Animation &Books 06 Feb 2010 09:15 am
WTFoster’s other book – 2
- – Last week I posted the first part of this Walter T. Foster art book: Animated Cartoons for the Beginner. Here’s the second half of the book done in a very retro style. I’m surprised it survived the 1960s, when I first got a copy of it. The artwork looks like it comes from the 1930s and could hardly have survived the War (never mind been drawn after it.) The book was first published in 1946.
The animation in the book is certainly odd, not least because the pages are out of order and the flip book imagery doesn’t properly flip. I’ve placed the images in the correct order and have made a small QT movie of the piece for your entertainment if not your edification.
Here are the pages of remaining:
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Here is the flipbook that rests on the outer edge of every other page.
I’ve maneuvered them a bit to make it work properly. Registration is
impossible given the size shifts and placement of the drawings on the pages.
i’ve done what I could.
Right side to watch single frame.
on 06 Feb 2010 at 11:59 am 1.bill said …
I’d still love to know who the author of this book was. Surely someone out there must know something!
on 06 Feb 2010 at 1:21 pm 2.David Nethery said …
I’ve always heard it was Volney White who supplied the drawings.
on 06 Feb 2010 at 2:05 pm 3.Teodor said …
Fantastic! Exactly same as Preston Blairs Animation.
I’m glad to know that fact
In my place and in my time was no decent animator and and thus no decent animation school..
We could only choose between ‘School of cartoon movie’ by Borivoj Dovnikovic and Preston Blairs Animation./someone has brought from west and made copies of that book/
I chose Preston Blairs Animation and badly surprised other colleagues.they thought that was picture book for children.
on 06 Feb 2010 at 2:17 pm 4.Larry Ruppel said …
I’ve got this slightly creepy book as well! Somehow it survived well into the 1980′s – mine is copyrighted 1986.
Luckily I bought this one after already owning copies of both Preston Blair books, so I wasn’t too traumatized, and I never really liked it.
It as actually useful as reference material for retro 20′s/early 30′s design, although one of the book’s biggest problem is how unappealing many of the characters are. So many huge eyes and heavily-lidded winks.
on 07 Feb 2010 at 4:35 am 5.slowtiger said …
I saw this book in a shelf with other Foster art books at my favourite local art supply store in Germany in the 70′s, and I didn’t buy it because the drawings looked so odd!
The Preston Blair volumes were there as well, but only for a short time and for a price I couldn’t afford then. I saw copies of the Blair walk cycles pinned to the wall in the studio of Curt Linda in Munich when I applied there to become an animator – without success.
The Blair drawings seemed to be the Secret Wisdom of Animation to me, at that time, because the only useful information I could find in my hometown were some ridiculously expensive swiss books for Super8 filmmakers and one volume by a hungarian animator (Layos Remenyik, or something similar) which featured some stiff walk cycles and geometrically contructed animals. I never saw them again later, it would be interesting to scan some of their illustrations for comparison.
on 12 Feb 2010 at 1:12 pm 6.Stephen Perry said …
I believe the four animation tests at the back were the same situations tests that the Disney studio use to hand out as try-outs for possible animators in the 30′s, maybe even the forties?
on 15 May 2013 at 6:08 pm 7.javi said …
The 16th page you posted is the same as page 10 (or is it the other way around?). Could you please post the missing page?
Thanks for sharing these. Even if I’ve never really dug this style, it makes for a nice study on the state of animation back then!
on 16 May 2013 at 1:20 am 8.Michael said …
The copy of the book I have repeats page 10 when it comes to 16 so I did the same in posting it. Sorry, it’s an odd book.
on 23 Jul 2013 at 2:53 pm 9.Martin said …
Hello. Do you know how to recognize a first edition? Because newer editions still have that $1 price on the cover. Your copy says “not more than $1.25 in any foreign country”, do you know how old it is? You said you bought it in the 1960s, but isn’t there any copyright page or something? Thank you.
on 16 Sep 2013 at 1:25 pm 10.Martin said …
Hello. I have recently bought an older edition of this book, it may be the first but I’m not sure. In my copy the drawings flip OK. You have arranged the first 17 pages correctly, except for page 16, which as you said is repeated. However page 18 is the one you have as 24. This is how it should be from that point: 24, 25, 23, 21, 20, 22, 18, 19. The last eight, starting from 26 are in the proper place. The curious thing is that the book does not finish there but has seven additional pages, plus other two with other Foster books. I have taken pictures of the pages you are missing. They are not excellent but let me know if you want them.
Here you can buy the same book I have: http://www.amazon.com/Animated-Cartoons-Problems-Leading-Studios/dp/B003WQ1UQ2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2QYTNWD0WF40D&coliid=I1U8RB7HZJAXD9