More Ollie

These photos were taken sometime during the early 1990s, when Ollie had invited friends and their families to ride on his model train. The tracks went around the house and beyond, and Ollie enjoyed sharing his hobby train regularly. Even Walt Disney stopped by sometime in the late 1950s for a test ride. I remember what a fun Saturday afternoon this was, riding the train and watching Ollie turn into a kid.

I am sitting at the end of the train, while Hans Bacher is trying to film the trip from a low camera angle.

A few key drawings from one of Ollie's last animation assignments. For Robin Hood he was mostly responsible for Prince John and Sir Hiss, but he animated other characters as well. Here Little John questions Robin Hood's philosophy: "You know something, Robin, I was just wondering. Are we good guys or bad guys? You know, I mean, our robbin' the rich to feed the poor."
Look at how light and delicate these drawings are. No animator's fight to achieve the right poses.
Pure intuition, that's why Ollie always had such an impressive output for footage. He got that from his mentor Fred Moore.

Happy Birthday, Ollie Johnston!

Photo by Mark Kirkland

This Halloween would have been Ollie's 102 birthday.
Even a few years before he died at age 95 he would say: "Gee, I never thought that I would get THAT old."
A young Ollie animated this scene of Brer Rabbit from Song of the South. Brer Baer shakes the rabbit's hand forcefully thinking they have come to a working agreement. Suddenly Brer Rabbit realizes that Brer Fox is approaching fast, and he knows he needs to get out of here.
Two seconds of animated gold! This scene hasn't been pencil-tested since the movie's production. Just imagine being Walt Disney, watching the rough animation and giving comments.
I just love Ollie's work, it's so intuitive and natural. He rocks my world.

Happy Halloween!

Images/ Disney and Heritage Auctions

Lorenzo

I love Disney’s 2004 short film Lorenzo. It was the last project Disney’s French Studio animated before closing. The award winning film showed where hand-drawn animation could go in the future. The idea of taking rich, fluid hand-drawn character animation and change its traditional look with the help of the computer is extremely exciting to me. Leave the cel-painted look behind and aim for something like rough brush strokes, watercolor or pastel. Anything is possible now, Lorenzo proved that.

At the time of the film’s brief release my excitement was shared by Disney, Pixar and other studios. For some reason that enthusiasm has faded within big studios. So has the love for organic, personal, hand crafted paper animation.

Luckily I see Lorenzo’s potential being played out in many extraordinary student films. And I know that it’s only a question of time until a commercial pencil animated feature film will be produced that could bring to the screen a new, breathtaking mix of drawing and cg. When you draw your animation first, then use the machine to help invent a new world, the level of magic and wonder can hit the stratosphere.

Image Disney/Heritage Auctions

Milt's Llama

One of my all time favorite pieces if character animation is the Lake Titicaca sequence from the feature Saludos Amigos. The way the Llama interacts and reacts to Donald Duck and the little Peruvian Boy is so inspired, I could watch that section forever.

Milt had mastered the realistic locomotion of a different four-legged animal in Bambi.

With this character he just went to town. When the Llama tries to follow Donald’s flute playing, he comes up with some hilarious moves, including a charleston, but eventually looses his balance. I remember Milt talking about this long ago assignment: “Yeah, I did a llama there that was kind of screwy…not one of my better things, nothing to write home about.” Geeezz!

These frames come from Michael Sporn’s animation archive.

Go here for the full pencil test:

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2601

This is a Donald Duck watercolor sketch Milt did as part of the promotional material.

A while ago I found a B&W fuzzy reproduction of this Kahl sketch in a book. I couldn’t help it and recreated it in color.