These are the last panels that were part of an exhibition at Disney Feature Animation a few years ago. I will never forget the opening, the guests of honor were Marc Davis and Ward Kimball.
And everybody loved to study these oversized rough animation drawings.
To come up to this quality of design and personality today would be a real challenge.
There will be more specific posts on some of the featured characters in the near future, like Pinocchio, the cast from Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Prince Phillip.
Disney pencil animation rocks. Big time.
"To come up to this quality of design and personality today would be a real challenge."
ReplyDeleteIt would be, Andreas, but that's why most of us still draw. We should study our formers but put them on a pedestal too high and we'll never surpass them. I'm sure it's something that in Ollie Johnston's case in particular he'd love to see (I'm sure he once said something like 'you young lot will make films way better than this one day') Sorry to jump on one sentence like that, but it's a sentiment I've seen expressed elsewhere by Disney animators, such as Eric Goldberg. If you tell yourself you'll never do better than this, then you won't. That's the first step to creating a future.
Saying that it is a challenge is not saying that we will never get it. In fact the only way to keep us with our feet on the ground is to admire those people who did it first and did it better. I trust I will do something as charming as these characters full of personality, but if I don´t recognize than that people still are to miles of distance of me, I wouldn´t be in the way to become a better animator. I´m sure the old masters also had a problem similar to these, the difference is that they didn´t have a referent, just the colaborative effort of each one to make animation go ahead in a outstanding way. But let´s remember they took several years to master the craft. Our advantage is we can learn by reading and studying them what they learned by "blood, sweat and tears". If an animator like Andreas, which characters bright by their personality, says its challenging, he will have his reasons. The same way Richard Williams wrote about Milt Kahl: I never reached that level and I think I will never do.
DeleteBut let´s keep trying!
I don't think I could have asked for a more well-thought out answer than that. I think an equal attention to studying the past whilst trying to walk untrodden paths to the future is they key. Your comment about recognising the miles left to go have given me a lot to think about!
DeleteI can stare at these character panels for hours, and I do. Truly inspiring work by the masters. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteWow... Just wow. My six-year-old, Disney-adoring self just whacked me in the head. :D
ReplyDeleteI really think that your works are up to this quality of design and personality, Andreas. You're absolutely one of the greatest animators we have today. I really hope there is more to come from you..
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Walt whipped these guys into shape and demanded perfection, and in many ways you sort of got that in the films. The talent is always the best available, as I'm sure it was later in the 80s with Andreas and every one else. But personally, I know that there are many life action reference material for every scene in all the Disney films, whether its an animal or person. So I'm not always that impressed with some of the slick animation that looks so real, because many times its just tracing over a real human and carefully redrawing a cartoon bear or a Little Alice girl over it. Many even not so talented artist can draw cartoon looking characters. But to be able to draw the human form with no short cuts, as well as animate characters from any style from imagination takes more skill. All though Miyazaki's movies don't move as well as most of the Disney films old and new, they impress me more in some ways. All of the detailed animation from his early films when he used to animate more up to Spirited Away are done without rotoscoping or reference. Sometimes he has animators pose for him occasionally. Seeing Nausicaa flying on her glider, or Kiki falling off her broom in mid air, is much more impressive a feat given it was done from imagination. This is why Miyazki often talks about drawing from impressions, experiences because they create a more vivid memory in the mind to draw from. But I know people will say oh but they don't move as much. But thats because they don't use mirrors as much in Japan for expressions, and they animate first without doing the voice recording. And in the early films up to Princess Mononoke, there wasn't really any rotoscoping. so when you get really impressed with a certain smooth animated scene like Cinderella dancing or twirling, or Baloo the Bear dancing, it is meticulously traced over life action photo stats. This is why I don't care much for Bluth's Anastasia, its badly rotoscoped. But of course the Disney animators are the best available out there and I'm sure they are at Ghibli too. But you can be really good, and still not learn to draw from imagination, because you always have the crutch of reference surrounding you. I'm not exactly sure, but I think Katzenberg told the animators on Prince Of Eygpt no rotoscoping on this film, I remember one of the animators saying this is difficult, and at least you can look at mirror.
ReplyDeleteReferences not always mean rotoscoping... We must know that Disney masters had taken a lot of reference from the real life, but this was only to get the knowledge about how the actual world works, but the real job of these guys was to make their animation better than the life itself. Fantasia is a great example of it... It is simply better than life and you can´t talk about rotoscope in here. There is to point that some of them, specially Milt Kahl, adquired an ability to make their drawings to seem like taken from the real world, with no need of rotoscoping and... anyway rotoscoping most of the times gives a weird look (for an example of that see Ralph Bakshi´s pictures), and is not the movement itself what counts, but the staging, the acting, the personality that is suggested in each movement, that magic that is hidden and keeps you attached before the screen... that is something that in Miyazaki´s films lacks a little, but I don´t deny that the storytelling in those pictures is amazing. Anyway... I hope you comprehend that the job of these masters was really more that just move a character and the most of them wasn´t rotoscoped and which were rotoscoped were enhanced too.
DeleteLive-action reference can be about more than seeing how people move. When you direct an actor to go through a scene, wearing specific clothing and using specific props, they will be able to get into the character's head and collaborate on a performance. They will -sometimes unconsciously - do little things like brush or blow the hair out of their face or need to switch a prop from one hand to another...all of these things, however small, give the animator ideas to help make the character's performance that much more believable. In some ways it allows the animator to be even more imaginative - not being so bogged down in how things physically move from one place to another frees you up to wonder about how that specific character would move.
DeleteLove these drawings and looking forward to the Pinnochio post!
(just adding my two cents- hope it didn't come off as pushy! or as an attack on Miyazaki who is also wonderful!)
Delete"Horses for Courses" I suppose.
DeleteThe exact same methods of reference/observation are observed everywhere, including Disney and Ghibli, even if the character designs differ. If those under Miyazaki's direction just drew from experience, they'd never learn. You learn to draw from observation. They use mirrors and video reference, too. Some at Disney like to, others don't so much. Over time, with experience, you can begin to depend upon your intuition because it's grounded in observation. If you watch videos of Miyazaki animating, he often gets up and acts things out for himself; it's still a constant back and forth between observation and practise.
There's no imagination without experience and observation. You might even be surprised to learn Miyazaki heavily depended upon photo references as a young budding animator. Of course over time you might not need things like sequential photo reference so much. Milt Kahl used tons of reference when animating Bagheera the panther, but it took exceptional skill to apply that observed knowledge to bringing the character to life. Reference and observation shouldn't be seen as a crutch, but the fuel.
How do you think Ancient Egyptians came up with such imaginative inventions as the Sphinx? They probably had to see a woman and a lion first. That's all imagination is--combining observations.
I totally agree with you, except I think Frank Thomas was the one who animated Bagheera, but Milt Kahl actually studied for six weeks tigers, I think, so he could develop Shere Kaan the way he did it. You are totally right, once you develop your observation skills, you can use your imagination to successfully develop a character. The great Bill Tytla used live reference for the great Chernabog, but he just inspired in his two year old child to develop Dumbo. Milt Kahl once said in a lecture that he did not use live reference in Medusa and I guess he did not use live reference on the human characters on Aristocats.
DeleteTo think these are some of the top .001% of drawings cranked out by artists at Disney. Heavy stuff. Beautiful work.
ReplyDeleteYeah these guys were the masters but damn did you guys live up to it! That "second golden age" at Disney produced movies that were incredible, and are considered classics just as much as Bambi or Cinderella.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to produce anything even close to the golden ages, is if there are people that have a passion for it. Hand drawn animation isn't going to come back on it's own. It's needs passionate people to make this incredible work. But I don't think people know how much work it takes to make these films, or any good film for that matter. You know it's a passion when you see the treacherous road ahead and where most people turn away, you take it full force.
Being an animation student I've realized how truly difficult this is, but I love the challenge and I just can't get enough of it.
Thanks Andreas for the continuing inspiration.
Great drawings. So inspiring! If I were in charge at Disney I'd bring back traditional with a feature film starring the original six. I think seeing Mickey back up on the bring screen would seem like a dream. People would really love it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful drawings. Have you ever seen such kinetic drawings as those Bambi roughs?
ReplyDeleteAlways fan of your pencil compositions… <3
ReplyDeleteI assisted Milt Kahl on The Sword in the Stone and we did zero rotoscoping on that film.
ReplyDelete