Animation &Tissa David 21 Feb 2009 09:37 am
Grim Commercial Recap
Back in May 2006 I posted these drawings from a cycle from a Cheerios commercial animated in the late 50′s by Grim Natwick for Robert Lawrence Productions. (Robert Lawrence was half of Gantray-Lawrence, then Pintoff-Lawrence before opening his own studio, Robert Lawrence Prods.)
This highlights the importance of a good assistant for 2D animation. Tissa David was Grim’s assistant on this spot, and her cleanups are sensational. You can see all the detail that Grim actually includes in his drawing when you look at how the clean-up person properly does the job.
There’s a large shark on another level chasing the girl (see below.)
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(Click on any image to enlarge.)
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This is the cycle of sharks snapping/chasing the girl.
I don’t think any of the drawings are wholly Grim’s. The numbers on the drawings are done in Tissa David‘s handwriting, so Grim may have worked out the breakdown chart with her and asked her to animate the shark to his timing. Bits of each shark are definitely his: the darker lines – the nose on 21, the shark’s mouth and guitar on 22, and the face on 26.
At one time, Tissa was teaching me how to inbetween properly. I first had to clean up all of these drawings and then inbetwen half drawings. Let me tell you, she taught with a harsh whip; I think I drew all of these images at least a dozen times. (Those are the ones I had nerve enough to show Tissa.) I’m not sure I ever got it right enough before going on to some other scene.
on 21 Feb 2009 at 5:33 pm 1.Jenny said …
I’d give a lot to be able to have had those lessons.
on 22 Feb 2009 at 9:28 am 2.Stephen Macquignon said …
Kind of a side notes about Tissa. I remember our making the studio calendar (one artist per month) & we all sat around Tissa waiting for her to go through each month and tell us what she thought.
Nerve racking