How long would it take Marc to draw one of those Maleficents ?
I really have no idea, to be honest. All those guys could draw and animate pretty fast in general, on "Sleeping Beauty" though the pacing was slower because Walt wanted moving illustration for this film.
I had a chance to talk to a clean up artist many years ago, who helped clean up the personality scenes with the prince on the horse. He mentioned that he was able to do ONE DRAWING A DAY, and that was acceptable, because certain scenes simply needed to look perfect.
How did Marc use live action reference footage ?
Very carefully, would be the short answer.
He told me once that he looked at the reference as a rough animation first pass .
Meaning, something is already there, but it needs to be refined:
Strengthening of the main poses, more contrast in the timing, pushing for more weight, exaggerating follow through on hair and clothing.
Often only parts of the live action are useful, the rest is animated from
imagination.
How do I use live action ?
I worked with live action video footage for characters like Gaston and Hercules,
as well as for one dance sequence with Mama Odie.
What I didn't work with were photos or photostats. I viewed the footage on a monitor many times, and then made small thumbnail sketches to claryfy for myself, which parts I could use, and which parts I couldn't.
Based on this acting "blueprint" I began animating.
Is anything happening with Marc's book project on animal anatomy ?
Not much at the moment. The original title is "The Anatomy of Motion".
Marc and Alice tried to get it published, but so far it hasn't worked out.
Blog reader Andrew Lee has turned the Maleficent scans into a pencil test.
Check it out, it works beautifully. Thanks, Andrew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1vObeiRoBM
