Sullivant 12

ON THE ARK

Noah - "There, now. Shem! I knew I'd forget something."

Shem - "What is it, pop?"

Noah - "Tomato-cans for the goats."

It's been a while since I posted any T.S. Sullivant material. So here are a few more high res scans right off original pages from Time and Judge Magazine, dating back from 1904 (image above) to 1925. What a blessing for us that this man was so incredibly prolific!

Simply Great Drawings

This amazing stylized drawing of Aurora reminds me of the graphic quality found in church stain glass windows. This clean up image is small in its original size, but look at the precision of each pencil line. The shape arrangement is incredible. This is what happens when you combine the efforts of talents like Tom Oreb, Marc Davis and Iwao Takamoto.

Same movie, a rough animation drawing of the male lead, Prince Phillip. He is in mid action, about to pull on his horse's reins to turn screen right. Animator Milt Kahl had become obsessed with depicting hands in the absolute best way possible, in a single drawing as well as in motion. 

Making a handsome male face look good from this angle is no small feat either. 

Four of the Dwarfs from Snow White try to stop Sneezy from yet another explosive exhale. I assume that the story sketch for this scene already showed interesting staging, but only Fred Moore could make a this situation communicate in such a simple, but entertaining way. Four hands holding up one nose should be impossible to draw, but here it is. 

A great study of the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, drawn from a tough angle. Upshot, 3/4 rear.
Even with the aid of having a dinosaur maquette at hand, this perspective would be a challenge to any artist. Animator Woolie Reitherman gets it right by analyzing the main volumes first (head and neck), then focusing on how details like cheekbone and eye unit connect to the main mass.

When expressing Tony's volatile gestures, John Lounsbery knew that interesting and precisely drawn hands were very important to achieve entertaining character animation. People say that Lounsbery's drawing of hands looks identical to Kahl's, but I can see a difference. The definition of knuckles and the palm of hands differs, yet both artists were fearless when it comes to articulating the most complex hand moves.

The guts of early rubber hose animation is astounding. Anything goes in order to get gags across in a surprising and funny way. No extensive life drawing experience necessary. The animators were free to invent animation for absurd and surreal situations. 

I recently watched one of the old Oswald cartoons on the big screen, it made me laugh all the way through. This stuff is as timeless as the sophisticated feature films that followed. 

Most images/Heritage Auctions.

Leftover African Cats

Here are just a few animal sketches in brush pen, that didn't make it to the final selection of drawings I made to help promote the 2011 Disney film "African Cats". These sketches were not made from real life. Instead I drew these poses looking at a TV monitor showing a very low res version of the film.

I believe any artist studying wildlife needs to include film footage as a resource. You just don't always get interesting animal behavior from looking at a sleeping lion at the zoo. Don't get me wrong, drawing at the zoo is incredibly important, after all you are in the presence of the actual animal.

It's just that they don't hunt, fight or make love (well, sometimes they do.)

I can't wait for the next BBC nature documentary, their cameramen are amazing. So are Beverly and Dereck Joubert, who work for National Geographic. 

Here is the original post for "African Cats":

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-cats.html#comment-form

The Way to Use Live Action...

....is basically like this. Study the reference and PLUS it.
The two poses in the photo already give you nice silhouettes. Everything reads very clearly, but look what happened when the animators got a hold of this material! Hook is leaning forward instead of back. It makes for a more dynamic pose, but more importantly it connects him more with the object of his interest in the sky. And Smee definitely leans backward in anticipation and fear of the ship's canon going off.  I love the fact that he pulls his cap all the way down to his nose, and using his thumbs instead of index fingers to block his ears is an interesting choice. (I never would have thought of that.)

Hook was animated by John Lounsbery, Smee by Ollie Johnston.

Remembering Ollie

For some reason I have been thinking about Ollie Johnston for the last few days. I guess I miss calling and visiting him. It's been already seven years since Ollie passed away, to me it seems like only yesterday. It was always wonderful to get together, Ollie never minded answering all my questions regarding his work. One thing I remember was his utter respect and devotion to his boss Walt Disney. And I was stunned when, out of the blue, he once said: "I think Walt would have liked working with you." He knew I was passionate about animation, but hearing it like this....
The above image appeared in the trade papers when Ollie passed on, I was a little involved in designing this page.

As a train enthusiast Ollie drew this funny self portrait next to his lovely wife Marie.
Image/Howard Lowery Auctions.

A field day to the Johnston residence, which involved riding his train.
Ollie, Andy Gaskill, Steve Fiott (publisher of Storyboard Magazine), Hans Bacher and yours truly.

There was a party celebrating Ollie's 90th birthday at Disney Feature Animation. Next to me is Ed Oboza, Ollie's dedicated house keeper, and of course the one and only!

There is plenty of Ollie's work throughout this blog, here is a previous post that shows his range of characters:
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/06/ollie-johnston.html

All Eyes on Flower

A beautifully staged publicity sketch for the film Bambi. At the center of attention is the skunk Flower, who is being told that even he could become twitterpated.
Bambi's, Thumper's and particularly Owl's pose clearly help guide the viewer's attention toward Flower, who stands isolated in the lower left corner. A simple and very effective composition.

Here is a link to an earlier post about Bambi book layouts:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/12/bambi-book-layouts.html

Hercules Pencil Tests

For the longest time I had written off my tape with Hercules pencil tests as lost. But that tape recently resurfaced, and looking at the footage now brings back a lot of memories. I was one of the last animators to finalize the character's design, everybody else had found a way to incorporate graphic elements, found in the work of British illustrator Gerald Scarfe, whose edgy drawing style served as the inspiration for the film's overall look. 

As Hercules' personality was developing I felt I needed to take it easy as far as heavy stylization. He was supposed to be shy around girls and frustrated at the lack of progress in trying to become a hero.

A little clumsy, but good natured and ambitious.

In the end Adult Hercules shows only a minor Scarfe influence, just enough to fit in with the rest of the cast of characters. 

While animating I recall trying to get to the core of his emotion, which presented a challenge during short scenes. I often thought that a bit more footage for certain scenes would help me to get the business across in a stronger way.

Actor Robert Gant acted out most scenes, and I enjoyed the process of doodling thumbnail sketches in front of a monitor. That way I could pick and chose poses I liked, and eliminate others that didn't work for me. Overall the live action reference was very helpful.

The reel includes first pass animation pose tests as well as final refined versions. There are a whole bunch of scenes I'd like to rework, others I am ok with.

Here is the link to an earlier post about Hercules' design evolution:

http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/06/hercules.html

Einstein and Dodger

I only worked briefly on the film Oliver & Company, before moving to London to animate on Who Framed Roger Rabbit instead. These are a couple of leftover design sheets for Einstein and Dodger.
I remember trying (but failing) to come up with design that wouldn't remind the audience of other Disney dogs. Dodger looks like Tramp's little cousin, and Einstein...well, you know.
I had the chance to do a pass for all characters, including Fagin, who turned out somewhat more original.
I'll post other design doodles from the film once I locate them.

Chernabog

It's astounding to see rare cels like this one from Fantasia. It shows it's age, but nonetheless showcases the overwhelming craftsmanship of Disney Animation during the golden age.
The Devil on Bald Mountain remains to this day the most impressive, fearful and powerful animated character. His animation on screen lasts only a few tens of seconds, but every scene is pushed to the limit in terms of nightmarish horror, but also elegance of motion.
The scene in which Chernabog's hands play with flames to turn them into figures has such magnificent fluidity, the upper hand seems to be dancing with the fire.

The sequence was thoroughly researched, designed, staged and storyboarded for optimum effect.

Bill Tytla's exploratory research as well as his rough animation drawings demonstrate an artist's intense relationship with his subject. There is a raw power that seems to come from within the earth.

Even the clean up work on the character retains the awe-inspiring emotion of Tytla's rough drawings.
The flawlessly drawn anatomy helps to give the sequence a level of believability and authority never achieved before.

A couple more cels of Chernabog that seemed to have survived the ages to haunt us, even as still images.

Joe Grant's model department created this dynamic maquette for Tytla. It served as a reminder to bulk up the live action reference, in which skinny director Wilfred Jackson acted out the scenes.

Images Disney/Bonhams and Heritage Auctions

More on Tytla's work here in this previous post:

andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2011/07/bill-tytla.html

Merchandise

A silly photo for a German magazine after The Lion King had been released. I remember the photographer being fascinated with some character figurines, which were placed on my animation desk. It was always interesting to see how your character would be represented as a fast food bonus toy or other merchandise articles. 

The animators were frequently involved in the development of such figurines. We were shown little models in a "work in progress" stage, and more often than not gave input to help bring the character on model. 

Any of these could be tweaked a bit more to make them look like the film's images, but there is a quirky and naive quality to these mini maquettes which I kind of like.

This t-shirt image was taken from an actual animation drawing.

Stylized films like Hercules present a challenge when representing the characters three dimensionally, 

there are many graphic cheats used in the animation that don't make a lot of sense from a logical point of view.

I believe this Roger Rabbit set was done exclusively for the Disney Parks,  Baby Herman came out perfect.

A t-shirt illustration based on one of my pre-production sketches.

An absolutely perfect representation of bad Mickey from Runaway Brain, produced in Japan.

Jiminy Cricket II

A little bit more on Jiminy Cricket, Kimball's iconic character. This is gorgeous frame from one of the opening sequences of the film. Rembrandt lighting in a Disney film.
Young Ward, a kid really, working on a close up scene during the "Give a Little Whistle" song. ( ...which includes some dance moves by the cricket that blow my mind.)

That scene is part of this pencil test continuity sheet. Ollie Johnston did the Pinocchio scenes .

A beautiful layout featuring one of the film's first scenes. Even in pencil form, all that intricate lighting is worked out.

I never heard Ward talk in person about live action reference for Jiminy. Maybe he ignored the reference at the time, or he didn't want anybody to know. He shouldn't have worried, there is no trace of any live action in his brilliant animation. But...having seen some live action footage, I can see an influence.