Animation &Animation Artifacts &Disney 04 Jan 2012 07:20 am
Broom X Sheets
- This post is for real animator-type geeks. To complete the posting of the scene from Fantasia of Mickey chopping the broom, I have the exposure sheets as well as some notes and that I’d like to share. If you know how to read the sheets, it’ll be informative. If you don’t, take some time to try to understand them. Although there are some complications – several dissolves and indicated effx, specifically – much of it is basic.
These are all copies of copies, so the quality isn’t the greatest.
This is the cover of the folder for the scene.
Inking instructions within the folder.
An interoffice communication about the scene.
Another 2 page note.
Final page of notes.
The following are four samples of effx shading that was done
for all of Mickey and the brooms throughout the scene.
I show the original drawings followed by the effx drawing.
48
All of the effx drawings were done with a very light hand.
61
I had to push them like crazy in Photoshop so that you could see them here.
70
All of the Mickey & broom drawings were done this way as an
indication to the airbrush artists who would follow up.
505
You’ll note that the scene was about to be reshot for the airbrushing.
The Exposure Sheets
Here is a note attached to the first page of the
exposure sheets about a reshoot.
1
The first page without the note attached.
2
3
4
5
6
on 04 Jan 2012 at 9:56 am 1.Zane Whittingham said …
Hi Michael,
Thanks very much for posting such interesting material, again, I should add.
I have been along time viewer of your site over the years and have spent many hours reading through many of your articals.
I am a Freelance animator here in the UK wishing you all the best for 2012!!
Zane.
on 04 Jan 2012 at 10:33 am 2.Dagan said …
Wow, what a wonderful and invaluable resource, Michael.
As always, thank you for taking the time to share yet another gem.
I really miss using X-sheets… would be great to do a short film and get back to the basics, exposure sheets and all.
(You’ve inspired me!)
on 04 Jan 2012 at 11:08 am 3.Michael said …
Thanks Zane and Dagan. I have to admit I like this post. I really enjoyed it when I put it together.
on 04 Jan 2012 at 6:09 pm 4.DB said …
In reading your posts about the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, it makes me think Fantasia might have been the apex for effects animation at Disney (or anywhere else)! All the beautifully, lovingly rendered water, light and shadow is just amazing.
I’m curious, would a separate FX animator have come along after the initial animation was done to indicate the shadows and highlights (as per the drawings above)?
on 05 Jan 2012 at 5:13 am 5.Tom Sito said …
Michael,
I don’t know if you’ve ever gotten to the Disney Family Museum in SF yet. If you do, there is an interesting exhibit there. An effects animator who worked on Fantasia ( not Meador or Buckley) kept a shooting log, with notes and sketches on how all the more difficult effects shots were done. When he died Diane Disney acquired the book, and it’s now displayed like a “Minority Report” exhibit. open with a clear computer screen above. The entire book was digitized, and you can call up and turn virtual pages at will with your touch. Quite interesting.
on 05 Jan 2012 at 8:50 am 6.Michael said …
Hi Tom, I wrote about Herman Schultheis and his log book back in 2009 (go here). John Canemaker has been working on a book about him for the Museum.
Hi DB, I agree with you that Fantasia WAS the apex of non-computer animated EFFX. And, yes, a separate FX animator was employed to indicate the shadows and highlights. The character animated shadows were done by Riley Thompson.
on 09 Jan 2012 at 1:21 am 7.Hans Perk said …
Hi Michael! This is interesting stuff indeed – thanks for posting it!
I am a bit surprised that the effects animator is “unnamed” as far as I can see. In the draft (page 32 here) we see that Dan McManus was credited for the effects.
By the way: someone said that the Schultheis book would become a multimedia thing (do you remember CD-Roms?) – anyone know anything about that? Last year I had the good fortune to have been at the Walt Disney Family Museum when all visitors were at an event, so I could leisurely leaf through the book from cover to cover (virtually, of course) and it was a great read!