
$
0
0



...is that the paint won't stick forever to the celluloid sheet. It's heartbreaking to see these Disney cels in a less than perfect condition. If you are a collector and have experienced deterioration on your treasured animation cels, you know how stressful it can be to see these hand made masterpieces go down hill. Tom Sito once said that if you own a cel you own a heartbeat of the movie.
Of course there are folks who restore the paint loss. I like it when the loose paint chips are pulverized, and with special added liquid, then re-applied to the cel. This kind of restoration process is an art in itself.











Nothing wrong with these two cels from Robin Hood. I am just adding them because they show how Disney tries out various color models before deciding on the final color combination. The last image represents the way Friar Tuck and King Richard appear in the film.






Some images Heritage Auctions

↧

Gaston Model Sheets

August 14, 2016, 7:15 pm
$
0
0


Probably the most difficult character I ever animated at Disney. A high degree of realism in the design as well as motion is never easy to bring to life. Here is some material I found in my Xerox archive.
The development sketch above still shows a mustache on Gaston's face, an idea that was tossed out. No facial hair on the guy, I was told.

Studying bodybuilders' anatomy.




A couple of construction sheets for Gaston's head. If you can't draw this from any angle, I think your animation will lack range.





A whole body turn-around. Not easy to do after having animated less than five scenes. But production management always needs these sorts of things right away, even though you are still in the process of discovering aspects about the character's appearance.



What I love about Gaston these days is his "after life",  particularly as a "meet and greet character" at Walt Disney World. There are the most hilarious encounters with guests on Youtube.  Here is one of those:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3bp59Eci_0

For my Gaston pencil tests go here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/01/gaston-pencil-tests.html

↧
Search

More Gaston

August 18, 2016, 12:23 am
$
0
0


How big of a jaw? That was the question I wrestled with during the character design phase for Gaston. I had preferred a more caricatured, villain looking version with a big jaw. When I was asked to go into a different direction and "beautify" Gaston, I drew the following portraits in protest, almost angry. I was thinking: Is this what you want? You can't be serious. TV soap opera looks for a Disney villain?
This type of a design will only result in stiff, lifeless animation.





So I continued doodling poses that still showed some oomph, some physicality that would help me to get a hold of the character.





One of the animators from Team Gaston was Joe Haidar, who did some terrific work on the character. He just sent me an image of a drawing I gave him way back.



These are clean up drawings (by the talented Kathy Bailey) based on my animation. As you can see, I am fighting to invent entertaining expressions while trying to keep this dude handsome at the same time.



More of Kathy's work over my roughs.






These are thumbnail sketches for a scene during "Gaston's proposal". Here he is referring to what kind of children he and Belle are going to have.
"We'll have six or seven." Belle: "Dogs?""No Belle, strapping boys like me!"
I drew these poses off a TV monitor while I was studying the live action reference.






What a challenge this character was. A villain who does't look, but acts like one. An unusual but interesting concept.

↧
↧

More Fritz Hug Animals

August 20, 2016, 11:59 pm
$
0
0


Time for another post featuring one of my favorite animal artists, Fritz Hug. Both his sketchy as well as his more rendered work show this man's passion for animals. Mammals, birds, even insects are fascinating to him, and he succeeds in finding poses and expressions that reveal the animal's particular characteristic and personality.
You'll find quite a few posts with art from this Swiss artist on this blog, here is the link to the first one:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/11/fritz-hug.html


















↧

The Walrus

August 22, 2016, 6:42 pm
$
0
0


I believe the character sketches on this pre-animation model sheet of the Walrus from Alice in Wonderland are by Joe Rinaldi. They are terrific and scream out to be animated.
However there is one thing that's been puzzling me: How come that the animal specific tusks were left out in the design?
It's almost like drawing an elephant without a trunk, or a cow without an utter. By omitting the tusks the character ends up looking a bit more generic, this could be a Disney version of a bear or a dog.
When you look at the guy below, you can see what I am talking about.




John Tenniel's original illustrations for the Alice books show an anthropomorphic walrus whose design is definitely based on a real one.





A couple of production cels, showing Disney's high standards when it comes to character colors.





Ward Kimball animated most if not all of the Walrus' scenes. Here he runs away from the Carpenter, who just found out that his buddy ate all the oysters. "The time has come..."
This is your typical cartoon take off. The character is running in place in anticipation of the  actual get away. Yet Kimball manages to add a lot of personality to this boisterous movement.




















↧

Eavesdropping

August 24, 2016, 9:44 pm
$
0
0


Two villains, one from the film Cinderella, the other one from Robin Hood. These two scenes have something in common, both characters are eavesdropping. Lucifer -animated by Ward Kimball- is pressing his ear against the Stepmother's bedroom door in hopes of hearing more orders for Cinderella, something he obviously enjoys.
The Sheriff of Nottingham's pose -by John Lounsbery (with a little help from Milt Kahl) - is almost identical, as he tries to listen in on a conversation between Friar Tuck and Otto. It is highly likely that they are talking about Prince John's taxes.
Both animators chose to flatten one side of their character's head, the one which is pressing against the hard surface of the door. To show soft material like fur reacting to a hard surface like this is very convincing and satisfying to see.
The pupils are looking upwards in anticipation of any revealing news.





↧

Polar Bear

August 26, 2016, 11:22 pm
$
0
0
I was told that these polar bear designs are the work of John Lounsbery. They don't show the type of line work I associate with Louns, but who knows?! It looks like these sketches were made sometime during the 1940s, possibly 1950s. In any case, the drawings are lovely, good caricature based on the real animal.












Talking about polar bears. You MUST watch David Attenborough's BBC production of "The Hunt".
Just like "Planet Earth", best wildlife documentary EVER. The photography is insane, the program's episodes cover all kinds of animals. Get the Bluray from Amazon! If you are serious about studying nature to influence your animation, The Hunt will leave you breathless. Here is a clip:


↧
↧

Rembrandt Bugatti II

August 28, 2016, 11:48 pm
$
0
0



It's been over four years since I put up a post on the great Rembrandt Bugatti. Time for another look at this unrivaled master of animal sculpture. I consider any of his sculpts a masterpiece. Who knows how his art would have evolved and how many more gems he might have created, had he not taken his life at the age of 31.

here is the link to my first post:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02/rembrandt-bugatti.html
















Bugatti was a master of the human form as well. Below, Reclining Athlete from 1907.



↧

The Way Milt Kahl Draws

August 30, 2016, 10:41 pm
$
0
0



When you watch Milt draw some of his characters at the end of his episode from The Disney Family Album series you can't help but feel his intense concentration. He was interviewed and filmed in 1984 at home in his Condo, just north of San Francisco in Marin County. Milt hadn't drawn in several years, he left Disney in 1976. Nevertheless, full of self doubt feeling rusty, he gave in to the show's director Mike Bonifer and sketched in front of the camera.
The footage is of historical importance, because it shows Milt's unorthodox way of drawing. He throws in a light circle for the main mass of the character's head, but then goes straight for details.
The order in which he puts lines on paper is completely absurd. He finished drawing Pinocchio's head, before moving left to define his finger, which is on fire. The connecting arm was drawn in much later.

Milt's assistant Dave Michener told me that Milt stared at blank paper on his desk for a very long time before then quickly animating his scene. He literally saw poses projected on paper, which he then "traced".












Her is the link to The Disney Family Album Wikipedia page for more infos on all episodes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Family_Album


↧
Search

Kahl Drawings for Sleeping Beauty

September 2, 2016, 1:03 am
$
0
0


The rough sketch above is from one of my favorite Milt Kahl scenes. This is Seq. 13, Sc. 53.4, and the Disney draft says:
King Hubert gets angry - he is about to smash his crown. Prince Phillip grabs the crown and tries to calm his father.
Hubert: "No, no...you can't do this to me!...Give up the throne...the kingdom...for some... some nobody! By Harry, I won't have it! You're a prince and you're going to marry a princess!"
Phillip: "Now father, you're living in the past! This is the fourteenth century! Nowadays...
Hubert: "Nowadays I'm still the king and I command you to come to your senses..."

The scene is a little over 30 feet long. Hubert's anger outburst is beautifully animated, great poses, great timing. Phillip grabs the crown out of his father's hand just in time. I highly recommend studying the scene frame by frame.

The following three drawings by Milt were done for John Lounsbery scenes to make sure the character stays on model. Milt animated the first half of the kings' drinking sequence, Lounsbery drew the second half.








Milt didn't animate any scenes involving the three fairies, but he did sketch this hat treatment for Merryweather and gave it to Frank Thomas.



This is a rough in-between for an early scene that was cut from the movie. At that time Milt drew the Prince with a sharp nose tip.



Design ideas for Fauna. The sagging cheeks were later eliminated for a simpler facial appearance. Beautiful arrangement of shapes, but I do prefer Frank and Ollie's version of the character.




↧

Walt Disney Goes to Work...

September 5, 2016, 12:36 am
$
0
0


Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt spent at least one full day at Disney Studios sometime in 1953 to document Walt Disney in action. I just love the two pics above, as Walt is entering the animation building. His animators are still working on Lady & The Tramp, but he is off to a story meeting to review material for the next feature Sleeping Beauty. What a great shot below, I recognize director Wilfred Jackson, John Hench and  Frank Thomas among others. This is a real meeting, not staged, the photographer was a fly on the wall.
Some of these pics from Getty Images are low res, a few are high res.




That's Frank Thomas on the left, and story man Bill Peet on the right.







A great photo featuring Ken Anderson, background painters Thelma Witmer and Claude Coats, and also director Ham Luske.



Milt Kahl was not at the meeting, downstairs in his office he is going over John Lounsbery's work.
Here he is drawing the policeman outside the zoo in Lady & the Tramp.



I can only hope that over time more photos like these will surface that document the daily "routine" at Disney Studios. They provide a fascinating glimpse into just how these groundbreaking films were made.

↧
↧

Milt Kahl Wire Sculptures Footage

September 6, 2016, 11:40 pm
$
0
0


These few scenes, showing Milt's wire sculptures with some dimension, were filmed at his home in Marin county. A little bit of the footage made it into the final 1/2 hour Disney Family Album episode, the rest are outtakes.
I wished the cameraman would have circled around the sculptures more, since that is the best way to show real depth. Nevertheless, these pieces are full of elegance and intelligent simplicity.
Just like in Milt's animation drawings, what he leaves out is as fascinating to watch as what he puts in.


↧

Fred Moore's Legacy

September 8, 2016, 7:54 pm
$
0
0


Yesterday was Fred Moore's birthday. As Marc Davis said once: "Fred WAS Disney drawing!"
Ollie Johnston talked often about how much he learned from him, while he was Fred's assistant and during the years that followed. Kimball, Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl had nothing but praise for Moore's work. No wonder Walt Disney sent most of his animators to see Fred, in hopes that some of the genius would rub off on to others. And it did. Because of his gutsy use of squash and stretch and his dimensional, appealing drawing style, Moore established what Disney characters (the cartoony ones) were made of: some kind of doughy, squishy substance, that is enormously fun to watch in animation.
I would say that his type of drawing and design influenced Disney's features from Snow White on, to Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo.
By the time Bambi went into production Milt Kahl had taken over the role of the studio's drawing policeman.




Here is a "Happy Birthday, Fred Moore" post from a few years ago:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/happy-birthday-fred-moore.html


↧

Behind the Scenes of Jungle Book and Aristocats

September 11, 2016, 7:20 pm
$
0
0



Some wonderful never before seen photos featuring a look into the production process of The JungleBook and The Aristocats recently surfaced on Getty Images.
The pic above shows voice actors Sebastian Cabot, Sterling Holloway and Phil Harris during a reading or recording session. Bagheera, Kaa and Baloo in the same room!
Clint Howard (director Ron Howard's brother) is lending his voice to Colonel Hathi's son.




Background painter Al Dempster is arranging stunning Jungle Book backgrounds on story board panels. 




Ollie Johnston animates a scene with Bagheera, the panther.




Director Woolie Reitherman, John Lounsbery and a couple of assistants are reviewing pencil animation on a moviola.



It turns out they are looking at Lounsbery's fight sequence with Shere Khan and the Vultures.



The same group is inspecting Jungle Book character models, which were used to promote the film.




Al Dempster is inspecting a cel from a King Louie scene, animated by Frank Thomas.




A cel set up featuring Mowgli's confrontation with Shere Khan is being reviewed, before being sent to the camera department.




Woolie's mind is already on the next animated feature The Aristocats. He is looking at Ken Anderson's character research.




More of Ken's work is being discussed.



I don't know when these rate photos were taken, but my guess would be sometime in 1967. Jungle Book wasn't released until later that year, and Aristocats was in pre-production.


↧
Viewing all 1316 articles
Browse latest View live
Search