Filming Sleeping Beauty

This picture was taken at the Walt Disney Studio in the late 1950's. They are filming the feature-length animated movie, "Sleeping Beauty".  The camera is at the top, looking down, but it can't be seen here. The drawings are held down with a plate of glass in a black frame called "a platen", and it helps the characters to not cast shadows.

Now, here's the same photograph, upside-down so you can see the drawings better. The scene is where the two fairies Fauna and Merryweather are having tea and cookies and discussing their problem. This movie was filmed in an ultra-wide screen process called Technirama 70. Look at the giant size of the cel that one (cute) fellow is holding! The whole movie was drawn and painted on thousands and thousands and thousands of these jumbo-sized cels. Of course, the backgrounds were just as big (if not bigger), and they needed to paint about 500 of those!

The character images are the property of their copyright holders.

Vintage Disney Cels--Good and Bad

In a previous post, I talked about animation cels. I found these examples online, which were all used in Disney cartoons.
The first is from 1937, "Little Hiawatha". If you look at the headband, skin and trousers, you'll see some discoloration. Also, the white paint on the feather was flaked off in one area. Paint has also flaked off in the area over the character's nose.

The next cel is also from 1937: "Don Donald".  This cel is in very poor condition, and paint is flaking off all over. There are certain galleries that specialize in repairing cels, and some of the restorations are breathtaking. They are probably VERY expensive!

The last two cels are from "Sleeping Beauty", which was released in January, 1959. Since the film took more than 6 years to make, it's possible that these cels were made between 1954 to 1958. Sleeping Beauty was the last feature film at Disney's to be traced by hand. All the features after that up to "The Rescuers Down Under" used cels which were traced on a xerox machine, so they aren't as beautiful.
If you notice the colored lines used to trace the character, you will see that they are done with a high level of artistry that had evolved at Disney's over the decades.

 These images belong to the respective copyright owners.

Creating New Characters

Here's an interesting little clip I found on YouTube. This comes from the Walter Lantz Studio, which gave us those great Woody Woodpecker cartoons. I remember seeing this clip when I was a kid, and dreaming of the day when I would be making animation.

MESSAGE TO y**ick51@comcast.net

Dear sir,
Today you sent me this wonderful e-mail:

"Dear Animan,

  I've thoroughly enjoyed your wonderfully erotic animations Twist party and Sophomore Class/ the Coach. I'd like to know how to obtain your most recent releases. And if you accept Paypal payments?

Thanks for sharing your grand artistic gift. Your videos appel in a way that most so-called gay porn doesn't.

I'll look forward to hearing from you."

I immediately answered this e-mail, and now have received "undelivered mail returned to sender".  

It's the Comcast block for spam. It has prevented me in the past from answering fan inquiries about the videos, and has even made sending the video links a virtual nightmare!

In fact, I made another post for it before.

http://animancartoons.blogspot.jp/2012/08/joeng-comcastnet.html

So Mr. y**ick51, if you could, please send your message to me from hotmail, gmail, or yahoo, because all of these do work with my server. And I'll be delighted to answer your eloquent and heartwarming e-mail! Thanks.

--Animan

Bruce Blitz Makes an Original Animation Cel

Several years ago, I had the chance to see Bruce Blitz's TV program on cartooning, and it was always great fun!  Here's a program he did showing how to make your own animation cel. It's very informative!

The History of Cel Animation

In the old way of making animation, cels were the acetate sheets onto which drawings were inked and painted, before they were photographed. Computer-produced animation has made cels obsolete and unnecessary, but it's still fun to go back and take a look at the way things used to be done!

Drawing Step by Step

Here's another background I wanted to share. Drawing these cityscapes takes a long time to do. In night scenes,  the colors are dark, and there's a lot of trial and error in getting just the right color combinations, to achieve the atmosphere I want. The animated characters have to stand out, and be easy to see.  The windows are very important too, because they suggest people out there, and there are lots and lots of windows! A cityscape at night with lighted windows makes us feel the presence of lots of people, but they are people we will never know.
Just a guess, but I predict this video will be done before the end of November. On my last two videos, "Junior College Men's Camp" and "Carmen" I predicted the finish date, and both times I finished earlier than that. So I'm hoping I'll finish early again. As you see, there's a lot of drawing going on--and I want this video to be as exciting as possible. Fortunately, Animan's friends don't mind a little waiting if the video is truly going to be good. I want it to really be worth waiting for (I always say that!)

Animan Needs Your Help!

Today I received this e-mail. I wanted to give this friend some good advice, but my computer skills are woefully lacking, and I didn't know what to say. I'm sure someone out there in Animan's World must know what to do. Here's my friend's request:
"I purchased a couple videos in the Mac format to play on my iPhone and my iPad. I have a windows computer however. If anyone can help me, I'm wondering how to get my videos onto my iPad since they wont run on my windows computer tho, if anyone has any advice it would really help, thanks." 
So if any of you out there in Animan's World can help our friend out, please send a comment below, and I'll make sure it gets posted. Thanks guys!

The Gang's All Here

Here are some more players in "Super Hero". The background has been removed, and that's why there are some strange-looking poses. The three guys on the right are standing behind a fence, and that's why they've been cut off. And the guy with the purple shirt looks as if he's leaning on thin air, but actually he's leaning on a fence post. I tried to get a nice ethnic diversity here. I can't wait to see our boys in action!

City Of Men

Here's the latest scene from the video "Super Hero". In the wee small hours of the night, the guys are gathering. Some instinct is motivating them. It's dark, and even a bit dangerous. But the men can't help themselves. The desire for gratification is strong and it's like a magnet that pulls them together. In a dimly lit alleyway somewhere in the big city, something is going to happen, and it's going to be a big night.

Two More Characters

Here are two more characters from the Super Hero video. Nice dudes, but they've only got one thing on their minds. 
You can see here that I'm outlining the characters in different colors, as I did in Carmen. It really improves the look of the drawings, but wow, it takes longer to do! Yesterday I spent over 5 hours doing a scene that only lasts 6 seconds. I'd say that on average, it takes Animan about one hour of drawing to produce one second of finished animation. That means at least 60 hours of drawing per minute!

In the olden days before computers, if you drew some animation and filmed it, but it needed changing, you'd have to go in and probably re-draw the whole stack of drawings! With a computer, it's easy to go back and tweak things without uprooting the whole project. Animan always keeps going back to check and re-check, making sure characters look right, and that things make sense. Easy or not, the huge amount of drawings still makes it a bit tedious.

Up in the Air

Here are two thugs who are giving our Super Hero some trouble. Thanks to his super powers, he is able to emit a special beam which catches the villains,  stops them and levitates them! 

A Sneak Peek

Here's a frame from Animan's next video, "Super Hero". Of course, that's not his REAL name. It will be revealed when the time is right.The animation for the first 1/3 of this video is done, so everything is going fine (after a very slow start).

Animan's friends deserve to know what's happening, and I want to share that on this blog. At the same time, I don't want to give so much away that it spoils the surprise. That's Animan's dilemma!  I promise more sneak pictures as I continue working on the video.

These two comments came to me through my e-mail address from the same friend:

1) Wow, looks like I'm going to fall in love again with the upcoming production. You always give me this feeling of anxiousness for the next installment. Tell me, about how long is this project going to be; like, 14min long? Keep up the momentum on this, I’m ready to buy already!

XOXO. . .

Animan says: "This is just the way I want you to feel! Anticipation! It builds up the emotion. Animan wants the final product to be just as good as what you imagined, if not more! Yes, it will be 14 minutes of wild and crazy fun."

2) no comment? That's strange...

Animan says: "Please feel free to send your comments to the comments area on the blog--they're so good, that I want EVERYBODY to read them!"

Here's another comment that came through to my e-mail address which I'll address here:

you’re not checking your blog site to update the comments?

Actually, every comment coming into my blog also comes into my e-mail box, so I'm always aware of each and every comment which cums in.  If the comment is something like, "How long does it take to make a video?" Then I can give a concrete answer, such as "It varies, but usually between 2 and 3 months".  But if the comment is something like, "I love Animan videos!", then for me to write something like, "Thank you, my good man!" might make me sound conceited.  A more usual Animan-style response is for me to read the comment, and just silently bask in the love that inspired it, and say a silent prayer of thanks to the one who was kind enough to send it.  In any case, each and every comment gets read, and whenever possible, answered. Also please bear in mind that Animan lives in Asia, and a lot of comments or video orders are sent to me right after I've gone to bed, so there will always be a time-lag. :-)

Animation Tip #6

These are pages from the National Geographic magazine, August 1963. The Disney studio was just finishing up work on "The Sword in the Stone" at that time. This is how all Disney animated features were produced until the advent of computers. 

The magazine articles on this blog remain the property of their copyright holders, displayed here for educational purposes only, with no commercial intent whatsoever. It is expressly forbidden to download, copy, distribute and/or reproduce any of these images without prior permission of the copyright holders. Thank you.

Animation Tip #5

I like to refer to the old way of making animation as "The Stone-Age Way".  See for yourself all the things that are necessary. And don't forget a knowledge of the basic techniques!  The old way is so expensive, requires so much equipment, and is so difficult, that it's not easy for one person to make a long animation in color. Coloring each drawing with animation paints takes a very long time. Above all, doing animation this way is super expensive! Animan does not recommend this difficult venture.

Doing animation with computer software is convenient.  There is no need for a camera or projector. There is no need to buy expensive acetate sheets, expensive paints or flood lamps. There is no need for a special camera or camera stand.  It is now possible for one person to make an animation in color, in widescreen and with stereophonic sound!  Animan recommends this way of making animation!

Animation Tip #4

A lot of Animan's friends have asked how animation is drawn. Before I started drawing animation using a Wacom tablet and animation software, I had a homemade light table, and I learned to draw animation on paper.
One technique I still use is "The Inbetween Method", and you can see here how it works. Basically, you plan the beginning and the ending of the action, and then make drawings for the action inbetween.

Concrete Jungle

Here's another scene of the alley in the city. 

The next step will be to draw and animate the characters in this scene. It is important that they can be seen clearly. If they can't, then the background will be changed. I might make it darker or lighter, or change the colors. The colors must be constant, from scene to scene.

Today's Background

In keeping with the big city theme, here's the background for a scene taking place in a dark alley. That in itself would suggest "loads" of possibilities.

Night Time Horizon

This "mysterious" picture is a background from Animan's next video. The video is less than 1/6th finished, and there is a mountain of work to do on it yet. But I never worry, because the more I work on it, the faster the pace starts to go. It's like doing a jigsaw puzzle--in the beginning, only the pieces around the edges can be understood. And then, as more and more pieces are filled in, the process speeds up, and the puzzle is completed. Making an Animan video is very much like that.

Another Picture Off the Web

I found this interesting picture, entitled "Decollette", and it seems perfect for Animan's World. It's a watercolor painting done by a French artist whose name I cannot decipher. If anyone knows the artist's name, please send your comment to this post!