Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Once Snow Whtie enters the dwarfs’ home, the multiplane camera virtually gets into limited use. There are almost no interior multiplane shots in the film, and few exteriors in the second half of the movie. I have collected a few, and I’ll post them here. Like the first half of the movie, the multiplane shots do not call attention to themselves. They’re in no way obvious, but they do help set a texture and a mood throughout the film.

1a
The first scene to use the multiplane after “Whistle While You Work,”
comes at the end of the sequence when the camera pulls out from the
cottage and Snow White has finished her work.

1b
As we pull out, overlays, slightly out of focus, come into the picture . .

1c
. . . until the camera comes to a stop.

2a
We see the next use of the camera when the dwarfs
go home from the mine.

3a
It’s the famous scene where all seven dwarfs
march across the tree-bridge.

3b
The sky is separated from the foreground elements . . .

3c
. . . as the camera moves in a bit.

4a
Likewise the following scene where the dwarfs
move home behingd the water fall.

4b
There’s a arge separation between background and foreground.

5a
There is an interior shot where the dwarfs search for Snow White.

5b
The camera trucks in to the dwarfs
while foreground objects go out of focus.

5c
Not all of the dwarf drawings are beautiful.

6a
The truck in to the castle is stunningly beautiful.

6b
Traditionally, the moon stays its size
while other things move to the camera.

7a
Dissolve to a closer shot of the castle and the moon . . .

7b
. . . the camera continues to move in.

8a
The Queen comes down the stone stairs.

8b
She continues to screen left.

8c
The camera pans down to the bottom of the stairs.
An overbridge passes the frame.

8d
She continues on with all determination, behind chains.

8e

8f

8g
. . . into the next room.

9a
MS, the Queen raises her glass of toxins . . .

9b
. . . and drinks it.

9c
The camera pulls out.

9d
We lose focus on the Queen.

9e
The room spins around as the montage begins.
Forground objects swirl in front of the Queen.

9f
We end with a slip of the Queen, wildly out of focus.

10a
The animals watch the celebration going on in the dwarfs’ cottage.

10b
The camera pulls out giving levels for the multiplane camera.

10c
It comes out full.

11a
One of my favorite shots has the old hag coming out of the fog.

11b
She grows larger as she moves to the foreground.

11c
She turns and moves across the screen.

11d
She urns her back to us . . .

11e
. . . and moves into the distance.

11f
She returns to the fog.

12a
At the top of the cliff in the rain clouds move on another plane.

12b
The camera moves in as the clouds continue to speed by.

13
After she falls, the dwarfs look down to her.
This is the last multiplane shot in the film.

14
Here’s a shot of the multiplane camera on the DVD.

15
A closer shot of the topmost level and cameraman.

This post was produced back in July of 2008. I was looking at these bicycle posts again this week thinking of doing a follow-up. The images seemed identical, except that there was more loose garbage strewn on the street. I decided to just recap this original.
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- Back in the wild, wild west, they used to have hitching posts so cowboys could tie their horses outside the local tavern to keep them from running wild. If there was no hitching post, cowboys in movies used the stanchions in front of the saloon or store.

We don’t have horses in the big city, but we do have bicycles. Hitching these with chains and locks and anything to try to prevent theft has
________(Click any image to enlarge.)_____________been a primary difficulty for
_______________________________________-_____messengers and other bike riders.

My studio has two entrances (or exits depending on how you view the situation.) At both, there are wrought iron fences which sort of act as bannisters going up/down the steps. Leaving work the other day, I noticed that the back entrance was used as a “hitching post” for a couple of bike riders. Presumably they were working out in the gym just next door.

Good thing we rarely use this exit.

This made me start looking at other hitching posts I could find on my way home, and I took some snaps.

Sign posts and trees seem to be likely candidates.

Sometimes both come in handy.

Though, any pole will do.

The upside-down “U” seems to be designed for smaller businesses
that want something curbside.

For one or multiple bikes.

There’s also the “M” shape for a couple of bikes.

I’m not sure if these are supplied by the City or the storeowner.
There’s a uniformity around town that makes me wonder.

In places there are a number of these for the high bike traffic.

Sometimes this isn’t enough and a subway entrance serves as a backup.

Even though many “M”s have been placed in the same area.

I did like noting this one unit outside a “Circuit City” store that offered
an overhead to protect the bikes outdoors.

A memorial tribute film to Karen Aqua
by Lisa Crafts, music by Ken Field

- Last Sunday, July 10th, Ken Field held a memorial celebration of the life of his wife, the brilliant animator, Karen Aqua, who passed away last May. I wasn’t able to attend the tribute in Somerville, Massachusetts, but I was glad to learn that it was well attended and very much appreciated by those who were able to go. The speakers included Julie Zammarchi, Grey Held, Jeanée Redmond, and others. Ken, of course, had comments of his own which can be found on his Facebook page.

He also has intentions of creating a DVD compilation of Karen’s films and is trying to decide how many to produce. Here’s the note he sent me:

There have been a lot of inquiries about how people can buy a dvd compilation of Karen’s animated films.

I am in the process of putting together such a dvd, and am arranging for a distributor for it. But it would be helpful to have some sense of how many to initially make.

To that end, I have put together a survey that you can answer online. If you think you might want to buy such a dvd, please go here to fill in the number of copies (1 is a fine answer) that you might want to purchase. The cost will probably be around $20, plus shipping, and the dvd will include all of Karen’s personal animated films, including Afterlife (but not any of her Sesame Street work or any of the workshop films we directed together).

I’ll tally these numbers in a few weeks, and send out a note when it becomes possible to order a dvd.

With all best wishes,
-Ken

The tribute ended with a second line procession that left a sweet note to the sad day.

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- I thought it might be useful to point out that on my studio website, MichaelSpornAnimation.com, there is a place where you can see the schedule of Sporn films that are airing or playing around the country. Most often this means an HBO monthly schedule of Sporn films. There are, naturally enough, other goodies on that site.

By the way, I’m pleased as punch to have our most recent film, (an abbreviated version of our HBO show) I Can Be President, selected for competition in the Ottawa Animation Festival. I will be there and hope to see a lot of you there as well.

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- I very much like Oscar Solis‘ idea for a new art blog. Covering the Classics is dedicated to his designing book covers for famous classic pieces of literature. Already he has done a number of beautiful illustrations. Kwaidan is beautiful and Moby Dick has strength in its simplicity. I hope he’ll keep it up.

My only complaint is that I wish the original size of the art could be a bit larger so that we can enjoy it a bit more.

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- Robert Kopecky is a designer. He’s designed for quite a few animation shows (Nate the Great, Codename: Kids Next Door, Daria et al.)

He’s created several blogs: one for animation design and another for his overall design. The latter includes a number of illustrations he’s done for publication.

Personally, this is my favorite of all the artwork displayed. There’s a lot of personality in all of this print design. Obviously, with his animation work he’s been given a specific styles to work in, and this reduces the slight edge I find in his illustration. I’d like to see some animation he designs from scratch.

His animation blog can be found here.
His design blog can be found here.

It’s worth keeping an eye on what he’s up to.

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“The Tell-Tale Heart” which was part of the original proposal for the
POE feature we’re doing, but is no longer part of the film.

- And while I’m mentioning blogs of animation designers, I have to plug one who worked for me for years. The brilliant Jason McDonald has two blogs he publishes. One is for his design work, both animation and just-plain-Art, and the other is for a comic strip he does on line, My Living Dead Girl. (It’s a strip about zombies.)

Jason has done a substantial amount of design and storyboard work for my studio over the years (including quite a bit of work on developing some of the stories for the POE feature we’re trying to get going. His artwork is fun to animate and has a real sense of design to it, yet it’s not a look anyone else is doing. It’s original. He also has a great sense of daring in all the backgrounds he’s done for my films. I can’t sing his praises highly enough. As a matter of fact, though I’ve done a post or two about him, I think I probably owe him at least another one. (That way I’ll get some attractive Sporn art on my blog again.)
Champagne Bgs,
Nonsense,
Nonesense and Lullabyes (sic)

Jason’s animation design blog can be found here.
My Living Dead Girl can be found here.

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- And I’d also like to give a shout out to Stephen MacQuignon‘s illustration blog. Steve worked with me for a million years coloring many big efforts such as The Red Shoes, The Hunting of the Snark, Whitewash, and Lyle Lyle Crocodile. After leaving my studio, Stephen started illustrating books and has been fairly successful at it. You can see lots of samples on his web site.

- Today we continue with part 2 of 3 from Carl Barks‘ brilliant comic story, “Sheriff of Bullet Valley.” Bill Peckmann who sent the whole thing to me for posting, starts with an oil painting by Barks which was based on this story. Bill writes:

Here’s Carl’s painting of the cover (caption to follow). It’s taken from “The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck” by Carl Barks. It was published in 1981 by Another Rainbow Publishing Co.

“The Sheriff of Bullet Valley”

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Bill Peckmann wrote:

Fortunately for us, “Bullet Valley” broke down nicely into 3 acts, but then again with the ol’ master, Carl Barks, at the helm, I’m sure luck had nothing to do with it.

One more note on the coloring. After rummaging through other colored reprinted (and original) versions of BV, I’ve come to the conclusion (IMHO) that this might be one of the best colored Barks story ever. I wish I knew who did the art direction on the the coloring, great job. Usually the colors are all slightly over saturated or are computer gradated, this version has all of the colors done nicely in a simple pale mode and boy, does that let Barks’ line work (one of the best in the business) superbly shine through!

As I noted on Saturday last, I have a wealth of Bill Tytla animation on the past of this blog and I think it’s time to bring it forward for a recap. The stuff is too good and deserves more than a little study for ANYONE who calls himself an animator. This piece was originally posted in August 2009.

- Here are the drawings of Grumpy walking in a huff. Bill Tytla was the animator. The images come from a photostat which prepared the material for publication. A couple of these drawings appeared in the Thomas-Johnston book, Illusion of Life. The sequence, here, is missing drawing numbers 6,7 and 8.)

1 2
Note how he starts with his shoulders high.

3 4
His bent leg, at this point, takes the weight of his body.

5 9
He moves his body up, high . . .
(Note that we’re missing drawings 6, 7, and 8.)

10 11

12 13
. . . then twists his entire torso.

14 15
The straightened leg makes contact.

16 17
Again the shoulders go high as the pattern repeats on the other leg.

18 19
Note the detailed attention to the flow of the clothing throughout.

20 21

22 23

24 25

26 27

28
(Click any of the above images to enlarge.)

The following QT movie is on one’s with
the exception of dwngs #5, 9, & 11 on twos
to make up for the three missing drawings.

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

As I noted last Saturday, I intend to repost a number of the Bill Tytla animated pieces I have in the history of this blog. His work, at least to me, is too important to let just sit there. This post was originally published on this blog in March 2009.

Here is a scene from Snow White, animated by Bill Tytla, in which four of the dwarfs fight Grumpy. The drawing above is the first of these drawings and it shows what it looked like in color – lots of red pencil notes, yellow pencil for rough structural lines. The rest of the drawings I have are B&W copies.

One of the things about Tytla’s work that I just love is the built in distortion he does to the characters. Check out Happy’s face (upper left) in drawing #227. Or Grumpy’s face in #260. They’re beautiful, and when the animation is moving, the distortion doesn’t show. He did as much with Stromboli. I’m convinced this is one of the ways he pulled the inner character out, trying to get Stanislavski’s theories into animation. It’s wonderful.

By the way, if you like this material check out Hans Perk ‘s site. Tytla talks about dealing with forces vs. forms in animation. This is what Tytla was all about in animating.

222
(Click any image to enlarge.)
223
224
225
226
227
Check out Happy’s face on this inbetween.
Then check out Tytla’s drawing (the next one) of Happy.

228
Tytla marked his own drawings with an “X” in the upper right corner.
The other drawings are the work of inbetweeners. The writing looks
to be all the work of Tytla.

229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
Some of these drawings are just hilarious in their own right.

243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260

The P.T. is exposed on ones at 24FPS.

- Onto the next week’s class of Action Analysis at the Disney Studio, after hours. Actually, I’ve skipped a week. I only have four pages of the notes from the April 6 1937 class. Since it is missing a dozen pages, I’m not sure how worthwhile it’d be to post it. So I’ve skipped to this very full session.

Don Graham teaches. The film they study shows a 12 ft. (8 secs.) bit of a man picking himself up from mud – dragging and wading through mud. (It’s a little embarrassing posting this which actually reads: “Loop of young negro picking himself up from mud . . . Those were the days of feckless, racist behavior.) Obviously, we can’t see the footage (which is probably still somewhere in the Disney vaults), but we can pick up lots of information from the lesson.

The attendees who participate include: Jack Hannah, John Vincent Snyder, David Rose, Izzie Klein, Joe Magro, Chuck Couch, Robert Leffingwell, Milt Neil, Roy Williams, and Paul Satterfield.

Read on.

Title page

1 2
(Click any image to enlarge to make legible.)

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1112

1314

- The first feature Disney used to display his multiplane camera was his first feature, Snow White. Interestingly enough, I find the use of the camera in this first feature film to be one of the least ostentatious of them all. Any displays of depth or multiplane pans are almost hidden in the movie, as if they didn’t want to call attention to themselves. This, of course, is the exact opposite of its use in Pinocchio.

However, there are a lot of scenes that use it to hide or help effects for the film.

I’ve captured a lot of demonstrations of the camera in use and will start displaying them from the beginning of the film.

1a
The film starts off using the multiplane with the first two shots.

1b
As we truck in on the castle, there are slight changes of focus on overlays.

2a
The same goes for this second shot.

2b

3a
In the wishing well, the brick work is broken into a number of different levels.
The top two are progressively out of focus even though there is no camera move.

3b
This makes the ripples and the reflection easier to produce
keeping everything else in the same level of focus.

4a
Once the woodsman takes Snow White to the forest, the camera
comes into its own – although they still use it with great subtlety.

4b
As the camera moves in there’s a rack focus on all the levels.

4c
The grassy hill that SW stands on moves separately from the sky.

5a
And once the hunter tells her to run away there’s plenty of movement.
Here, she starts backing away from the hunter.

5b
She continues to back away. Levels start moving behind her.

5c
Once she starts running a large out of focus tree sweeps across the screen.

5d
She moves into the perspective as the trees swoop past her.

5e
She runs toward a block of trees.

5f
We see her continue past the group of trees into the darkness.
At times she’s completely shaded by the out of focus trees.

6a
She turns and backs slowly into the forest . . .

6b
. . . and falls into a hole.

6c
The camera holds for a beat on the hole in the ground.

6d
Followed by a very fast pan down, trying to follow her.
Levels fly by out of focus.

6e

6f
We catch up to her holding onto a vine above water.

7a
A quick cut back to reveal the environment.

7b
She falls into the water.

7c
She’s frightened by two logs that look like alligators.

8a
Cut with her running out of the water.

8b
Out of focus shrubbery blocks our view of her.

8c
She continues moving under the shrubbery.

8d
She finally comes out of the hole.

8e
She runs into the forest.

9a
Frightened by the trees she runs forward screen right.

9b
Cut as she enters large from screen left.

9c
She runs into the perspective. Different levels of soft focus.

9d
Leaves blow behind her.

10a
She’s frightened by eyes and falls to the ground.
In this shot the eyes seemed to be burned in on a second pass.
As the camera moves out, they don’t move at the same rate
causing some slight gliding.

10b
Overlay trees slowly move into the frame.
The lighting of the scene brightens.

10c
Finally, we’re settled watching her on the ground
surrounded by innocent pastoral animals.

11
Snow White on the ground with all the animals
does not employ the multiplane camera.

12
However, we immediately see a deer over a waterbed surrounded by trees.
This does use the camera to place the water effect in among the foliage.
There are plenty of shrubs out of focus above the water.

13a
The same goes for this shot of raccoons.

13b
The raccoons run out in the pick up of this shot, and we truck in to a turtle.
The multiplane level of the water separates from what’s under it.

14a
Snow White is led by the animals through a wooded area
filled with multiplane levels.

14b

14c
The water effect has a level all its own.

14d

14e

14f
How more apparent is the multiplane level than this one
that blurs out in an area that visually cuts off her head.

15a
Snow White comes out to a clearing and is pulled to screen left.

15b
Plenty of objects pass in soft focus.

15c

15d
The animals open to a clearing.

15e

15f

15g
There’s a light change as Snow White views out . . .

16
. . . to see the dwarf’s house. No camera move, but the
multiplane still is used to create a feeling of depth.

17a
A few shots later, Snow White runs across a little foot bridge.

17b
She heads for the dwarf’s house.

17c
Out of focus trees pass over her and the animals.

17d
She goes right up to it and . . .

17e
. . . peers in the window.

- I like recording some of the outdoor sculpture I come upon in my travels around NY. And, for better or worse, I’m gonna share a couple of pieces with you here.

1
Madison Square Park has had this enormous, Asian face on show in the “Great Field.”
It almost makes this photo feel as though it were a squeezed Cinemascope image.

2
The luminescent quality of the stone makes me wonder
if anything is projected on this face at night.

3
The sculptor, Jaume Plensa, created the 44′ face as an homage to “everyday people.”
The artist’s website states that the dream-like monolith “aims to introduce a quietness
to the park, allowing viewers a moment of serenity and reflection in the heart of the
city that never sleeps.”

4
I love that the face is constructed in levels, like brickwork.
It’s actually white fiberglass coated with a gel.

1
Moving up town to Park Avenue and 57th Street. some roses
have been on display since the winter. These are large things
that, to me, aren’t very attractive.

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They’re sculptures by artist, Will Ryman, whose gallery
arranged for the Park Ave. display from Jan through May.

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Several street corners from 57th St. thru 67th St. have different roses.
Some that lay on their side, some that stand up.

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Down town, on 32nd Street and Park Avenue, there’s a big, stone statue
that is covered by a construction site’s scaffolding. You can only notice the
sculpture if you’re walking past it. Even then, you have to pay attention.

2
I took these pictures when it was gray and raining out.
At least, the sculpture stayed dry.

3

Just outside of Washingon Square Park there’s a mall of a street
filled with small shops and restaurants, LaGuardia Place. Among and
in front of theses shops is a statue of Fiorella LaGuardia, the mayor of
New York from 1934 to 1945. The statue is by sculptor Neil Estern.

LaGuardia was that he read the Hearst comic strips, “Puck, the comic weekly,”
on Sundays over the radio. An odd little fact that Chuck McCann told us in
his weekly Sunday kiddee show in NY during the 60′s.

I love this statue. It’s not very large and leads me to think that LaGuardia was a
short guy. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s an impression I take with me.

- Mark Sonntag just sent me a model sheet from The Hungry Wolf that he found on auction at Howard Lowery’s. There’s no way to tell if these drawings are by Tytla, but the drawing is beautiful just the same. The inclination to shade in the characters on this film is interesting, though. Many thanks to Mark for sharing.

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- I am such a fan of Bill Tytla‘s work, I can’t even begin to tell you how much. This week, on his blog, Andreas Deja posted some roughs by Tytla and I couldn’t believe how wonderful some of those drawings are.

There’s a series of Grumpy posing in the middle of one of his negative rants, that just sends me. I’ve gone back to the blog at least a dozen times to look at those drawings again and again. The character starts by throwing all of his hostility out to whomever he’s talking to. Then he crosses his arms, with back to the listener. That immediately has him reach out to that person with his entire body, even though his arms stay crossed. It’s such a wonderful mix of emotions so beautifully and graphically presented. All the emotion within Grumpy is out on the floor; he thinks he has nothing to hide and is letting it all out. Thanks to Tytla, we see that Grumpy wants to be like all the others and love Snow White as well. He’s so conflicted and trying so hard not to be honest. This is a brilliant animator at the top of his game.

In the past, I’ve posted quite a few Tytla drawings – most of them loaned to me by John Canemaker. I think in the next week or two I’m going to pull out many of them for a recap. They’re just too great to sit hiding in the morgue of my blog. I want to take another look at them, and maybe share that, again, with you. I hope you’ll indulge my obsession.

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- John Celestri is a very good animator who has been a fan of Tytla’s work since I first met him back in 1977 on Raggedy Ann & Andy. John was in the NY Assistant pool that I supervised, and he was a talent to reckon with. Now, John has a new blog that is starting to take shape. It’s like many animator/director blogs in that it’s built around his work in the industry, and there’s a lot of experience for him to draw on. After he left Raggedy Ann, John moved onto Tubby the TUba at NYIT, then Nelvana to work on Rock & Rule. From there he worked on many features in LA, some with Richard Rich‘s studio for Nest Animation. In every step forward, John’s animation kept getting stronger. Now he has his own studio in Kentucky.

The blog, at present, uses John’s own work to show basic animation techniques and script writing problems. It’s growing up into something quite interesting, and I suggest you check it out, if you haven’t already.

By the way, I love that John has pursued a completely non-animation, secondary path in his life. He has also authored quite a few mystery novels with his wife, Cathie. (Their joint site is called CathieJohn.)

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- Also worth visiting is the studio site for Dancing Line Productions. This is the animation company of Anik Rosenblum, a Vancouver, Canada animator who brings a lot of grace and lyricism to the animation he’s been doing for some beautiful spots. There are many examples of his work on the site, and you should take a look at some of it.

Below is an animated piece called “The Autumnal Walk” which gives a good idea of Anik’s work.

The Autumnal Walk

This is one of my favorite pages of Dancing Line’s site. It answers the question, “Why hire us?” Anik has a good, sweet sense of humor. More power to him; I hope his company is successful.

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- I just read an interview with Eric Larsen in Don Peri‘s book, Working with Walt. Something Eric said caught me and I thought it would be good to quote him:

When I came into this business, Frank [Thomas] and Ollie [Johnston] and Marc Davis and Ward Kimball and John Lounsbery all came about the same time. Hal King and a few more came then, too. There was a group of us who developed, and Walt started putting a certain’ amount of responsibility on us in a way. But we came through what we called me unit system: each one of us came up through a very strong animator. These are the men I spoke of a little while ago when I said that here were such great talents and yet they opened up their arms to you to let you have everything they had: Ham Luske, Norm Ferguson, Bill Roberts, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen, Freddy Moore, and then just a little bit later Bill Tytla. Good gosh, what more could you ask for! We came up under those men, being taught, you might say, with them looking over our shoulders. A number of years ago, we dissolved the unit system. Don’t ask me why because I can’t answer. It’s the biggest mistake we made. Now we are trying to set up units again. Like on Bambi, I had ten animators plus all their assistants
working with me. I spent most of my time up here in this room and then would go down and animate at night. But you could keep control of certain things. You learn by working with somebody who has gone I tough the mill. But you’re always learning. There’s no such thing as I graduation in an animation class.

Basically, Eric Larsen is saying that only by our working together can we advance the art of Animation. That’s true. But I wonder if we do that anymore. I wonder if we’re open to each other to try to help out. I hope so. I hope all these new sites, such as John Celestri’s site, help to impart some tidbit of knowledge to someone coming up. It’d be great if it does.