Books &Disney 31 Mar 2008 08:13 am
Art of Animation stills
Having recently posted some pages from Bob Thomas’ 1958 book, The Art of Animation, I couldn’t resist thumbing through it casually and found some images I really like. These I’d like to share. Something about them all get me charged. Perhaps it’s just that this book meant so much to me when I was young, or perhaps they just are as great photos.
________Xavier Atencio and Bill Justice check out a scene on the moviola.
________The artwork on the walls looks like Alice In Wonderland, to me.
_____George Bruns watches Snow White while preparing the score for Sleeping Beauty.
___Ub Iwerks & Bob Ferguson talk on the left while Eustace Lycett and Jim Cook
___work at the horizontal multiplane camera, on the right.
According to the book, this image to the left is the one they’re shooting on the multiplane camera.
The image in the final film looks quite a bit different. Above is a frame grab construction I’ve done. (The cmra moves in on the different levels that continually grow, and I had to adjust in making a full still of the art.)
___
________Thelma Witmer, Eyvind Earle, Frank Armitage and Walt Peregoy
________Al Dempster, Dick Anthony, Ralph Hulett and Eyvind Earle
________Grace Bailey supervises Mary Tebb and Jane Considine in the I&Pt dept.
________An Eyvind Earle design for London Bridge in The Truth About Mother Goose.
________A LayOut pan for Lady and the Tramp as Lady runs in traffic.
As he commented on my site last week, Ernesto Pfluger wrote that he has scanned the complete book in spañish, on his now defunct blog.
on 31 Mar 2008 at 12:27 pm 1.Tom Minton said …
The colors in the horizontal multiplane photo on the left were likely selected because the crew knew they would appear, once shot in Three Strip Technicolor, as they do in the photo on the right. IB Tech results looked great but the process required some crazy adjustments on the part of background painters and color key artists. There’s another such example in Jerry Beck’s “I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat” book, revealing such before-and-after color key moves in Three Strip.
on 31 Mar 2008 at 1:30 pm 2.Hans Perk said …
As Sam Armstrong said in a 1938 lecture at Disney’s: Technicolor adds contrast, so on a white to black scale of zero to ten, only use values within the middle five. (I will put this up as soon as Dalmatians are done…)
It was nice of them to photograph grey-haired Mary Tebb for the book – if she is the Mary Tebb who was with Walt already in May 1928, and is one of the unidentified ladies on the photo over on Mike Barrier’s blog. Grace Bailey Turner was hired by Disney on 2/25/32 – at the time of Walt’s death only seven others at the studio had been there longer…
on 01 Apr 2008 at 2:43 am 3.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
The artists look so hardcore, so professional! I love the serious faces of the four artists looking at the cel, the one with Al Dempster on the extreme left. I even like the picture of the ink and painters. Everybody looks like they’re soooo good at what they do!
on 06 Apr 2008 at 11:01 am 4.Bas Waijers said …
It’s always so great to see Eyvind Earle at work. I became a big fan of his work when I saw sleeping beauty, at a very young age in Holland.
on 11 Dec 2009 at 12:08 am 5.Melissa Justice said …
My dad Bill Justice is in the first picture. My dad will be 96 on Feb. 9, 2010. He is at Arborview in Santa Monica.
on 11 Dec 2009 at 12:28 am 6.Michael said …
Melissa, Bill Justice has been something of a hero to me my entire animation career. Thank you so much for checking in. I wish him well for a happy healthy 96th birthday.
on 21 Jul 2023 at 1:45 pm 7.David said …
Hello,
Great post. I am a little confused. From my understanding, there were two Art of Animation books by Bob Thomas published in 1958. One by Golden Press and the other but Shumiaster (not sure of the spelling.). Which is the true first edition and what is the difference between the two of there is any? Thank you.