Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Bill Peckmann introduced me to a fabulous German illustrator, Fritz Baumgarten, who’d created many beautiful children’s books. These books feel as though they come from an earlier generation, yet Baumgarten died in 1966. In a sense they are from an earlier generation, but they feel more like the 30s and 40s – Snow White. I think of the world of Albert Hurter.

I’d like to post this one, written by Liselotte Burger von Dessart. Zwitschi.

cover

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Many thanks to Bill Peckmann.

- I received the children’s book, Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth, illustrated by Sanjay Patel and written by Emily Haynes.

It’s the story of the elephant, Ganesha, and how he breaks his tusk on a jawbreaker. With tears in his eyes, he learns to use the tusk as a pen to write, and he ultimately writes The Mahabharata, all one hundred thousand verses. It’s the great epic poem of Hindu literature.

Like every other book sent me by the excellent publisher, Chronicle Books, I am a fan of Sanjay Patel‘s work. I’ve reviewed his work very favorably, for good reason. It’s excellent. Here are a couple of past posts: #1, #2, #3. The Ramayana is still his masterwork, but it’s nice to see material like this on the children’s shelf.

This is the cover of the book.

Many of the images are single pages, like the one above.

Most are doubled page spreads.

Another double page spread.

The drawing on the front inner cover. There’s
another, different one in the back of the book.

The drawing on the back cover.

Mr. Patel is an artist working for Pixar as an animator and storyboard artist. He’s made quite a name for himself with these beautiful publications. Chronicle books is the perfect home for him. Their books always feature wonderful detail and care.

Note that this book will officially be released on Sept. 19th, when I’ll mention it again.

I’d love to see Mr. Patel’s designs and art animated.

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- Here’s a very different kind of book.
I received it in the mail; it came from Laura Bryson. Laura worked for me on a number of my half hour shows. She did Bgs on The Red Shoes, The Marzipan Pig and several others as well. I think The Strongest Love is Laura’s first book. She illustrated Katie McDonnell‘s verse story about a mother’s love. The book seems to be for a very young audience, but the illustrations are timeless. he publisher is Turn the Page.

Laura certainly wasn’t looking for me to review it; she was just excited to share it with a friend. However, I have to share the news (and maybe sell a book or two for her.)

Here are a couple of sample pages (every other page is illustrated against others that include the written, printed verse.)

The book’s cover

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– Finally, I’ve received my copy of the book by Rowland and Suzanne Lemieux Wilson.
Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets / Notes on Cartooning and Animation.

I’d been waiting for this book to come to me since last April when I ordered it. With barely a few hours to scan through it, I can attest to the fact that I think it was well worth the wait. There’s so much there there.

The depth of information on every page is enormous, and just perusing the book, flipping the pages, takes time because the material within is elaborate and complicated. Yet, watching Rowland Wilson break down the information makes you realize what you already know from studying his cartoons: this guy knows a lot, and all of it goes into the choices he’s made in every cartoon.

Consequently, with the book in my hands for only a couple of days, I can’t possibly review it. It’s going to take a long bit of time. I’ll give you a couple of sample pages from the book, so you can see what you’ll be getting if you buy the book (and let me tell you, you should buy this book. It’s a gem, a masterwork of information that’s near-impossible to see collected anywhere. But it takes time.)

The book gives many and varied sheaves of information. At first, I’ve scanned a couple of pages of thoughts on character models. Here are two:

one on women:

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and one on stocky characters:

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When he gets into the images being created, there’s even a page about iconic imagery within the images being developed. Drawings within drawings.

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Rowland gets very serious about color and color theories. Here are two adjoining pages which give an overview of color created by varying lighting systems within the drawing.

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Then there is the section on notes by the great animators, Grim Natwick and Art Babbitt. This section comes from notes Rowland took at the Richard Williams studio when the two came through the London studio. There were lecture courses given for the studio, and this first page includes some caricatures done at the time.
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Caricatures done at the Williams’ Studio in Soho Sq.

Here’s a bit of the commentary on Grim Natwick’s lessons:

GRIM NATWICK AT RICHARD WILLIAMS STUDIO, LONDON

Grim Natwick was considered one of the world’s greatest animators. He gave a series of talks to animators and was also available for informal conversation during this period (1973-74). We shared the same block of flats and I talked to him often at the studio and after hours. The following is a summation of these talks rearranged according to subject matter.

GRIM AND THE TRACK— At the time Grim was here I was working on Count Pushkin Vodka (The Trans-Siberian Express animated commercial) and searching for a way to visualize dramatically a musical track. Grim placed great emphasis on the track and the importance of getting to know it thoroughly in order to draw it. At the time he was here I had not started to evolve the the theory of musical form being the basis for animation form. Although Grim never spoke of animation structure as being the same as music structure, on looking back, I see that a number of things he advocated fit into music structure. Art Babbitt’s successive breaking of joints and overlapping action is comparable to the idea of sounding a group of notes in succession, rather than simultaneously. I suspect that the best animators have worked intuitively to principles that are analogous with musical principles. Grim and Art never expressed them that way, exactly.

DRAWING/ECONOMY— The most controversial theory of Grim’s was to set up a series of related drawings and go into them and out of them and through them in the course of a scene. The animators here felt that the system was not economical due to the amount of mental calculation it took to incorporate a pose in a new way once you had used it. They found the numbering confusing and the doping difficult. Grim presented the idea as an economy and they rejected it on that basis.

Later in music class it occurred to me the analogy of Grim’s practice with musical practice. The practice of starting with a first and second subject, going through it, repeating it, et cetera,

I think that Grim’s idea could be called “using a series of HOME KEYS” (animation keys] and is vindicated on aesthetic grounds if not on economic ones.

There’s plenty more where that came from.

Of course, finally, I had to copy this chapter page which includes this great self-caricature by Rowland.

This is a book filled to overflowing with knowledge and information. It makes me realize how little I know and how much there is to learn from masters like Rowland Wilson. He talks briefly about the ad he designed/directed for Riichard Williams, Count Pushkin Vodka. Seeing this ad, alone, is enough to tell you how brilliant Mr. Wilson is and how key it is to learn from such a master. It also says a lot about the man that he spent time preparing these lessons. It also tells me how grateful I am to Suzanne Lemieux Wilson for organizing this material and getting it into shape for publication; I’m sure that was no easy task. I’ll have this book in hand for quite some time to come. In a way, it compares favorably to Richard Williams’ own book on animation, The Animator’s Survival Kit. The difference is that Williams’ book is about acting, performance, and animation; this book is about design, direction and the bigger picture.

Today’s the anniversary of Rowland B. Wilson‘s Birthday,
and I have a great post to celebrate it.

- Completing the scanning and posting of Rowland Wilson‘s book, Whites of Their Eyes, I received a note from Suzanne Wilson and a series of scans of some beautiful color art by Rowland. Here’s that note:

Hello Michael,

It’s exciting to see Rowland B. Wilson’s “The Whites of Their Eyes” revisited. Perhaps your posting will initiate another half-century of shelf life to these cartoons!

Originally, most of them were presented in color but due to printing restraints of the time they did not appear that way in the book. I think Rowland said he had to rework some of them as line drawings.

I thought it might be of interest to make a comparison with the color versions. In the process I came across additional material from Esquire that wasn’t included in “Whites”, as well as from some unknown publications. They are interspersed here in no particular order.

Image 07, the lighthouse keeper, was selected by the great psychologist, Carl Jung as an illustration in “Man and His Symbols”. It was reprinted recently in “Understanding Psychology”, published by McGraw-Hill.

Thank you for keeping the RBW humor and oeuvre alive.

Sincerely,
Suzanne

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Finally, here are two drawings in honor of the Olympics:

This first one was published in Saturday Evening Post.

This sketch comes from RBW’s work on Disney’s Hercules.

According to Amazon, Suzanne Wilson’s book, Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes on Cartooning and Animation, was released yesterday, and is Out of Print with LIMITED AVAILABILITY. I guess that when I said to get one soon, a lot of people were listening.

This is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading for quite some time. I’m curious about the “Cartooning” part, but I’m wildly interested in seeing the “Animation” part. Rowland was a master of design when he worked in animation; I want to read anything he has to say about it.

- This is part 4 of 4 of the Rowland B. Wilson book, Whites of Their Eyes. You can find the other three parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The book was scanned and sent to me by Bill Peckmann, and, of course, he’s the one to thank for this great material from this 1962 book. Here are the final images from the book, and boy are they good.

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Bill Peckmann sent me the following note with the scans:

For all fans and friends of Rowland B. Wilson, I just want to give Suzanne Lemieux Wilson a big standing ‘O’ and a shout out of our appreciation for authoring the very soon to be released book ‘Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets, Notes On Cartooning & Animation‘. Without her diligence and heavy lifting of putting this book together, we would never have seen this wonderful collection of RBW art in print form, plus the added topper of actually finding out Rowland’s thoughts and reasoning that went into producing the art that we’ve come to know and love. Suzanne, again, many, many thanks!

Here’s a little photo trip down memory lane with Suzanne and Rowland.

(England 1973.)

England 1973

England 1974

Belgium 1974

Connecticut 1981

Moving Day 1982

California 1984

Some Great Books

I’d received a note from Fraser MacLean this week. He’s the author of the brilliant and beautifully illustrated book, Setting the Scene: The Art & Evolution of Animation Layout. It was odd that I’d just been talking about his book when I’d heard from him. This got me to think that I might post a reminder of a couple of the excellent books that were released this year. I’d reviewed a number of them, and would like to keep them at the front of your mind, so to speak. Here are three easy picks to tell you about.

Setting the Scene: The Art & Evolution of Animation Layout is a book about Animation layout, obviously, and it belongs on every bookshelf of those who work in the medium or are interested in it. I guarantee your first visit to this book, though, will be your ogling the incredible illustrations. They’re just wonderful. From 101 Dalmatians to the Cobbler and the Thief, from Pixar to Dreamworks. It’s an attractive book.

The book covers layout from the point of traditional 2D animation, preparing for the camera, as well as for the computer. It also covers the Layout of animation for cgi films. (See my full review here.)

At the top of the list this year would have to be Adam Abraham‘s fine book, When Magoo Flew: the Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA. It is a gem. This is an intensely researched book about the studio that changed the direction of animation in the late 40s.

The book is a very political one, or at least it’s about the politics of the studio that grew out of the Disney strike and pushed on through the McCarthy hearings with their hot design influences. The politics also refers to the ins and outs of the studio, whether it’s John Hubley not liking Herb Klynn’s artwork or Jack Heiter losing his job for refusing to listen to Jules Engel‘s thoughts on color.

There’s a lot in this book and it’s a treasure for anyone interested in that studio or those people. It also helps that a brand-spanking-new DVD was released at the same time with many of the important films from the studio. Jolly Frolics, the UPA Collection. We’re still waiting for the Magoo Theatrical Films to be released, as promised, on DVD. Mr. Magoo:Theatrical Collection

This book also has a companion website, When Magoo Flew, hosted by the book’s author Adam Abraham. There’s material there which you won’t find in the book. (Se my fuller review here.)

The third book I’ll mention here, is a big, lavish, picture book. Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant and Joe Ranft is the story of two story writers and artists working at opposite ends of the Disney Studio, and it was released almost a year ago today.

Joe Grant was one of the old timers who made it through the Golden Age in the 30s & 40s as well as the Golden Age in the 80s. He was a force in the studio, and brought some real art and artistry to the characters and designs he helped develop. Joe Ranft was a youngster who helped put Pixar on the map. His expertise in developing and telling stories made the early cgi features all that they were.

John Canemaker pulls their two stories together and showcases their lives and studio experiences to give an interesting viewpoint of the Disney studio. This is an unusual but excellent book, and in case it’s fallen off your radar, I might suggest you take another look if you don’t own the book. It’s a worthwhile volume to enter any animation collection. (View my full review here.)

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Benzon’s Dumbo

On his blog, the New Savannah, Bill Benzon has focused in on Disney’s Dumbo and his in depth analysis features quite a few blogposts. Hearty reading for those of you who’d like to see more about this Disney great. (I sometimes think Bill is writing specifically for me; I love it.)

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McLaren Animation – Tooned

Dennis Hermanson of Hillsborough, NC sent me a video that he thought I should post on the site. This is not really my kind of video. It’s trying to be Pixar and does a good job of it, but it doesn’t do anything to get me excited about animation. But I can see that it would excite others, so I decided to post it here, just the same. I hope you enjoy it.

Episode 01 (Wheel Nuts )
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Daria

MTV is offering something called MTV’s Retro Mania. But I come a bit late because it’s ending its Summer run with the return of Daria this next week. Some of their favorite Episodes from the New York produced show, Daria, will air Monday, July 30 until August 3, 2012 from 9:00am to 12:00pm.

If you miss that, you can go to the MTV website and watch episodes on line. Daria.

There was a time, I think, when this show was cool. I guess I have to catch up; I still haven’t made it through a show. I did root for the show to do well in that a lot of people who had left my studio went on to do work on the series.

Whites of Their Eyes, Rowland Wilson‘s book (1962) which collects his early cartoons, is the subject of this and a couple of other recent posts. (Part 1 & Part 2)

Bill Peckmann has been kind enough to share some scans with us, and I’m ravenous enough to hurriedly post every scrap of Mr. Wilson’s work. I came into animation fully aware of his great work, which I’d often cut from many of the magazines in which they were published. I think I’d first met him, rather briefly, at my short stint inbetweening at Phil Kimmelman’s & Ass. I had little more than the opportunity of telling him how much I admired his work. I worked on a number of Schoolhouse Rock pieces (Lucky 7 etc.) that he’d designed. Later on, I got to know him a bit better through my association with Dick Williams. I also knew his daughter, Amanda, through animation circles at the time. She worked on Raggedy Ann, where I was a supervisor. My connection, in real life, was limited, but my appreciation for his work great. Here’s Part 3 of Whites of Their Eyes.

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Does it get any better than this cartoon?

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Here are some photos taken in 1970 at Focus Design Studios.
They are of some of the crew that produced and work on
Rowland’s early TV commercials, like Utica Club’s ‘Mountie’ beer spot.

This is Sid Horn, producer and Phil Kimmelman, director.

Dante Barbetta, Roger Mejia, Gerry Dvorak and Victor Barbetta.

Victor Barbetta

Bill Peckmann

from Bill Peckmann: I’m sticking this drawing on the end because
it was done about a year (1969), before the photos were taken.
It’s one you’ve posted already quite a few years ago, but
maybe this photostat might be of better quality?

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I’ve split the drawing up and used George Griffin’s notes to mark up and identify the people within the caricature and to make it a bit easier to read.

The Mountie ad starts at 3:31.

Another Rowland Wilson ad starts at 0:31.

- Several years ago, I’d posted Bill Peckmann‘s xeroxed copy of Rowland B. Wilson‘s 1962 book, Whites of Their Eyes.

Bill has now sent me new scans from the book, itself, and they’re worth posting in this better state. I hope you enjoy the diversity of Rowland’s style in the wide range of cartoons he’d done by 1962.

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In 1981, nestled in their idyllic abode in the cartoonist’s and
illustrator’s haven of Westport, CT., Rowland and Suzanne Wilson
had their own British invasion…

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…It was colleagues and friends of Rowland’s that he had
worked with previously at Richard Williams Studios in London.

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Following the visit to Rowland’s house, everybody dropped by
to see Row in his room at the PK&A Studios that he shared
with Bill Frake (Standing far left) and myself. Mark Mayerson (standing far right)

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The following pencil sketches are by RBW, from about the same
time period as the visit. They were done for ‘Tang’ commercials,
Rowland designed the characters and did the BG’s.

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- Bill Peckmann sent me a host of scans today of the book which collects the comic strip Buck O’Rue as drawn by Paul Murry and Dick Huemer. The book was written by Richard P. Huemer and Germund Von Wowern.

Paul Murry was noted for his work on Mickey Mouse comic book adventure stories. Here is a small sample of that work:

Here are two examples of Murry’s Mickey Mouse art,
a cover and the first page of the story.

. . . and if you go here you’ll find another post we had featuring more of his work.

Here are Bill’s comments:

The book collection of the comic strip ‘Buck O’Rue‘ was just released. The short lived strip was done by ‘moonlighting’ Disney greats Dick Huemer and Paul Murry back in the early 1950′s.

‘Buck’ would get a super duper glowing review from me if only I knew how to write a good one! So I’ll let the book speak for itself.

There are a couple of points about the book that I would like to mention. It is a heartfelt labor of love by the authors, Richard P. Huemer, Dick Huemer’s son and knowledgeable comic’s editor/historian Germund Von Wowern. The book is three hundred pages of great information, photos and of course, the strip itself, dailies and Sundays!

Here are the introductory pages:

Book Cover

Title Page

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Table of Contents

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Foreward by Don Peri

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Besides the collected daily and Sunday strips of ‘Buck’ in this huge 300 page book, there are also many wonderful pages with bio’s of, and art from Mr. Huemer and Mr. Murry.
Here are a few samples, and what treasures they are!

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Okay cowpokes and cowgals, it’s time to set the stage for adventures of ‘Buck’…

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…and introduce the cast of characters…

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And here’s a sample of the strip . . .

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- Bill Peckmann continues to send me treasures. Here’s a calendar by Fritz Bumgarten with illustrations that werer taken from some of his many children’s books. The guy has a beautiful stle that feels like the work of many of the Disney Silly Symphonies and the early features. That Albert Hurter feel.

The calendar’s cover

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The back cover of the calendar.

As mentioned, these 12 months’ worth of images were culled from illustrations taken from some of the books by Fritz Baumgarten. Here are the covers of some of those Baumgarten books in Bill Peckmann‘s enormous collection.

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