I love Disney's 101 Dalmatians - especially the first third as the characters are so well introduced and established. Milt's animation of Roger and Anita is amazing as always and I have lots of great pencil tests which I will share over the next week or so. Here are 2 to get us started.
Michael Sporn's fantastic blog had some great high res scans from a Milt Kahl scene from Peter Pan. I decided to re-register them and put together a pencil test with audio so we could watch it.
Jungle Book is one of my favorite Disney films and I recently got some high res scans from 2 Frank Thomas scenes which I have since registered and put together as pencil tests with audio.
Sorry for the big delay in posting new stuff. I have been flat out with organizing a move for a new job which I will post about more soon.
I have been working on a big post about Snow White - but in the mean time here are some great drawings from the film to enjoy. Where I know who did them I have noted the artist.
Milt Kahl did some amazing work on Alice In Wonderland. I came across the full res scans for these pencil tests on the awesome Michael Sporn Blog, but found the pencil test and scans he had were really out of register and some of the timing was not what was used in the final film.
So I decided to put together some pencil tests of the scans with them back in register and in the timing from the animation in the film. I have included the original scans and with the background from the film.
Video reference has always been a very important part of the animation process and has become much more of an understood tool with people like Jeff Garbor and his great reference for Blue Sky's Horton Hears A Who and Ice Age. Interestingly, it is something that has not really been spoken about or seen in the same light in relation to 2D animation.
But i think with further research and understanding, the way in which video reference was often used by Disney in the old days is very similar to how it can be used today in 2D or CGI animation.
(Once again, please remember I am also just an animation student and I am still learning like you. These are just things I have found that have worked for me and I am sure there are many other great ways of working.)
The first person to make use of and come up with the idea to use video reference for animation was Art Babbitt. In the mid-1930's, Babbitt was working at the Walt Disney Studio on the original lot in Hyperion Avenue (which is unfortunately now a parking lot for a grocery store!). These guys were creating an art form and where pushing each other to constantly improve. This included Babbitt bringing in an art teacher (more on that in a future post) and purchasing a 16mm camera for him to shoot film reference to study movement.
Frank Thomas and Art Babbitt talking about video reference.
Often at Disney comedians, vaudeville actors, and the voice actors themselves where shot on a stage in costume for the animators reference (Cinderella was the first Disney feature where the whole film was shot in live action prior to animation). However, when the frames of the reference was traced, the resulting animation was lacking in life and felt flat (which is the same result you get when importing the video reference into a CG package and positioning the character over the reference).
Snow White Video Reference
But the animators found it extremely helpful in coming up with different or unique acting choices, understanding how difficult shapes turn in space, costume follow through and overlap and to study the body mechanics.
I love these two clips from Alice In Wonderland which show the comparison between the live action reference footage and the final animation. This really made me understand how I could best use video reference. You can see in the first clip (at 20 seconds) where the animator has found great inspiration in how the foot drags along the floor, the hands coming up and then dropping to her lap in frustration and the little head shake. But you can also see where they have pushed the poses, made the hands clearer as she holds them up before dropping them back into her lap and how the timing and spacing is different to get more spark and life.
This second clip from the mad hatter tea party is fantastic (they actually ended up using the audio recorded from this session for the film as it was better than when they got the actors back in to record it in the booth). Its also great to see animators like Freddie Moore and Ward Kimball working away on set.
Another great clip of reference is from Sleeping Beauty with Marc Davis and Milt Kahl drawing at the boards and doing studies of the hands, poses and dress movements of the actress.
Video reference continued to be used in the more recent Disney 2D features including The Little Mermaid. This clip shows Glen Keane directing an actress on what he wants and he talks about what he was able to utilise from the reference in his Ariel scenes.
This is a process I have found really helpful in my animation where I shoot video reference (sometimes of myself, and sometimes of a person I know that I think has qualities similar to the character I want to create). I then go through the following steps:
• I take screen grabs from the reference of the keys where there accents in the dialogue, changes in emotion, contacts and changes in direction in the movements.
• I draw out these key poses and really try to push them. I find the line of action and go further. I tilt the head more, I push the shoulders etc. I usually do quite a few drawings of each pose and simplify and exaggerate the pose until it is as clear as possible.
• I then use the drawings as my reference in Maya to pose out my animation.
Lots more to come in the coming days with some very cool Disney pencil tests.
Jungle Book has to be one of my favorite Disney animated films. The characters are so well established and have personalities that you just want to spend time with and watch them interact with each other.
The King Louie musical number is just one of the amazing classic Disney songs in the film. Milt's animation of King Louie is fantastic. I loved the character designs that Andrea's Deja posted on his blog that Milt did along with some of Frank Thomas' animation too: Andreas Deja Blog
I decided to put some drawings I have together as a pencil test against the pan background from the film. These drawings are full res scans from the fantastic Michael Sporn Blog.
Included is the recreated pan BG which I pieced together in photoshop which is well worth a look at apart from the animation.
I have a bunch of pencil tests from The Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Fantasia, 101 Dalmatians and Pinocchio which I will start to post soon as I analyse and break them down. So lots more to come soon!
I'm a huge fan of Disney's 1949 animated feature (their 11th), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It is made up of two different segments based on The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and both have fantastic animation in them.
Below is a selection of drawings from the film along with a pencil test which I put together from the frames found in Frank and Ollie's 'Illusion of Life' book.
And the final shot as seen in the film:
Another big post coming early in the week on getting the face to look more fleshy in CG animation. I also have a whole bunch of awesome pencil tests which I have been analysing which I will start posting soon.
To continue on from last week with the discussion about brows I wanted to move onto the next most expressive part of the face, the mouth. We first look at the eyes for attitude, but the mouth should complement the eyes and work with the rest of the pose. It has so much that can add to the expression and help convey so much character and personality.
(Remember, these are just things that have worked for me and not hard and fast rules. I am sure there are many other things that work too and lots of other things for me to still learn!)
For me, two things really stand out when I think about the mouth; Appealing Design and Specific Shapes.
Appealing Design:
Appeal is such a elusive thing to obtain, but for me it is one of the most important elements in animation. You know when you get it right because it looks so good that you just can't look away from it!
Animation wise, a film that I think oozes appeal is Disney's Tangled. Glen Keane and Jin Kim did so much amazing development work and design which I think really helped create some of the most appealing CG characters to date.
These drawings are by Jin Kim for the Mother Gothel character in Tangled. The mouth shapes are really great and are so appealing to look at.
I know that during the production of The Incredibles at Pixar, they look a lot at Disney's 101 Dalmatians for great mouth designs and lip shapes. This model sheet by Milt Kahl of Jasper is fantastic. It has tons of character and all the shapes have so much squash and stretch and fleshiness to them.
I really like Shane Prigmore's model sheet for Coraline too. The mouth shapes have loads of asymmetry to them.
When designing mouth shapes I am looking for straights against curves, for squash and stretch, for asymmetry, for simplicity in the curves (even though complex mouth shapes can and should be used, its keeping the lines simple that makes it much easier to read) and knowing when to favour the upper or lower teeth.
In CG, mouth shapes and quickly become really ugly. Sometimes this a problem of the model and how the rigging and shapes have been developed, but a lot of times it is also trying to over complicate the mouth or push it into poses that are trying to match real life ie. rotoscope it too closely rather than caricature it and reduce it to the essence of the design.
Specific Shapes:
Everyone talks and moves their mouths in completely unqiue way, and the mouth should be unique to the character that you are working on. At Animation Mentor we are given a library of mouth shapes to work with on the character, Bishop. My advice which is the same advice from my mentors at Animation Mentor is; don't use it!
The library is default/stock and completely lacks character. In many cartoons the same few mouth shapes are used over and over. This is the same with the library, it looks robotic and formulaic. The mouth shapes need to be designed for every dialogue scene based on who the character is, and how he or she is feeling at that moment.
Just take a look at any great film or watch yourself in your video reference and you will be amazed at the crazy shapes! Designing good and appealing shapes is hard, but loads of fun too and it adds so much to the character and personality of the scene. A hick might talk out the side of his mouth, an angry woman might pout, a tough guy might talk through his teeth with very little lip roll.
A character that is loads of fun to watch for expression and mouth shapes is Peter Lorre (he also has an awesome voice!) Just take a look at these great mouth shapes! This is all from The Maltese Falcon (I am planning on animating a shot from it very soon).
I really liked this one of Burl Ives. I did a shot with a kindly santa elf and watched a fair bit of Burl Ives for inspiration of the mouth shapes for that piece of animation.
This is great too - Robert Ryan talking out the side of his mouth!
Wow! Look at this for crazy:
A movie a love to watch for really specific expressions and mouth shapes is The Odd Couple with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon (two of my favourite actors).
