Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- The Summer/Fall 1987 issue of Sightlines magazine had an article about women in animation. The article is by Cecile Starr who wrote frequently about Independent Animation. This feature was a companion piece to one the magazine offered about Snow White’s 50th anniversary.

Back from the 70′s through the 80′s there were a number of articles and features about women animators, and it was welcome. However since then the notice has been limited. Rarely are there articles about women animation artists (other than the infrequent Mary Blair article).

I’d like to see more of them, and it’s not a bad start by posting this article. (I’ve decided to show ads and all.)

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- Here’s what looks like a simple move done by Tissa David when she animated this Viva, paper towel commercial.

The character’s move in this scene is a complicated one done simply. She has been bent over, cleaning with her paper towel, and she moves up. You can follow the overlapping action as her eyes pull her up, head turn, and body follows.

The stripes will come and go. Tissa depends on someone else to concentrate on this material when she’s working on a commercial.

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Her eyes point in the direction she wants to go,
and the rest of the scene moves her up and into profile.

This key move is hidden under the exchange of the
paper towel from one hand to the other.

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She stops to think (accenting her monologue.)

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And she slyly looks back to camera to respond with her thought.

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She continues, all through this move, talking.
She’s pitching the product.

Here’s a QT of the piece:

Cleaning for Viva
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

– I posted some images from the title sequence I did for Sidney Lumet’s overlooked feature film, Garbo Talks.

Tissa had about two weeks to animate about 3½ mins. of animation. I begged her to leave inbetweens for me, which she did, though only on close positions. I inked on paper, and Robert Marianetti colored directly from these rough-ish drawings. It was done with prismacolor pencils on paper. The paper drawings were then cut out and pasted to cels.

Since it’s graduation season, I chose this sequence of extremes:

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Below is a rough PT of the piece with its staccato rhythm since it’s missing inbetweens.

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Garbo Talks ruff PT On twos at 24FPS
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

Eggs

-Tissa David animated the entire film for John & Faith Hubley. This short, as I said in previous posts, was done for PBS’ Great American Dream Machine for producer, Elinor Bunin. As Bob Blechman verified, they were given very little money and time to do an 8 min. short. The Hubleys gave life to the short by putting it on the theatrical and festival circuit.

Here’s a rough run cycle Tissa did for the Goddess of Fertility, who goes about inseminating the world with her seed. Tissa adds to its eccentricity with having the low point in the cycle the passing drawing. She comes up as each leg hits the ground.

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a “Goddess” run cycle from Eggs
On threes at 24FPS
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

- Last week I posted some animation drawings done by Grim Natwick which he animated in a spot for Mountain Dew. The drawings I posted were actually the assistant’s drawings done by Tissa David. The spot was produced by Robert Lawrence Productions.

This is another run cycle from that same film. Again, all of the drawings, here, are Tissa’s clean-ups.

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(Click any image to enlarge to actual animation sized drawing.)

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You’ll note that the character leaves the ground for 1/3 of the spot.
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He actually comes down in the crossing position rather than the
classically designed walk where the head moves up.

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Tissa’s tnedency is to have the crossing position the lowest in the cycle.
The character bears the weight of his walk with feet solidly on ground.

Run Cycle
On ones at 24FPS
Click left side of black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

Grim Natwick animated a spot for Mountain Dew when he worked for Robert Lawrence Productions. This is a run cycle from the film that was assisted by Tissa David. All of the drawings, here, are Tissa’s clean-ups.

Back in May 2006 I posted these drawings from a cycle from a Cheerios commercial animated in the late 50′s by Grim Natwick for Robert Lawrence Productions. (Robert Lawrence was half of Gantray-Lawrence, then Pintoff-Lawrence before opening his own studio, Robert Lawrence Prods.)

This highlights the importance of a good assistant for 2D animation. Tissa David was Grim’s assistant on this spot, and her cleanups are sensational. You can see all the detail that Grim actually includes in his drawing when you look at how the clean-up person properly does the job.

There’s a large shark on another level chasing the girl (see below.)

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This is the cycle of sharks snapping/chasing the girl.

I don’t think any of the drawings are wholly Grim’s. The numbers on the drawings are done in Tissa David‘s handwriting, so Grim may have worked out the breakdown chart with her and asked her to animate the shark to his timing. Bits of each shark are definitely his: the darker lines – the nose on 21, the shark’s mouth and guitar on 22, and the face on 26.

At one time, Tissa was teaching me how to inbetween properly. I first had to clean up all of these drawings and then inbetwen half drawings. Let me tell you, she taught with a harsh whip; I think I drew all of these images at least a dozen times. (Those are the ones I had nerve enough to show Tissa.) I’m not sure I ever got it right enough before going on to some other scene.

- For some time, after Bob Blechman completed his PBS special, A Soldier’s Tale, he tried to develop several ideas as animated features. He worked hard to produce some exquisite animated samples for potential projects.

Candide was one that took the most energy and a fine piece of film was produced to showcase what he and his studio would do with this famous tale. Unfortunately, there were no takers, and this project was shelved along with some other classic ideas.

For this pilot, about ten mins. long, Tissa David and Ed Smith did most of the animation – Tissa took the lion’s share of the piece.

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I have a copy of the pilot and thought it’d be worth posting some of the frame grabs from the piece to give you an idea of it. The entire film uses lengthy scenes and fluidly moving camera – no doubt an addition of Tissa David’s work. As the title card reads, these sequences aren’t presented to tell a story; they’re designed to highlight the animated fare.

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The title acts like a theatrical canvas wherein . . .

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. . . one, “Optimism”, overrides the other, “Candide”.

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Theatrically, all of the characters are introduced in CU cards.

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Part II is introduced with another opened curtain.

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Here the color runs out with well groomed P.T. by Tissa.

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This long pan leads to another sequence end.

- Continuing last week’s posts of the babies of The Carousel (Everybody Rides the Carousel), I have more drawings by John Hubley to offer. The baby is getting older, and visitors want to pick him up. The sequence is shown from the baby’s POV.

The final three drawings are from the sequence wherein the baby turns one year old and is being propped up to celebrate his first birthday cake.

These drawings were given to Tissa David to animated the sequence. They accompanied a long conversation over the soundtrack. Tissa returned with her first samplings of what the final babies would look like, and then they were altered in the I&P room. Soemtimes for the good.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

These three drawings with the birthday cake look as though they might
have been done by Tissa. The writing is hers.

- Yesterday I gave you a look at John Hubley LOs for some of the babies in the key scene, 112, from the Hubley feature, Everybody Rides the Carousel.

Tissa David did the lion’s share of this sequence which totaled about 10 mins of screen time. Barrie Nelson did some of the later scenes. (Tissa also did a second sequence occurring later in the film – ride #6. Barrie also completed that one.)

Tissa didn’t get any footage to study or even still photos (though she probably did her own research at the library.) She said she based her baby on her sister’s child.

These are her drawings from the same scene – 112.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

These frame grabs give an indication of how it was colored.

The style was to use a watercolor marker to ink the baby.
Then water was applied to the marker to loosen the color into the body.
This coloring style was used throughout the film.

The image of the baby above right was a big deal for John Hubley.
Tissa didn’t want to do a cut mouth because it read as too two-dimensional
for her. She fought John several tries, but ended up
giving in and holding that head for a couple of frames.

Lots of small cycles went on in this baby shot.
Tissa masterfully worked in and out of and back into these cycles
throughout the entire sequence. The baby was always in motion.

This last drawing is from Sc 115 where the mother
picks up the crying infant and nurses her.
I’ll offer more of these drawings next week.