Iwao Takamoto

Iwao Takamoto was an outstanding draughtsman and designer, who worked in the animation industry for decades. This photo shows him in 1945, when he just got hired by Disney Studios.

He eventually became Milt Kahl's clean up assistant, and keyed characters like Slue Foot Sue, Brom Bones, the King and Duke from Cinderella and Lady from Lady & the Tramp. During the production of Sleeping Beauty Iwao worked for Marc Davis on Aurora. Since Marc initially drew her a bit younger looking, it was up to Iwao to redraw those scenes, so they would be consistent with her final design.

In this scene Aurora is gently pushed out the door by the Three Fairies, who insist that she go into the forest to pick more berries (even though she picked berries only yesterday). I call these drawings super-designs, and Milt's influence is very evident. This is a man in search of graphic perfection.

The way angular lines work against long flowing lines is astonishing. And look at the control he had over that face with all of those subtleties.

 Aurora is holding a basket in her left hand, which would be added by an effects animator.

Iwao left Disney after Sleeping Beauty to join Hanna-Barbera, where he became one of their top designers. He passed away in 2007. His memoirs were published in 2009 and are available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Iwao-Takamoto-Life-Thousand-Characters/dp/160473194X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389256592&sr=1-1&keywords=iwao+takamoto

Are we all OK with the idea that this kind of integrity and commitment to drawn feature animation is a thing of the past? I am not.

Tinker Bell drawn by Milt Kahl

We all know that Tinker Bell is primarily the creation of Marc Davis. But several other artists explored her character's design as well, including story men like J.P.Miller and Joe Rinaldi.

Milt Kahl drew these poses based on earlier research, and the only differences to the final model I can detect have to do with her hair style and the length of her legs. They are drawn a little shorter in this version.

Marc's definitive model sheet of Tinker Bell shows perfect proportions in her figure as well as her face. By drawing the mouth so low she instantly looks younger and less realistic. The round cheeks add to her pixie appearance, and the lines defining her legs are elegant s-curves. 

A mute character, but so full of life.

Marc's clean up assistant on Tinker Bell was Claire Weeks. He was able to maintain the delicate accuracy found in Marc's rough animation drawings, as you can see in these clean ups.

Milt Kahl's assistant Stan Green told me once that he (Stan) considered Weeks' work too perfect, almost sterile. I don't know about Stan's statement, after all his boss wouldn't pass anything that wasn't perfection. Professional jealousy, I guess.

A beautiful cel set up with Think at the window sill.

More on Tinker Bell here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/09/tinker-bell.html

and here:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/10/tinker-bell-gets-her-own-book.html

Miscellaneous Lilo Stuff

Before starting on production animation with Lilo, I did this little test scene. Chris Sanders' design of her was unique in that her proportions resemble those of a baby's body. I wanted to find out how I could  bring little girl attitudes and poses to that concept. 

Lilo sits bored at a table when she notices a flower on the floor. She slides down a high chair, picks up the flower and puts it on her head. It was fun to do, but quite a few more graphic refinements needed to be made before she could appear in the film.

This was the toughest scene to animate. Chris had done these emotional story sketches. They looked so right on, I didn't know what else to bring to this moment. Lilo asked Stitch about his family and his dreams. She is trying to understand (and forgive) his rough, unfriendly nature.

One of those scenes that got to me.

And this is what happens when two characters from different worlds meet.

A layout drawing for a birthday card.

Last not least a beautiful pre-production watercolor painting by background artist Peter Moehrle.

Milt Kahl's First Shere Khan Scene

This scene is at the beginning of a brilliant sequence from The Jungle Book when Shere Khan interrogates Kaa, the python. Milt animated both characters throughout. The moment when the tiger comes around the tree was the first production scene of him, and it's a beauty!

"It's me, Shere Khan. I'd like a word with you, if you don't mind", he tells Kaa ever so politely. No live action reference here, this came out of Milt's head. He said in an interview: " I learned so much about tigers by studying them that I didn't have to rely on any life action crutch." 

Great perspective walk, and I love the way the tiger lies down, upper body first, then the rear. The way he moves those front feet is worth studying alone. Such great anatomy.

The last pose holds for a while, and Milt kept it alive by adding a few eye blinks on a different level. 

By the way, Walt Disney did see the whole sequence in pencil test before he died. Milt said that Walt liked it and approved it.

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The final pose was inspired by a Ken Anderson design sketch, which was inspired by a Bill Peet drawing of the much cartoonier tiger from the 1945 Goofy short "Tiger Trouble". Milt animated that tiger as well…brilliantly.

In case you missed this earlier post, here is a great pencil test of Shere Khan stalking:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02/shere-khan-crouches.html

Classic Animation Roughs

To close out the year I picked animation roughs from Walt Disney's animators, one drawing per artist. The Mickey drawing above is by Les Clark.

It's interesting to compare the different styles and approaches. Of course, each animator changed his way of drawing over the years, as the Disney style changed, too. 

Some of them welcomed the graphic change that transformed the look of Disney animation in the mid 1950s, others found themselves struggling with these modern looking designs. In the end great performances continued all throughout their careers.

They often disagreed on certain character developments, story points or design styles, but when it came to producing a great film, these guys (for the most part) put their egos into their pockets and became team players. Then again Walt Disney had a lot to do with politics not interfering with the film making process.

Happy New Year everybody!

Fred Moore

Woolie Reitherman

Ward Kimball

Milt Kahl

Ollie Johnston

Frank Thomas

John Lounsbery

Marc Davis

Eric Larson

John Sibley

Bill Tytla