Classic Squash & Stretch

Wether applied forcefully or subtly, I don't think anything comes alive without it.

Hollywood animation from the 1930s to the late 1940s normally shows a broad use of squash and stretch. As the years went on and animation styles, especially at Disney, integrated more realism, distortions of a character's head or body were handled more subtly and carefully. 

I don't know from what short film this elephant originates from, but this bold shape change works magnificently. Note that the bulk of the body moves forward, but the rear moves backward for counter balance.

The goal keeper from Bedknobs and Broomsticks inhales, with his trunk all squashed in, holding the soccer ball. The forward stretch position is either from another scene or it preceded the squash drawing.

Milt Kahl had something to do with these two sketches. Looks like he made corrections on someone's scene.

Bill Tytla was a master of distorting the forms of his powerful characters, like Stromboli.

When he animated the devil on Bald Mountain shortly afterwards, he did not go nearly as far though.

Because of the degree of realism in the devil's design he knew that in order to be convincing, squash and stretch needed to be incorporated much more subtly.

Fred Moore animated Lampwick as a donkey. In his horrified state he anticipates, then stretches forward in a loud call for help. Beautiful counter action on the arms and ears.

Very gutsy change of shape as Archimedes hops forward. The animation is on one's and very fluid. What you see is smooth motion, the drastic change is only felt. That's a Kahl scene of course.

Baloo moves around his sparring partner Mowgli in a series of hops. The graphic change is more subdued here and not by the book, but then again Frank Thomas always had his own unique way of using animation principles.

Medusa Thummbnail Sketches

Milt Kahl used a thin felt pen for his exploratory sketches during production of The Rescuers.

He produced a ton of these sheets searching for the most inventive poses, expressions and acting patterns. Even if the scene is only 16 frames long, like the one shown here, Milt tried several variations on the main idea of Medusa freaking out at the sight of two mice.

I love the energy in these drawings, and the lines of that felt pen seem to be dancing on the paper.

It's interesting to see that he used a through away rough animation sheet, probably because it was the closest within reach.

There is so much unconventional stuff going on with Medusa's design, including the way her very round shoulders contrast her straight lower arms.

These are the key drawings for this short scene.

More thumbnails that show Medusa's panic. She grabs the lower end of her dress…because she needs something to hang on to.

Snoops is having an uncomfortable encounter with the alligators.

There will be a post with more Snoops material coming soon. He is a terrific character.

More Wire Sculptures

I sold these three pieces at a charity auction last year. They actually date back quite a few years, the cow was the second piece I ever made.

The lion was a weekend project during the lion king production days, but he has nothing to do with Scar. 

I made the circus elephant a few years after that. Hopefully sometime in the future I'll find the time to bend some wire again and experiment a little.

For now it's all about making a little animated movie.

Eric Larson, Animator & Mentor

Eric Larson's animation training program, which started in the mid 1970s, was groundbreaking and very important. I was so lucky to have benefited from Eric's one on one mentoring. He was the most patient teacher I have ever known. Even when you knew that what you were showing to Eric was REALLY bad stuff, he always saw something positive in your work that encouraged you to keep going. He would often flip a trainee's scene, and most likely he pointed out that there was too much going on in the animation, too many ideas. What is your statement here, what are you trying to communicate? After a brief discussion Eric would pull out drawings that weren't necessary, and he simplified and clarified your whole scene. It was magical to see him do this. Eric also drew over poses and strengthened them, so by the time you were done with your session you left Eric's office with something that WORKED.

This photo above was taken in the early 1980s in a screenting room of the original animation building. In the back are Ron Clements and John Musker, and there is also animation assistant Sue Frankenburger.

Many of today's influential animation artists went through Eric's training program, including Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Ron and John, Mark Henn, Andy Gaskill and Glen Keane, just to name a few.

I love many characters Eric animated over the years. Figaro from Pinocchio, the flying horses in Fantasia, the Owl in Bambi, Sasha from Peter and the Wolf, Little Toot, Joe and Jenny from Once Upon a Wintertime, Roquefort from The Aristocats among many other assignments. 

But I think that Eric did some of his best work for Lady & the Tramp. He animated the first half of the sequence with the beaver at the zoo. Milt Kahl did the second half.

These drawings might not be a stunning as Milt's, but Eric's acting is top notch. The effort the beaver puts into trying to move a big log into the water is so entertaining and believable.

Whoever wrote on the made up model sheet that these are Milt's drawings is wrong.

Eric's shining moment in the film is his animation of Peg. I swear, Milt Kahl told me that he believes it's the best stuff in the picture.

The Last Time I Saw Kimball…

…was a few weeks before he passed away.

Ward died on this day in 2002. It's shocking to realize that he has been gone that long, it feels more like just a few short years ago.

I drove over to his house with my friend Howard Green to see how he and his wife Betty were doing.

Ward was in a social mood that afternoon, he even showed us around his studio, where he pulled out a large folder with studio gag drawings done by himself, Fred Moore and Walt Kelly. (See last photo.)

I didn't have time to look at all the sketches, so I told him that this collection would make a great book!  He also signed our copies of John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men.

Just like Walt Disney Ward had many interests. Ted Thomas points out in his documentary Growing up with Nine Old Men, that no one knows how he found the time to do all these things. Ward animated and directed at Disney, him and Betty raised three children, he collected model trains and vintage mechanical toys, and then there was his backyard railroad Grizzly Flats, which included a full-sized beautifully restored steam locomotive. So you can imagine Ward never ran out of things to talk about…in his own unpredictable way. Even though he had slowed down a little with age, he was still a very funny person to spend time with.

It is tough to find fresh Kimball material these days since Amid Amidi started to post so much great stuff on 365 Days of Ward Kimball:

http://wardkimball.tumblr.com

This is a funny doodle sheet, portraying various types of dogs.

One of many cover illustrations Kimball did for the magazine Asinine Alley.

The model sheet of M. C. Bird from the 1969 Academy Award winning short film It's Tough to be a Bird. These are Ward's drawings, and I think they are fantastic, loose and formula free.

Drawing Lions

…not at the zoo, but in the office!

Before production began on Lion King, the studio came up with a great training program on how to draw the animals that would appear as characters in the movie. We sketched at the LA zoo, spent a day at Shambala, Tippi Hedren's Big Cat Reserve and went down to visit the beautiful San Diego zoo.

All that was very helpful, but you can only get so close to wild animals when you draw them in their enclosures. So we all got psyched when it was announced that we would have the opportunity to draw real lions in one of our conference rooms. What a thrill!

The animals came from a ranch near Los Angeles, where they focused on training a variety of creatures for work in movies, commercials and music videos.

It was an amazing experience to see the lions up close in our environment. 

To get us started we were presented with a lion cub first. "Aaahhhhh" everybody went. "How adorable!"

Huge paws, fun to draw.

The room became quiet when this young female came around the corner to take the stage. She was definitely checking us out. Nothing feminin about a lioness, she was muscle packed.

As you know, in the wild the females do the hunting, so they need to be strong and powerful.

We all gasped when this seven year old male showed up. "He's been fed, right?" somebody asked.

His name was Joseph, and he was gigantic. Apparently he had been in a Michael Jackson music video. Joseph didn't give us his moonwalk impression though, we were just fascinated by his presence. Everything is about weight with a large cat like this one, from lifting his head to moving a paw, everything looks heavy.

A group photo with Joseph, his handler, animal expert Jim Fowler and the film's directors Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers.

The group sketching away. Sometimes we were charmed, other times the lions took our breath away.

That's Jeffrey Katzenberg, at a safe distance, but across the safety line!!

A few pages with some of my lion sketches.

Since I was the lucky guy to be cast on the villain Scar, I studied films and photos of voice actor Jeremy Irons. I thought that there was something in his facial features I could apply to the design of Scar. Dark circles under his eyes and distinctive mouth shapes.

This was the first drawing I made, and I think he starts to look like Irons, but there is also some Jafar leftover.  That needed to go.

The one adjustment I made was adding cheek hair. It just looked better against his black mane.

Various model sheets showing basic anatomy, the design of his mane and clean up keys from a dialogue scene: "I despise guessing games".

Jeremy Irons really is one of the great actors of our time. The way he shaped Scar's character was astonishing to witness. He brought intelligence, humor and pure evil to the part. And he could make any written dialogue sound great. I have said this before, if Jeremy reads the commissary menu, I'd want to animate that.

The Rescuers Story Meeting

Even though the cameras are rolling, but it feels like story artist/writer Larry Clemmons is genuinely presenting a sequence from The Rescuers. He is showing storyboards involving the introduction of Orville, the albatross.

Present are animator Frank Thomas, co-director Art Stevens, animators Gary Goldman and Ollie Johnston, producer/co-director Woolie Reitherman and story man Ted Berman.

This is a short, but rare unique glimpse into the making of The Rescuers.

Except for newcomer Goldman everybody in the group has been involved with Disney Animation for decades. It is interesting to see that Ollie brought drawing paper along to the meeting, so he can put down sketches based on spontaneous ideas.

He would later animate most of the personality scenes with Orville.

I have some interesting design material of that character by Milt Kahl and Ollie, which I will share in a post very soon.
Sorry about the low video quality, but I think it's still worth watching.