Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Pinocchio Maquettes



Joe Grant and his character model department were very busy during Disney's golden age. The artists produced inspirational drawings, rough model sheets and of course those stunning character maquettes. I love their choice for each pose, dynamic and rich with personality. And the fact that the sculptors applied a loose, non-slick approach to the figures adds an intuitive, natural and lively quality to their work.





For Pinocchio even props like the clocks in Gepetto's workshop were recreated to aid layout artists as well as animators.



Stromboli's wagon was actually filmed in motion, and the footage was used in the film. This process gave some relief to the effects animators who otherwise would have to animate the wagon's motion from scratch.



The donkey coach that takes "naughty boys" to Pleasure Island.



This model of Monstro helped animator Woolie Reitherman to get dramatic scale into the chase sequence at the end of the movie.



10 comments:

  1. Very interesting topic, thank you Andreas!
    Are there specific books, papers or videos that you would recommend to learn more about the character model department?

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    1. This book has more infos about the model department as well as vintage special effects:

      http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/07/about-special-effects-and-old-men.html

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    3. Is that gypsy wagon full-sized? Or a miniature?

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    4. All of these vehicles, including Cruella's car later, were good sized miniature models.

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  2. Great Stuff. Thanks fer sharing...never saw that Monstro maquette before...pretty cool.

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  3. HAH! I never noticed that before- the carriage that takes Pinocchio and Lampwick to Pleasure Island is being pulled by donkeys! Genius!

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