Disney Studios

Walt Disney, 1901-1966
Walt Disney has had the greatest impact on every part of animation.
He started making titles for silent movies where he met Ub Iwerks
Walt and Ub learned the animation process together

Disney and manager Charles Mintz came up with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit














Trolley Troubles, 1927 the first release of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon



Puss in Boots, Laugh-o-Gram Studios, Disney, 1922




Walt later came up with the idea of a cartoon mouse ( on a train back to California after looking for money out east) he initially named it "Mortimer" but Walt's wife liked the name "Mickey" And that began Disney's history.



Disney leveraged key technologies and methods to popularize the medium.
He was innovative in the following areas:
Sound: SteamBoat Willie was the first sound cartoon
Steam Boat Willie, 1928 The first cartoon to use sound


Skeleton Dance, Disney, 1929
The first all musical cartoon





Color:
He secured a deal with Technicolor to use their 3 strip color process for three years exclusively. The first animation to use this process was Flowers and Trees won an Oscar for animated short 1932



Speed
He experimented with depicting speed. This had not been done up to this time.
Accelerated actions and Speed lines were a new style in animation
Exaggerated character personalities
Won an oscar for
Max hare provided a good model for the later to come Warner bros. Character Bugs Bunny
Tortoise and the Hare, Walt Disney, 1935







Depth
Walt had his staff experiment with depth and they developed the Multi-plane camera
This video has Mr. Disney describing it.


The Old Mill is the first Silly Symphony to use the Muli-plane camera


Mickey Mouse started to decline in popularity due to the strong personality of Donald Duck. Mickey started to take a different role to the other characters Disney had created.
The Brave Little Tailor did just this.
The Brave Little Tailer


Ub Iwerks:
real talent behind Walts early success
First drew mickey Mouse ( steambOat willie, Plane crazy....)
In the 30's he was doing most if not all animation or supervising it
His solo outing is called " Fiddlesticks" stars Flip the Frog
He returned to Disney
Won Oscar for his work in special effects

Cartoon Origins

Cartoon Animation
In the beginning was line on paper frame by frame animation
This evolved into Celluloid (Cel) Animation using multiple layers
Invented by Earl Hurd 1914
What separates cartoon from other types of animation is it's focus on and
use of characters

Influential People in Cartoon Animation:
Windsor McCay:
He was one of the most popular and considered by many as one of the best early cartoon animators.
Started as a famous newspaper cartoonist
His work showed a profound improvement in quality compared to other works at the time such as Humorous Phases and fantasmagorie.
His work exhibited realistic drawn figures and believable movement
He meticulously hand painted each frame of his animation. This was done before color film had been invented.

Little Nemo, Windsor McCay, 1914





Gertie the Dinosaur, Windsor McCay, 1914
Probably the most significant film of the silent era
Gertie is the first character with a fully realized personality
This animation enthralled audiences and was the top theater event from 1913-1914
and it served as inspiration to future animators
Notice how the background wiggles and shimmers. This is due to the paper. Remember,
cel animation had not been invented yet.





Sinking of the Lusitania, Windsor McCay, 1918
The sinking of the ship the Lusitania so moved McCay he created this film
using animation
This was the most advanced animated film to date. The cel had been invented and
was being used. This allowed the backgrounds to have different shades
This is an early use of animation in a serious matter.


Krazy Kat Goes a Wooing, George Herriman/ leon Searl, 1916
Animators began looking to comic strips for inspiration Comics like Krazy Kat, Mutt and Jeff, Little Nemo
Early animations resembled comic books ( dialogue was illustrated in
over head balloons)





Captain Grogg Among Strange Animals, Victor Bergdahl, Sweden, 1920
Sophisticated drawing style not seen since McCay
Did not use cels, redrew backgrounds, Moved it and even animated it in perspective
Pencil shading was used for motion blur

Compositing

Compositing:
The process of seamlessly merging separate visual elements into same
picture space
Early beginnings in Collage, Photomontage, and multiple exposures

Influential designers of collage and photomontage
Herbert Matter
George Grosz
John Heartfield
Kurt Schwitters

In his article "Definition of Photomontage", Raoul Hausmann seems to pin down its power: "…its contrast of structure and dimension, rough against smooth, aerial photograph against close-up, perspective against flat surface, the utmost technical flexibility and the most lucid formal dialectics are equally possible…The ability to manage the most striking contrasts, to the achievement of perfect states of equilibrium…ensures the medium a long and richly productive span of life…"

Photomontage examples:
http://seanhillen.com/
Cut and Paste homepage to photomontage

Rotoscope:

Voices, Joanna Priestly, 1985
Inspired by Norm McLaren
Film makes use of a variety of techniques one of which is rotoscoping
Joanna traced her own performance and then added dream like imagery
Shows multiple perspectives on her narrative (opinions about life)




Gulliver's Travels, Max Fleischer, 1939
Max Fleischer Developed the rotoscope technique
It was used in this animated movie for the movements of Gulliver



An Artist, Michelle Cournoyer, 1994
A beautiful example of Rotoscoping used to emphasis story. The technique allowed the artist to show deeper feelings than may have been implied by original film footage.
See film here

Working with Audio/ Foley Artists

This is an informative video about foley artists


This shows an artist creating sounds for Jurassic park



Here are a few links to free sound effects websites.
http://soundbible.com/
http://simplythebest.net/sounds/
http://www.findsounds.com/
http://www.grsites.com/sounds/
http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
http://www.freesound.org/index.php

Here are links for movie clips
http://moviewavs.com/
http://www.moviesoundscentral.com/
http://www.rosswalker.co.uk/movie_sounds/
http://wavcentral.com/movies.htm
http://www.freeaudioclips.com/categories.php?cat=8&cat_name=Movies%2FTV