Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- As I mentioned earlier this week, I whisked through London to record Hugh Dancy for my film, POE. The recording took only a couple of hours on Tuesday. That meant I had Monday, half of Tuesday, and most of Wednesday to waste time – anxious to get back.

It also meant I did an enormous amount of walking and riding the Underground. I wasn’t really in the mood for touristy things, but I got caught up in it on the last day. I had to check out of my hotel at 10am, and wasn’t taking off until 6pm. So I wandered.

I went to the National Gallery of Art, searching for something to excite me.

Daumier‘s DON QUIXOTE, of course, did the job.

Leaving the museum, I stepped into Trafalgar Square, and decided to go to the Tate. Hugh Dancy had told me there was an excellent exhibition of photos there, so I aimed for it.

This meant I got to see the changing of the guard as I went pass at noon..

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Big Ben sat in the distance so I headed for Westminster, figuring if I walked past it, I could easily aim for the Tate.

As with every other trip I’d made to London, it was all about the weather. You start out on a beautiful day, and the clouds move up around you as the sky darkens. It begins to rain, and then the sun is beating down on you. The only more changeable environment I’ve exper- ienced was in Adak, Alaska. Actually, I’m not sure the weather was much different at all.

I finally did get past all of these crowded tourist sites as I got to the Tate Museum. (Not the Tate Modern.) I never did see the show of photos that Mr. Dancy had recommended. There was a show of Turner watercolors as presented by David Hockney. It was a stunning show, and it was all I needed for the day. I didn’t love the book/catalogue they had for sale, so left with only memories. Turner is enough of an inspiration for anyone. Certainly, enough for my trip.

A fruitful trip, indeed.______

– It’s Christmas in July!

I’ve pulled some frame grabs from the Eyvind Earle “animation” done for the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.

“The Story of Christmas” is a piece which is about ten minutes long interspersed throughout this half hour special.
The entire show is a Christian carol sing featuring the Roger Wagner Chorale singing around Tennessee Ernie’s gospel read and sing-along.

The whole is a very reverent piece with no attempt at lightness and comes off as very religious. This would certainly not work on television today, never mind ABC TV which is where it premiered as one episode of the Tennessee Ernie Ford series. Some of you may remember the animated Hubley titles for the show which can be found in John Halas‘ Technique of Film Animation.

Three segments feature the animated graphics with the group singing. The only real narrative tells the birth of Christ in animation. Otherwise the Roger Wagner Chorale, dressed in Dickensian outfits, gather around varied sets looking like the early 19th Century England.
(Click any image to enlarge.)

Earle’s animation was done immediately after Sleeping Beauty was completed. He’d left the studio (or was more probably left by the studio during their massive layoff at the time) and formed his own small independent studio to do work like this. I think this was probably his largest job, and it seems perfectly suited to his style.

Lots of pans and flare effects are built around sliding cells trying to imitate the look of the multiplane camera. There really is no animation here, just the sliding cels of the characters over the pans. It’s still quite attractive for what it is and holds the attention. The piece is well planned and shows off everything Earle had learned at Disney’s studio.

Go here to purchase a copy of the dvd.

Here are frame grabs from many of the scenes:

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– Sources report that a suspected plotter of the recent U.K. terror threat, Kafeel Ahmed, owned a hard disk which included an animated video showing how a syringe can be used in a bomb. The technology was used to trigger the bombs found in London but British investigators said they failed because the syringes malfunctioned.

The disk also contained a speech by Ahmed.

I can only suspect that the animation was done in Flash.

This information brings me to Political cartoons, and to that end I thought it’d be a good idea to look at this form.

– Let’s look at a couple of sites that feature Political Cartoons. For the moment I’m not talking about animated cartoons, just the printed kind. You can view a lot of this material on line, and I thought I’d point to a couple of sites that feature this form.

Today they call it Editorial cartoons, but until recently the monicker Political Cartoon was more appropriate. So pardon me if I switch back and forth using the two terms.

- Jim Zwick has a good site called History Illustrated which puts up a lot of political cartoons and has some fine articles about the cartoons and cartoonists. There’s a wealth of information here about the likes of Hogarth and Tenniel as well as many cartoonists I should know. A Daumier I own & love. (Click to enlarge.)
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There’s an alphabetical listing of cartoonists
and a lot of cartoons to view. I recommend you
take a quick look at the pages featuring Daumier and Tenniel cartoons.

If you want to read about it, there’s a “brief” History of Political Cartoons featuring a longish article about it with smallish illustrations.

A Dr. Seuss political cartoon.

- Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) was a political cartoonist during WWII, and a number of these cartoons can be viewed on the Mandeville Library Site, Dr. Seuss Went To War.
You can view them by year (1941-1943) or by categories.

– Then there’s the Political Cartoon Society, a British site that gives a lot of information about featured cartoonists. The site displays examples of cartoons that are currently on exhibit.

If you want to find out some information about Ronald Searle’s bio, it’s there. You just don’t see any of his cartoons. For that you’d have to go to Ronald Searle‘s own site.
(Searle’s Icarus is pictured to the left.)

As a matter of fact most cartoonists these days have their own sites.
There’s a good Herblock site which displays the Library of Congress exhibition on his work.
Tom Toles has his cartoons on display at the Washington Post. As a matter of fact, they post all of their cartoons daily. (More than can be found in the print version of the newspaper.)

Most papers have a link to their daily cartoons, and it’s a feature you should check out and support if you read your newspapers on-line.

- A lot of syndicates and news media also post their contingent of cartoonists on line. However there are others that put together a nice sampler of work out there.

Daryl Cagle has a site on MSNBC which indexes a number of current editorial cartoonists and allows you to click on their daily cartoons. It’s a good way to get an overview of what a lot of these cartoonists have on their minds.

Another similar site is the Comics.com editorial section. There they have a list of cartoonists, and you can just click from cartoonist to cartoonist.

- As for animated political cartoons, that’s a whole ‘nother research project. I’ll write about it when I’ve put enough material together. For the moment, I have to say that most of the animated pieces I’ve seen have been rather lame. They try too hard to cover all sides of the political spectrum. The JibJab effect, I guess. They want to sell rather than make a political point.

- I returned from London late last night after a very successful recording with actor, Hugh Dancy. His performance, as expected, was a fine one. I’m pleased, after all these years, to have finally recorded Edgar for my film, which moves foward in leaps and bounds.

On my production blog for this film, I’ll detail the recording in detail later today. Perhaps as soon as we get one of the poems edited down, I’ll put an MP.3 up on that site.

– The NYTimes Magazine, this coming Sunday will interview Matt Groening for his PR push on the Simpsons. (He’ll be on Conan O’Brien tonight, Thursday. It’ll be curious to see how O’Brien acts with his former boss.) The short Times interview by Deborah Solomon (the art critic not the animator) is, as I said, for the most part PR. However there are one or two questions I’d like to post. The responses have to do with animation.

“The Simpsons Movie,” opening on Friday, reminds us of your substantial role in giving masterpiece status to cartoons and animation. Do you see yourself as an A-level artist?
No. Cartooning is for people who can’t quite draw and can’t quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.

How much of the movie is hand-drawn?
We used a combination of cheap labor and computers.

What does that mean? You outsourced the film to animators in China?
No. When I say cheap, I mean there’s no amount of money that an animator can be paid — they deserve our eternal gratitude. I would give them back massages if they would take them.

There are also a couple of questions about politics I found cute:

In your film, a character named President Arnold Schwarzenegger occupies the Oval Office. How did that happen?
We needed a president that would make people laugh. And Schwarzenegger was the obvious choice.

You’re known to be a fairly active Democrat.
I’ve rarely voted for a winner in my political life, with the exception of Al Gore.

Note that he didn’t find George Bush funny. Now that we’re a few weeks into the run, is Comedy Central going to wake up to the fact that Li’L Bush isn’t funny? Or maybe the 18-35 year old males are still coming back for more?

Hopefully, they’re watching for the same reason I used to read the Ernie Bushmiller Nancy comic strip in the daily papers. I knew SOMEDAY it was going to be funny, and I didn’t want to miss it.

Ultimately, looking at all those Nancy strips, I kinda became a fan. I have a book which collects Ernie Bushmiller’s strips, and I like Guy Gilchrist‘s take on the strip. There are a couple of good articles on the site, Interesting Ideas, about the strip and its history. I also found a crazy article on How to Read Nancy. Huh?

- The excellent site, Blather from Brooklyn has a wonderful post about Piet Mondrian and the influence NY had on him (and perhaps his influcence on the City.)

- Speaking of art, if anyone out there is interested in who was nominated for prime time animation emmies, here are the nominees:

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)
Avatar: The Last Airbender • City Of Walls And Secrets
Nickelodeon • Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Robot Chicken • Lust For Puppets
Cartoon Network • ShadowMachine Films
South Park • Make Love, Not Warcraft
Comedy Central • Central Productions
SpongeBob SquarePants • Bummer Vacation / Wig Struck
Nickelodeon • Nickelodeon Animation Studio in ass’n with United Plankton Pictures, Inc.
The Simpsons • The Haw-Hawed Couple
Fox • Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox

Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More)
Good Wilt Hunting (Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends)
Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios
Hellboy Animated: Sword Of Storms • Starz
Starz Media in ass’n with Revolution Studios
Secrets Of The Deep • Discovery Channel
Impossible Pictures in ass’n with Discovery Channel
Where’s Lazlo? (Camp Lazlo)
Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios

– I’ll be in London through Wednesday recording the actor, Hugh Dancy, for my POE feature.
He’ll be the voice of Edgar A, and I’m looking forward to the session.

Consequently, I will not be able to post until Thursday, when I return.

For now, enjoy these Polly & Her Pals strips:

(Click any image to enlarge.)

– Continuing my posting of the animation keys from the Popeye Tang commercial done at Zander’s Animation Parlour back in the early 70′s. Jack Zander cast himself to animate the spot since he hadn’t worked with these characters before. (His studio did the animation for The Man Who Hated Laughter for King Features Syndicate via Hal Seeger Prods. back in 1972, but Jack didn’t animate on it.)

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

On Saturday past, I put up the Popeye portion of this scene. Here are the Olive Oyl drawings. Jack has a bit more fun with her, and his drawings are much more loose.

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- Like most cities, New York is rich in statues. There are plenty of them in the parks, but there are others on the streets and outside buildings.

On my daily excursion from home to studio I see a lot of the same statues, and I thought today I’d feature some of these. For the most part they all fall into the same school, what I’ll call early twentieth century representational. They all honor some hero or other.

The entrance to Madison Square Park, at 23rd Street and Broadway, has a
large statue celebrating William Steward. He was Lincoln’s Secretary of
State, a former Senator and anti-slavery advocate. He was part of Booth’s
conspiracy to kill off Lincoln and other members of his cabinet and was___
stabbed in the throat that same night. ______________________________
He eventually recovered to serve under Andrew Johnson._______________
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left: William Seward ___ right: David Glasgow Farragut

David G. Farragut was one of the most colorful naval commanders of the
Civil War. Though he was unsuccessful in early naval operations against
Vicksburg, Farragut’s success at New Orleans and Mobile Bay secured his
place in history as one of America’s most celebrated heroes.

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Chester K. Arthur, the twenty-first President of the United States (1881-1885)
He stands at the Madison Avenue, 26th Street entrance to the park.

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The east side of Union Square Park at 16th Street features this large and beautiful statue which is surrounded by tables where people can carry treats from the open market and rest. I haven’t yet found a plaque telling what the statue represents, but it looks to be
derivative of Daumier’s beautiful painting of a mother with her children. __________

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Gandhi stands, almost hidden, at a side entrance to
Union Square Park at 15th Street and University Place.
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You can see that he stands almost hidden among the grass, flowers and weeds.

– AWN currently has on its site an excellent Joe Strike interview with Jack Zander about his career.

Since the Popeye dvd is ready to hit the market (check out the beautiful frame grabs Jerry Beck has posted on Cartoon Brew), I thought this might be a good time for me to post some of the drawings I have from what is probably the last piece of animation Jack did professtionally.

This is from a Tang commercial done at Zander’s Animation Parlour. Instead of doling out the animation, Jack was intrigued with the idea of animating the character. He hadn’t animated Popeye before. (Note, Zander’s Animation Parlour had co-produced The Man Who Hated Laughter for Hal Seeger and King Feature‘s, but Jack hadn’t animated on that Special. So he gave himself the job. Jim Logan, the assistant on the job, gave me the extremes. Here are some from one of the scenes. I’ll post Olive (also in this scene) at another time.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Do you think the assistant asked for a straight on model of Popeye’s face to do the inbetweens?

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I think Jack might have been a bit out of practice when he did this spot. It looks a bit stiff.

By the way, this drawing is an example of how Jack drew
Popeye, straight on. I’m not sure anyone else used this pose.

– Here, then, is the completion of Eyvind Earle’s Little Golden Book illustrations for Peter and Wendy, first published in 1952. I posted the first part on Tuesday. As I wrote then, the book seems a bit different in that there are a preponderance of double page spreads in the book. A very intereresting approach that almost works in making the book feel larger.

I doubt there was a large amount of play allowed the artists in creating these books. There was obviously a house style that was followed and a feel that the publisher sought. Earle seemed to be interested in experimentation and enjoyed pushing the envelope. This is something that didn’t endear him to the hearts of the old guard. (The animators at Disney
(Click any image to enlarge.)…………….. incessantly complained about his busy designs and
…….._______________________………..color schemes for Sleeping Beauty.)

Here is the remainder of the book:

This last illustration is my favorite.

- Any reader of this blog knows that I am not a fan of Motion Capture; hell, I’m not much of a fan of cgi animation. I’d prefer to watch animated puppets if I’m looking for 3D animation, and I don’t think cgi has reached the level of some of the 2D animation that’s been done.

However, if I have to give a good reason for Motion Capture’s existence I would pick the Geico Gecko commercials. I think that little guy transcends animation; I totally buy it as a real creature talking to me in his Cockney accent. I like it and don’t think the same feel could be done any other way.

I started wondering about who did these spots and decided to do a little research. The spots sort of feel like some of Aardman’s work, but I never quite believed Aardman would resort to Motion Capture (but then I never thought they’d use cgi either.)

It turns out the spots are done in New York by a company called Framestore, NY. They’ve done a lot of effects work and commercials in the past. Most notably they’ve been involved with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Walking With Dinosaurs done for the Discovery Channel. They also have a London based office.

The President of the company is Jon Collins and the lead animator on the spots is Dave Hulin. Sarah Dowland is the producer, and Andy Walker is another animator involved in the commercials.

The original voice of the Gecko was Kelsey Grammar, but only for the first spot. Then Brit actor, Dave Kelly took the part. Those spots were done by Rhythm & Hues.
The current incarnation of the Gecko done by Framestore NY is voiced by British actor, Jake Wood.

Three of these spots can be seen at the Framestore website.

A short break for a little news brief: Sean Penn and Iggy Pop have signed on to do voices for the US version of Persepolis. They join Catherine Deneuve and Gena Rowlands. The French film, which won a jury prize at Cannes, will be released in November.

– Last night I watched a show on Boomerang. Entertainingly enough, it’s called MGM. These are the non-Avery non-Tom & Jerry cartoons of MGM. That means a lot of Harman-Ising and a few other oddities.

These are for the most part the bulk of shorts that ran on TCM’s Cartoon Alley. All of the prints are Turner-beautiful, and a good way to catch some of these cartoons. The program appears to have only been on a couple of weeks, at most, so I’ve only caught it two or three times. They seem to put up the later films from this unit – they don’t want it to seem too dated. Since the scheduled has shifted half a dozen times already, I’m not sure it’s long for the world. The programs run at 6pm or 8pm or whenever in the evening are apparently repeated early morning (last night at 4:30am) if you want to tape the shows with your timer.

Last night they ran the Chuck Jones short The Bear That Wasn’t(1967). This is an adaptation of Frank Tashlin ‘s children’s book published in 1946. The film was produced by Tashlin and Jones and was directed by Maurice Noble and Jones.

One of Chuck Jones’ most apt and famous quotes was to have called Hanna-Barbera’s (and, indeed, most tv animation) work “illustrated radio.” That is the saying that is most appropriate for this short. Paul Frees does an excellent job of speaking all the voices including the narrator (although it doesn’t sound well recorded). The only female voices are done by a chorus of females that sings all their lines. Dean Elliott didn’t do his best score for this film. The music sounds like a bad-jazzy version of a James Bond/Pink Panther impersonation.
(Click any image to enlarge. )

I’m a big fan of Maurice Noble’s work, but he was working overtime for this short, and the film is overdesigned. Too much gets in the way of the simple animation – trying, in fact, to hide the limitations of the animation. Looking at Tashlin’s book, there’s a simplicity that could have been easily relayed by anyone who just adapted the book. There was too much ego at the top of the credits here, and the film suffers for it. The end result is boring.

This was the first time I’d ever seen the short, so I was glad to have caught via the back door of Boomerang. The show today is at 9am, 8pm and 4:30am. This is what’s on today’s schedule:
Hanna & Barbera’sGallopin’ Gals
Hugh Harman’sTom Turkey and His _-_ Harmonica Humdingers
Dick Lundy’s Cobs and Robbers
and Hugh Harman’s Blue Danube.
An odd mix. (An item for sale on ebay.)