Action Analysis &Animation Artifacts &Articles on Animation &Disney 12 Jul 2011 06:46 am
Action Analysis – April 12, 1937
- 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
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(Click any image to enlarge to make legible.)
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on 12 Jul 2011 at 7:44 am 1.Nancy Beiman said …
Thank you Mike, I did not have this one! Sadly, I don’t have the April 6 notes to send to you.
on 12 Jul 2011 at 7:33 pm 2.Arturo said …
Hello Michael,
About the four pages of the notes from the April 6, 1937 class… Yes, it is absolutely worth it, so please if you’re up to it don’t hesitate in posting them! This is by far, together with the animation scans you also post from time to time, the most invaluable resource for learning animation I’ve ever encountered. When I first discovered the AAC’s at Hans Perk’s blog, I devoured every bit of it, enriching the reading by studying any cartoon or movie clip they could be discussing, and even some sport clips from sites like Framepool for “pole vaulting and high jump” etc.
I’ve been craving for more of it ever since, so you posting these have been like a real blessing! Thank you for it, and for those awesome animation scans from the masters… You sure got me hooked up with that!
Now, the ultimate resource would be finding some X-sheets for any of these scenes with the animator’s notes written on them. The clearest explanation on how they used them I found it at Michael Barrier’s site in an interview to Milt Kahl, but oh man, what a joy would be to actually see one of them!
Anyways, thank you again and right on with all this great stuff!
Cheers!
Arturo
on 12 Jul 2011 at 11:23 pm 3.Michael Barrier said …
Wait–April 6 or April 5? I have nine pages of notes from a class on the 5th; was there another class on the 6th that yielded sixteen pages of notes?
on 13 Jul 2011 at 6:49 am 4.Michael said …
You’re right, I read the light type incorrectly. I have the last four pages of notes for April 5, 1937. There are 15 pages in total, and I’m missing the first 11.
on 13 Jul 2011 at 9:55 am 5.Michael Barrier said …
Odd! I can’t account for the discrepancy in page counts (9 in my copy of the April 5 notes, 15 in your incomplete copy). My copy originated many years ago in the set that is, or was, in the Disney studio’s library, so I have to trust their authenticity, but maybe the notes were retyped to compress them. Anyway, I’ve made a photocopy of the April 5 notes, which I’ll put in the mail to you today. I’m guessing that your scanning capabilities will make faster and better work of them than I could, if I were to try to send you electronic versions.
on 13 Jul 2011 at 11:39 am 6.Michael said …
Many thanks, Mike. I’ll post those once I get them. I assume yours are correct and will see if they match what I have in any way.