Category ArchiveAnimation
Animation &Books 31 Mar 2010 09:37 am
Whitaker cycles
- On Saturday last, I spoke briefly about Harald Whitaker“s book Timing for Animation. (Recently updated with some additional information from Tom Sito. Unfortunately, I don’t have the updated version, so these pages came from the original printing.)
After writing that, I decided to try making QT movies of a couple of the cycles in the book. It’s one thing to see how a master animates actions in place via the drawings; it’s another to see how it actually moves.
Hence, I’ve taken three of the pages from the book, broken down the drawings and dragged them through AfterEffects putting all of the motions on twos.
This beautiful action perfectly and simply breaks down a
difficult motion. It’s quite alive and masterful, if you ask me.
The following motion was exposed on twos.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
The second motion is a dance. Whitaker uses it as an example of why things are exposed on ones or twos. I went against his lesson
and did the QT on twos. I wanted you to see the movement more
clearly (there’s a small jump from the last drawing back to the first.
The following motion was exposed on twos.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
This third lesson is about a basic bird flight pattern.
He’s animated a larger bird. If it were smaller the body
of the bird would also be moving up and down.
The following motion was exposed on twos.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
This is an excellent book. If you don’t own it, it’s worth every cent of it’s price. Buy it.
Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 29 Mar 2010 08:11 am
Anita
- Here’s a Milt Kahl scene of Anita from 101 Dalmatians. These are the extremes without inbetweens. In the scene, Anita is humming along with the tune Roger is playing, then says “What clever . . .” She finishes with, “. . . lyrics,” in the next scene.
The image at the left comes from Mark Mayerson‘s excellent breakdown Mosaic of this film.
This is another scene graciously on loan to me from Lou Scarborough, and I couldn’t be more appreciative and thankful.
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The following QT represents the drawings above. Each
extreme was held for the appropriate number of frames requested.
Right side to watch single frame.
Animation 25 Mar 2010 07:34 am
Andy Panda Flipbook
- Two weeks ago I posted the other side of this flipbook. In 1949, the Walter Lantz studio had a promotion going where they gave a number of flipbooks free to consumers of Grape Nuts Flakes.
The pages were double-sided. This side features Andy Panda taming a lion. Andy is in full color, whereas the flip side – Oswald – was just line work, so you know which one was still a “star” in 1949. See the Oswald book here.
The registration wasn’t very good on the printed page, and I had to adjust a bit to make it work. The paper it was printed on is newsprint and the color registration is also off. The images in the thumbnail are about twice the size of the original.
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The drawings of the following QT movie were exposed
on threes to best make the action work.
Right side to watch single frame.
Animation &Animation Artifacts 22 Mar 2010 08:01 am
Stromboli Jump
- Here’s a scene all of 29 drawings in length, but if you check it out in the film it’s enormous. Everything’s moving – the wago they’re standing in, the pots & pans, things on the table and most definitely Stromboli who in one enormous drawing changes the scene, Pinocchio’s world and the mood in the audience. “Quiet!” is all the dialogue shouted in the scene. It”s frightening.
(Make sure you click to enlarge every drawing here.)
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Closed position starting to open his body – legs first.
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Pulling it all into a ball,
he shouts, “QUIET” – the dialogue for the scene
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Couldn’t open up more than this.
Just look at the distortion in this drawing. Magnificent.
Open, loud, ready to burst. One frame only.
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Next frame he’s landed and gathered himself.
Only the secondary action – vest, pants, beard –
echo the outburst.
Quickly he starts to turn.
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His clothes lag behind in pulling themselves together.
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He’s set to give the demand and end the scene.
The following QT movie represents the entire scene from Pinocchio.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
Here are frames from the actual scene:
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What a difference the shake of the coach and the
bounce of the hanging utensils make to the scene.
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There’s danger everywhere, here.
It’s scary.
Many thanks to my friend, Lou Scarborough, for the loan of this scene.
Animation &Hubley &Tissa David 17 Mar 2010 08:10 am
Expanded Upkeep Cycles Recap
Two years ago, I posted part of this piece which included the drawings. I’ve expanded it and added the QT so you could see how it moves.
– Back in 1973, the Hubleys produced Upkeep, a short film for IBM. It chronicled the history of the service repairman in a light hearted way. Actually an industrial, it was treated like a personal film. (There’s a thin line between some of their industrials and their personal films.) Of Men and Demons was done for IBM though they considered it a personal film; it instructed in the positive aspects of the binary code and was nominated for an Oscar.
___(John & Faith Hubley with
___composer, Benny Carter) ______Tissa David did the lion’s share of the animation for ______________________________Upkeep. Phil Duncan, Lu Guarnier and Jack Schnerk were the other key animators on it. Helen Komar and I assisted all of them, and I inked the whole film. Gen Hirsch and I colored it. John did all the Bg’s.
The initial animation on the service man was done by Phil Duncan. Tissa had to pick up the character, and she found the walk Phil had done so funny that she kept it throughout the film adding shades and tones to it as she thought appropriate.
The art was inked with a sharpie, bled with thinner, then colored with magic markers. Each drawing was then cut out and pasted to cels. Hubley’s Bg’s followed the same style: sharpie on board, washed & bled with thinner, added watercolor washes.
Posted below are the drawings for that 18 drawing walk cycle.
(Click any image to enlarge and view whole animation page.)
Note: this meant that the BG was designed to pan on two’s as well.
To run QT click on the left side of the black bar below the image.
To run one frame at a time, click the right side of the bar.
Now, excuse my driving a point home for the fifth time. Please observe that the feet are on two different planes. The two feet do not hit the same horizon line; one is drawn behind the other, consequently it’s drawn slightly shorter.
Most students today (if they actually draw both legs animated instead of repeating 1/2 of the cycle over and over) have both feet touching the same line on the horizon.
Animation &Disney &walk cycle 15 Mar 2010 07:54 am
Thomas’ Little Tailor – 4
- So, finally, we’ve reached the end of this magnificent Frank Thomas scene from The Brave Little Tailor. The other three parts can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.
Many thanks to friend, Lou Scarborough for the loan of the xerox copies so I could post the scene.
We start with the last drawing from Part 3.
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The following QT movie represents all 246 drawings of the scene.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
Animation &walk cycle 13 Mar 2010 08:46 am
Burness Cat
- Here’s a secondary character from the Ub Iwerk’s Flip the Frog short, The Office Boy (1932). This was animated by Pete Burness. Milt Gross’ influence is obvious. The animation industry was smitten with him – for good reason.
There’s a wonderfully loose quality to the the run that was all but lost in later animation when things got sophisticated. Today, that loose quality is dead as a doornail.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
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The following QT movie represents the 20 frame cycle above on one’s.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
Animation 10 Mar 2010 08:45 am
Oswald Flipbook
- Imagine you’re a kid in 1949 eating your Grape Nuts Flakes in the morning. You’re about to pour on the milk when you realize you’ve found the Flipbook that was included in the box. Would that start you on your way of wanting to become an animator? Would you just flip it and throw it out?
Back then the Walter Lantz studio had a promotion going where they gave a number of flipbooks free to consumers of the Post cereal.
The pages were double-sided. This side features Oswald the Rabbit blowing up his tire. The flip side has Andy Panda. Andy is in full color, whereas Oswald was just line work, so you know which one was still a “star” in 1949.
The registration wasn’t very good on the printed page, and I had to adjust a bit to make it work. The paper it was printed on is newsprint and delicate. The images in the thumbnail are about twice the size of the original.
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The following QT movie is exposed on 3′s to make the action work.
Click left side of the black bar to play.Right side to watch single frame.
Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 08 Mar 2010 08:48 am
Thomas’ Little Tailor – 3
- What more can I say. It’s arguably the greatest Mickey scene ever animated. Frank Thomas did it, and this is part 3 of the displayed drawings and developing QT pencil test. In case you can’t guess, it’s from The Brave Little Tailor. Many thanks to Louis Scarborough Jr. for the loan of the scene to post it.
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The following QT movie represents all 183 drawings of the first 3 posts.
As more of the film is posted, I’ll add more of the scene to the QTs.
Right side to watch single frame.
Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 01 Mar 2010 08:53 am
Thomas’ Little Tailor – 2
- I continue with this scene by Frank Thomas from the Mickey short, The Brave Little Tailor. A brilliant scene it goes on for about 250 drawings long, and it’ll take four or five posts. Many thanks to my friend, Lou Scarborough, for the generous loan of his xeroxed copies; it was a delight getting them back in registration.
I begin, as usual with the last drawing from Part 1.
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The following QT movie represents all of the drawings of the first 3 posts.
As more of the film is posted, I’ll add more of the scene to the QTs.
Right side to watch single frame.
